, and greater flexibility than run-of-the-mill silicone. They produce a spec sheet with a list of all relevant technical details. I have no reason to doubt their claims. To my knowledge, they are the only manufacturer to publish the technical specifications for their product.
On a side note, I did come across a video tour of a large custom aquarium factory in the U.S. illustrating how they built aquariums. The commentator mentioned during the tour that the silicone they use differs from what hobbyists are using. I suspect this is true, and I suspect the ASI product is similarly of a different standard.
Whatever the truth of the matter, I can say unequivocally that removing aquarium silicone is extremely difficult and very labor intensive.
From that point on I applied painter’s tape around every seam so as to avoid excess silicone getting on the glass. The downside to this was that I could not see how well the silicone was filling the seams. Given my initial experience, this didn’t seem to be a problem. The silicone seemed to flow into the seams without any issue.
I proceeded with assembling in stages, adding the rear pane and one side pane. Since the aquarium is an L-shape, two remaining panes remained. I was attempting to assemble the final two panes when I realized something was wrong. I couldn’t get the glass to line up properly. I could not see what the problem was, but for some reason the only way I could get the glass panes to align well enough to attach them left me with almost half a centimeter of the bottom exposed at the end of the “L”. Also, one corner on the rear pane of glass protruded about 3mm above the adjoining side.
Initially, I attributed the problem to an accumulation of the small errors made in cutting the glass to the correct size. Still, something just didn’t seem right. I decided to check the pane of glass that was giving me trouble for squareness. To my surprise and dismay, I discovered none of the corners were square. The glass would have to be returned and replaced. I really could not believe it.
I suppose it should have occurred to me to check for squareness, given the fact that there was some difficulty getting the glass cut to the correct dimensions in the first place. The fact is, I simply could not understand how a company that produces glass on a massive scale for everything from office windows to solar panels couldn’t make a square cut on glass for an aquarium.
Thankfully, it took less than 2 weeks to obtain the replacement glass. Once obtained, we finished assembly, though I still had some trouble getting the seams to line up properly. Again, I assumed it was simply the fact that several of the pieces of glass were off dimension by more than 1mm and it was the accumulated effect of this minor error that was affecting the final pieces that needed to be fit together. Rather than continuing to fight it, I just accepted the fact that perfection is always a goal, never an accomplishment. Assembly completed, I continued on to the next step.
Once the bonding seam of silicone had time to cure, I applied the water-proofing seam to the inside of the aquarium. Upon removing the painter’s tape I noticed that some of the seams were not completely filled. Initial inspection suggested that although imperfect, all the seams should be structurally acceptable.
It had been a long day, so I waited until the following day to give a final, more thorough inspection.
To my dismay, my final inspection revealed that most of the waterproofing seam was less than ideal. More importantly, I also found two bonding seams where there was almost no silicone in a small section of each seam. I don’t know why the silicone didn’t flow into the exposed areas as expected, but the flaws in the bonding seams were fatal. The aquarium would have to be totally disassembled and reassembled.
To be honest, given all the niggling little issues I had with initial construction, it was almost with relief that I realized the build wasn’t just less than ideal, but fatally flawed. It gave me an opportunity to correct all the little things as well as the fatal flaws.
I was able to disassemble the glass panels without too much trouble. The real difficulty lay in removing all the silicone from the glass. I took me over an hour to clean one of the smallest panes. I went through more than 100 disposable latex gloves (protection from the naptha used in the silicone remover), several dozen razor blades, a roll of paper towels, and numerous scrubbing pads over a period of 3 days before the entire job was complete.
Ripe with experience, I was ready to reassemble everything, confident I could avoid the mistakes made in the first go-round.
This time assembly went smoothly until the very end. Once again I was having trouble getting the final panes of glass to align properly. Again, I couldn’t see what the problem was. And again it turned out to be an issue of squareness, or rather the lack of it.
I still don’t know how I managed to complete assembly the first time, because this time it was even more apparent something wasn’t right than the first time. The replacement pane was perfectly square, so it had to be one of the other two remaining panes. And so it was.
You may ask why I didn’t check all of the remaining panes of glass for squareness once I discovered the problem the first time around. The answer is simple. The piece that was out-of-square was a piece I had already bound to the rear pane before attempting to assemble the final two pieces, one of which was the piece I just replaced. I did in fact check the second piece for squareness and found no problem.
Unfortunately, it was this third piece, which had already been siliconed into place the first time I had problems with alignment. Since it was already fixed in place during the previous assembly, there was no way to properly check for squareness had it occurred to me to do so.
Unbelievable, yes? Back to the seller for replacement.
At this point I can safely tell you the seller was tiring of us. I think he was an honest man who honestly couldn’t believe how badly the glass had been cut himself. In any case, he returned the glass for replacement. Once the replacement glass was received, I was able to finally complete the aquarium.
You've been keeping my interest in here lately and love the threads from you. Still curious to see how your current group do over time... but whether I agree or not, I'm loving the nonstandard threads.
My worry with doing my own tank is that it would be fine for 1 to 5 years... then bust at the drop of a silent fart 40ft away and flood the house. Once I get done with a number of projects (more than normal load of projects), I'm building one in my detached garage and will fill it, then keep it in there for at least a year. Probably will fill with either fish during that time or peacock bass to grow and "accidentally drop into neighborhood pond". I really want to do at least a 10ft long tank, 24" tall, 16" wide.
Alright, I need to stop writing and go back to read parts of your post a skimmed through too quick.
Thanks for the kind words. Really, I'm just happy someone is actually reading my comments. In the current copy and paste era of "expertise" and group think (otherwise known as tribalism), I'm typically "canceled" regardless of logic, reasoning, and critical thinking based on facts and actual experience.
Been following your thread and like pastry also interested in what you got to say. I would like to make a stab that maybe you reside in the Philippines??? Keep it coming.
I can relate to taking shortcuts. Patience is one quality I don't possess. The lack of patience has bitten me more than once. On the other hand, sometimes trying something different pays off. To paraphrase someone: if you don't make any mistakes, you're not learning anything.
... If you don't make any mistakes, you're not learning anything.
Huh, that original Onyx Black version of the Galaxy S7 is considered too matte for Samsung, so they may be planning a glossier black version of the handset? Color us surprised, as the Onyx Black still looks pretty shiny thanks to that multilayer nanocoating that sparkles under every ray of light falling on the phone, but apparently it's not sufficiently shiny.
Korean media is abuzz with speculation that, just like it outed a Blue Coral version of the S7 edge, Samsung will be releasing a Glossy Black Galaxy S7 pretty soon, perhaps even in early December, tip "industry sources." It's not clear yet if the shinier dark version will land only on the home turf, or if Samsung also plans to bring it abroad.
Apple has both Black and Jet Black versions of the iPhone 7, and the Jet-y one is proving very popular with users. Perhaps this explains Samsung's strengthened interest in glossy finishes.Tesla is replacing Oracle on the NASDAQ-100 Index showing just how far the electric car industry has come. The most successful electric carmaker on the planet will take the spot before the market opens July 15 as Oracle relocates its stock listing to some fly-by-night operation called the New York Stock Exchange.
Tesla has had an electric run of it lately. Its share price has trebled in price in the first half of this year as the American carmaker sold thousands of its award-winning Tesla Model S sedans. Presently, its market