Ok, I have begun. I bought the one panel I needed for $11. Much cheaper than I anticipated. It was from Tucson Glass and Mirror. I found out that they can cut the 1/2" for me too. I may go this route in the future.
The hardest part of the project thus far has been cleaning the old silicone off the glass. That took forever.
The scariest part was placing that first panel on. I really could have used an extra set of hands on this one. But, once I got the side panel on, I just used the duct tape to secure the two pieces and viola! The rest of the pieces went on easy. I had to nudge the glass to get teh corners to sit on the proper spots and that was it.
I did not do this on my own. I used some online instructions for tank building. Here it is:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumdiy/a/aa120897diyaq.htm
Here are the pictures of the project today.
This is the glass that has been cut, prepped and marked for placement.
This is the front and right side panel fitted to the bottom glass. You can also see that the overflow wall is in place. I did not have a piece long enough, so I will use two pieces of glass and one piece of black acrylic with slits for the overflow. I will then spray the overflow wall with foam to hind all the seams.
Here is another view of the same panels.
Here, the top glass portion of the overflow is in place. I forgot to drill a hole in it, so I might have to remove it to drill.
The back panel and left side panel is in place too.
I ran beads of silicone on the corners for the bottom and sump area. I too did this for the main tank, but I will trim it back so no silicone is seen in the tank. This is how LeeMar builds. They let silicone in th ejoints do the work. I like this too, because when using a razor blade to scrape the glass it is too easy to slice into the silicone bead, thus weakening the joint.
Here is a better shot of the sump section.
I will let it cure for 24+ hours then remove the extra silicone from the outside and inside edges of the main tank section.
I then have to cut the black acrylic to fit and cut clits too. This should be fun
I have not had luck with a router for this job before, but I will look into using a jig and some online guides for how to do it. Anyone know of any?
After all this, I will place a plastic brace on the top and bottom. Next is a water tight test. Then it wil be ready to drill holes in the sump, overflow wall, and the main display for a CLC.
