BB how to install starboard

yetiman

New member
How much room should you allow around the edges when cutting the starboard? Should you seal the edges? Should the edges be beveled. Thanks for your help.
 
The starboard should be able to fit in the tank and not have to be forced flat. There is no need to seal or bevel the edges. There is no real science to it.
 
I regret not sealing the edges, detritus will fall into the cracks and look nasty after a while. I know the effect on the tank is minimal since it's such a thin area but still if you haven't added water yet go ahead and seal the edges.
 
The problem I had with Sealing the edges in my 38g were that the silicon did not not 100% stick to the starboard, so then a thin edge would flap in the wind. I think if you do silicon it in, a bead would be best. I say bead as opposed to a taper.

-Dale
 
Tried to use the thin sheet of Lucite, siliconed to the bottom of the new empty tank, 90g. Put the silicone along the perimeter, and the sheet at the top op this, pressed to embed. Put books on the top as a weight.

All was good - even with partial filling with freshwater. But after setting the tank will all, the air bubbles, big layer of air, trapped in this sandwich, caused the partial disconnection the Lucite sheet, and some water came inside. Not good, teared it off.

Silicone was impossible to remove in minute, with the LR waiting in the buckets and the fish, still in the tank.

Put starboard over this, trying to keep within this silicone.
Still a lot of debris are collected under the starboard.
 
Starboard - the thick plastic board, that looks like kitchen cutting board. Used in bare-bottom tanks to protect the bottom from cracking in case of a rock fall, and to redistribute the pillar's weight. Some rock, like Reef Bones, is VERY heavy.
A lot of people, including me, are using instead of it th big plastic kitchen cutting boards, or other substitutes.
Links: 1 , 2 .
 
I just covered my prop system countertops with starboard!!! :D 3/4" is some good stuff! I was worried about working with the stuff but in the end it was easier to work with than wood. Cuts nice, routes clean and overall is very agreeable. I had some leftover so I'm also incorporating some of it into my electrical control panel :D.

On the sealing the sides note. The guy who is my starboard connection says that there is literally nothing on the market that will stick/seal the starboard. I wanted to seal a couple of joints that I had in the countertop but his advice was that I'd make more of a mess trying to get something to stick to it than I would just leaving it.
 
I liked bevelling the edges of my starboard because it let more flow get into those channels, and didnt stop the flow when it wanted to get out.
 
You want to cut the Starboard (HDPE) where it gives large enough margins around the tank so it will not sit on the silicone. I didn't seal mine and I don't have much detritus under it after > a year. In fact there are some cool worms and stuff living under it around the edges. I didn't bevel mine but looks like it may be a good idea. You want 1/2" material not 1/4"
hth, Chris
 
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