dave w March 6, 2014 Author Share March 6, 2014 Hey friends, I'm ready for glass. My largest panel is 3' by 9', which I think can be handled by 3/4" glass. However I don't know if tempered or regular glass is preferable. I won't be drilling through the glass, and I know that tempered is stronger and tougher, but also more brittle. Which is better? If they are close I'll order regular glass because its faster. Also, I'll be using regular float glass with iron, so it will have that slight green tint. I hear that this is stronger than low iron glass and doesn't scratch as easily. Has this been the same experience as other people? I have done the greenhouse floor now in granite tiles. I decided on that because they easily span the 16" distance between floor joists all by themselves with no plywood or other underlayment. I also drilled a hole in each tile so I could easily pick them up and then do more work under the floor pulling wire or pipes as needed. I have tried several times to take a pic with my android and email it to friends, but I don't know why the pic doesn't get sent out. I've checked my cell phone camera memory and it isn't full. As soon as I figure it out I'll post some pics of the granite. Thanks for the glass advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 I am going to get tempered for my new tank if/when I build it. My existing tank is non tempered 1" laminate low iron. It has a few scratches now at the 6 year mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 I don't have any advice per sey on the glass except I'd imagine avoiding low iron will save you a bunch of money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 6, 2014 Author Share March 6, 2014 Thanks Justin. As I recall, your tank is deeper than mine by perhaps a foot or so. So I think 3/4" non tempered will probably be OK for me on the big panel. My glass will be drop shipped to Manassas on Saturday March 15th. The big panel will weigh about 260 pounds. Would anyone like to volunteer to help me get it off the truck? I'll let everyone know what time the truck arrives as soon as I find out the schedule. How about on Sunday I start installing glass if anyone wants to have a tank building party. Of course I'll supply lots of spirits and food. Afternoon is usually a good time because the greenhouse gets nice and warm. Could anyone help put in glass after 3 years worth of snoozing through my tank build? I really only need help with the big panel, but if many people show up we can just keep moving on the whole thing. There are 14 pieces of glass in total but most of them are relatively small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 I would love to swing by and help in any way I can. I remember excitedly reading this when I joined WAMAS. I will confirm when you know for sure what is more solid for times and dates! Glad to see you picking back up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 I'm with YHSublime, I'll need to know what time you expect to be starting though. Since I may have to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 Thanks Justin. As I recall, your tank is deeper than mine by perhaps a foot or so. So I think 3/4" non tempered will probably be OK for me on the big panel. My glass will be drop shipped to Manassas on Saturday March 15th. The big panel will weigh about 260 pounds. Would anyone like to volunteer to help me get it off the truck? I'll let everyone know what time the truck arrives as soon as I find out the schedule. How about on Sunday I start installing glass if anyone wants to have a tank building party. Of course I'll supply lots of spirits and food. Afternoon is usually a good time because the greenhouse gets nice and warm. Could anyone help put in glass after 3 years worth of snoozing through my tank build? I really only need help with the big panel, but if many people show up we can just keep moving on the whole thing. There are 14 pieces of glass in total but most of them are relatively small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore March 6, 2014 Share March 6, 2014 Oops tapa talk sent by accident. Did you run 3/4" non tempered thru that glass calc I posted? If it fails, it may crack into dangerously shaped shards vs. Tempered which will crack as little cubes, much safer to be around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 7, 2014 Author Share March 7, 2014 Thanks Justin. Several glass thickness calculator showed 3/4" was good and I talked with zygote who confirmed that he works on another tank that is 36" deep by 9' long and is 3/4" glass. The calculators used a safety factor of 2.5 instead of 3 or 4 as some other calcs. As I read about tempered vs. regular glass, most aquarium people preferred regular because tempered would explode if it failed or got hit by something and regular would only have a crack and leak. I agree that regular glass will come off in large sharp chunks if it had a catastrophic failure. The bigger question for me was the failure points. Tempered is stronger but more brittle. So it is better to have the strength, or that extra few microns of flex from regular glass. I really don't know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 7, 2014 Author Share March 7, 2014 I would love to swing by and help in any way I can. I remember excitedly reading this when I joined WAMAS. I will confirm when you know for sure what is more solid for times and dates! Glad to see you picking back up again. It would be fun to have your participation. I will keep you posted when I know delivery time better. Either Saturday or Sunday would be ok for a volunteer. I've actually never stopped building the greenhouse and tank, it's just that I've kept adding more complexity to the systems and it's REALLY extended the build time. But it's true that every July and August it's been hard to get out there. The greenhouse faces due south at about a 25 or 30 degree angle and it can get to 120F quickly under noon sun. I will post some pics of the progress as soon as I fix my android thingy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 7, 2014 Author Share March 7, 2014 I'm with YHSublime, I'll need to know what time you expect to be starting though. Since I may have to work. I will try to get a fix on the delivery time in the next week. Then I should hear from the driver when he's close to town and I will post/phone/text to people that have expressed an interest in helping. Thanks a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 7, 2014 Author Share March 7, 2014 It looks like Sunday the 16th is also a WAMAS social at Petland in Fairfax. So how about we set a time for glass setting which dovetails? I don't care whether we do the glass before or after the social if there is a conflict for anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k March 7, 2014 Share March 7, 2014 Have you built a sidewalk to/from the greenhouse yet? I remember a circus act on narrow boards spanning crevasses the last time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 8, 2014 Author Share March 8, 2014 Good question. I put the geothermal cooling system in November and winter snow has made a muddy mess of the back yard. However my wife WILL allow me to bring people through the house to the greenhouse if I clean the house first. The greenhouse is accessed through the master bedroom and master bath. With 3 kids we usually have a messy house and my wife requires that I clean first. So I will have a clean house and we will bring the glass in without anyone getting muddy feet. The biggest panel may be a little tricky coming down the stairs but we can handle it fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 15, 2014 Author Share March 15, 2014 Here are a couple pictures of the floor: Geothermal cooling system The top row of pipes. The other ones are 3' deeper than this upper row. Basically I took every spare pipe in my garage and threw them together for extra cooling lines. Worked hard today to get them covered before the rain hits sometime tomorrow. To cool water in the summer. I need to make fiberglass sleeves for heat exchangers, then will switch the system's over to the house water heater in winter. Dante was right, or maybe it was Voggner (German for Wagner) A 7th circle of H-E-double hockey sticks DOES exist. But its not a physical place. After digging 4 feet down by hand, it is the ache in my back. The orange 5 gallon bucket at the bottom of the pit is my excavator, copepod tote #1 stands almost ready begin its descent. At least I have regained the room to put back the sofa in the middle of the greenhouse floor. The installed new algae rack is at right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 15, 2014 Share March 15, 2014 I cant seem to even begin wrapping my mind around a system this big. Thanks for the share! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 15, 2014 Author Share March 15, 2014 (edited) YHSublime, thanks for posting the pics. Here' a little more explanation in the descriptions. The top pictures are of granite floor tiles. Each tile is 16" wide to span the floor joists, but only about 24" to 30" long in order to still be liftable. They are 1 1/4" thick so are heavy if I get a bigger tile. I will leave the joints ungrouted so that when I hose down the floor the water will go right through. I also put finger holes in most of them for lifting. Many have only one but when I get time I will drill two holes in each. What I like about putting granite tiles directly on the treated floor joists is that there is nothing to rot in the wet environment. I was going to put a plywood floor down and a different finish on top but in reality the plywood would not have lasted. Another thing about lifting the tiles is that I can put 20 gallon totes below the floor for storage of all the miscellaneous junk I have accumulated. I also need to access the two 330 gallon copepod totes below the middle of the floor, and two 275 gallon totes off to one corner of the room. It took a long time to dig the holes by hand but the floor area clear and got me another 1200 gallons of water. Like I really needed more water! The geothermal system is just a long deep trench in my back yard with a dozen pipes about 5' deep and another dozen about 2-3' deep. Each line of pipe is about 200' long so in theory there are about 7 tons of cooling which I will need in July and August. At this point I think I will wrap a digital temperature sensor around each line, connect them to an arduino and then control a dozen small water pumps (30 to 50 watts or so). If the display tank needs cooling, the controller will turn on as many pumps as necessary to circulate fresh water through the heat exchangers. I have yet to build heat exchangers but they will be simple fiberglass sleeves with a lot of surface area and put below the broodstock area and in the settlement chamber. That's about it for now. Edited March 15, 2014 by dave w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 15, 2014 Share March 15, 2014 YHSublime, thanks for posting the pics. I had sent them to a couple personal friends and will need to edit a little. I'll also put in a little more explanation in the descriptions. No worries. Sorry if that's not what you were looking for, you should be able to edit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR-Tanked150 March 15, 2014 Share March 15, 2014 I cant seem to even begin wrapping my mind around a system this big. Thanks for the share! +1 wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dante411x March 15, 2014 Share March 15, 2014 Good god. Why do I have to work tomorrow. Just noticed this thread and it's incredible. And here I thought I was having issues running 50 feet of tubing lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 16, 2014 Author Share March 16, 2014 Dante, no worries about your work. The glass party was postponed for a week. We'd like your company next Sunday if you're around. Without the Petland conflict I'm thinking more like 2:00 p.m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dante411x March 16, 2014 Share March 16, 2014 Dante, no worries about your work. The glass party was postponed for a week. We'd like your company next Sunday if you're around. Without the Petland conflict I'm thinking more like 2:00 p.m.Awesome! That I'll definitely be able to make Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 23, 2014 Author Share March 23, 2014 Dante, see you Sunday. Thanks to the guys that helped me unload glass today, especially der ABT for generous use of his trailer. This afternoon I took the belt sander and garden hose to 4 corners of the 5 big pieces of glass and sanded the corner down so it would fit better. See everyone at the glass installation party tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore March 23, 2014 Share March 23, 2014 Good luck tomorrow. Wish I could stop by to help. Take some pics. Are you going to use rubber blocks for bottom spacers for the glass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linkfalcon March 23, 2014 Share March 23, 2014 This some kinda of dooms day prep hole Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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