AlanM July 20, 2013 Author Share July 20, 2013 Reinforced the floor. Sistered in two joists from sill plate to beam. Glued and screwed 3/4 plywood sheet 4 X 6 in center of joists under the springy part. Now waiting 24 hours or so to jump on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami July 20, 2013 Share July 20, 2013 Nice job with the sisters. It looks like you had to pull and reinstall the wiring. What's the plywood for, though? I would have figured the new joists would be sufficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 21, 2013 Author Share July 21, 2013 (edited) The sisters were the easy part. The hard part was the plywood, actually. I was kind of shocked. I put 12 foot 2x8's up there after pulling the wires back, hammered them into place, clamped them while I drove in a few lag bolts and called it done. My helper (pictured) does earthquake proofing research at NIST, and my father-in-law is an architect. Both explained to me that the reason that joists in the middle of the span feel springy is that they bend. In order for them to bend, the bottom of the joist has to stretch a little bit. It just has to in order to bend because now it's travelling a curved path, not a straight line. If you glue and screw plywood to the bottom then it can't stretch and thus can't bend. Supposedly the glue does more than the screws. I got the 8X strong glue from Lowes, just picked the most expensive tubes ($7 each). It was super hard to push out of the caulk gun. Very very viscous. And it cures like silicone, so they recommend you spray the two surfaces with water first before gluing them together. I could have used plywood planks to make kind of I-beams, but I already had a 4x6 scrap of plywood left, and this way the joists can't rack either, and the bottoms can't stretch. It is a 12 foot span, and I did it in the center 6 feet of it where the bending moment is the greatest. If this doesn't stiffen it I already warned my wife that I will put a column in the middle of the basement underneath. To my surprise she was fine with it. Edited July 21, 2013 by AlanM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 21, 2013 Author Share July 21, 2013 By the way, I solved my heater amperage on the UPS problem too. I'm controlling the solid state relay with the Apex and using the load side of it to switch on power to the hot side of the pictured outlets which have my heaters plugged into them. I have it on a triac port on the EB8 at the moment and will keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't latch on because it is a very low current use. I'll probably take the ATO off port 8 and put it on a regular timer and put the solid state relay on that one instead to make sure it switches off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Nice job on supporting the floor. Besides the floor movement from a sag in the middle as you mentioned, it can also come from the joists bending or rotating to one side. Normally wood is installed between joists to prevent that, it's called "solid blocking" or even "cross bracing" where wires are in the way. Your plywood installation would also prevent this type of movement so again, nice job!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmatte July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 That reinforced floor looks like it would have been perfect for a 150 gallon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 That reinforced floor looks like it would have been perfect for a 150 gallon! Lol. Dont rub it in. Isaac can apparently get away with showing up at home with that news, but not me. By the way, the tank still did have a bit of bounce, so I tied the stand to the wall with some silly big brackets I made out of StrongTies and then screwed it to the floor on the back with the same. Now I can jump up and down and it stays put, no waves. Maybe some of it was actually my subfloor or hardwood not making good contact with the joists too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Alan, did you add those reinforcements without the added weight of the tank with water? Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmatte July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Lol. Dont rub it in. Isaac can apparently get away with showing up at home with that news, but not me. By the way, the tank still did have a bit of bounce, so I tied the stand to the wall with some silly big brackets I made out of StrongTies and then screwed it to the floor on the back with the same. Now I can jump up and down and it stays put, no waves. Maybe some of it was actually my subfloor or hardwood not making good contact with the joists too. I wish you had video tapped this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 I wish you had video tapped this. haha we need more videos on this forum, period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 Alan, did you add those reinforcements without the added weight of the tank with water? Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2 Yes, I did. Do you think that is a bad idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 So, I assume rocks go in first, then sand? I thought about cutting board on the bottom, but I'm finally getting impatient. Here are some pics of my first attempt at an aqua scape. It is 13 inches tall on the left, has a lot of open sand, some caves, some rubble, and shorter on the left than right. The rock I bleached in the fall is super porous. Any suggestions to make it better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Alan, I like it. Aquascaping is a personal preference but if it were my scape, I'd take all the little rocks out...mainly the little pile on the far left and front and the remainder of the ring on the right. You will naturally clutter your sandbed with chalices, zoos, scolys, etc. The rest of the workwork looks really nice and open. The other thing you could try is slanting the right piece of the left rock structure at a more 45 degree angle back to open up the central channel of the tank and add more perceived depth to the channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Yes, I did. Do you think that is a bad idea? No, that is correct. All reinforcements should be done w/o the added live load on the structure...Just checking because you said it still moved after you put the reinforcements... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 Alan, I like it. Aquascaping is a personal preference but if it were my scape, I'd take all the little rocks out...mainly the little pile on the far left and front and the remainder of the ring on the right. You will naturally clutter your sandbed with chalices, zoos, scolys, etc. The rest of the workwork looks really nice and open. The other thing you could try is slanting the right piece of the left rock structure at a more 45 degree angle back to open up the central channel of the tank and add more perceived depth to the channel. Thanks. Will give that a try. When you say a more 45 degree angle back, do you mean vertically or move the front of that rock to the right or left? I think you mean move the front of the rock to the right, right? That left island, in the last picture, is just two pieces of really big rock with totally different textures. I was using the big flat smooth one to kind of lift up the big left one and make some space underneath. I am hoping to get it really sturdy without any putty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 No, that is correct. All reinforcements should be done w/o the added live load on the structure...Just checking because you said it still moved after you put the reinforcements... Great, cause I wasnt going to do it again, heh. I meant the empty tank moved when I jumped. So I guess I did have a little bit of load on there, maybe 150 lbs or so of empty tank and stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 For the 45" rock, keep the front of the rock as is and move the back of the rock to the left. Basically parallel to the posterior rock on the right reef structure. Essentially that creates a visual channel that makes your eye want to see what's around the corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 Great, cause I wasnt going to do it again, heh. I meant the empty tank moved when I jumped. So I guess I did have a little bit of load on there, maybe 150 lbs or so of empty tank and stand. Eh..would have been better (or 100% correct) to move the tank and stand as well....You want the structure to be in it's original position w/o anything (load) on it while reinforcing. With that said, you'll be alright. You did probably more than you needed to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 Great. Will try that. And I will use the rubble to make pod condos out of plastic canvas and zipties instead of putting it on the sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 Eh..would have been better (or 100% correct) to move the tank and stand as well....You want the structure to be in it's original position w/o anything (load) on it while reinforcing. With that said, you'll be alright. You did probably more than you needed to. I get it, thanks. I will cross my fingers that I never have to explain anything to an insurance adjuster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 Better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 i like this one better, indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 i like this one better, indeed. Thanks. I'm stalking this thread, as you can see. So, should I put eggcrate down to kind of make the bottom less slippery for the rocks or just sand? I'm ruling out cutting board simply because I can't wait a week or spend the 70 bucks at the moment to get it. I know eggcrate will trap some doodoo, and maybe gobies don't like it? I have 60 lbs of tropic eden reefflakes, which should, according to the RC sandbed calculator, should give about 1.5 inches in my 48x18 footprint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 22, 2013 Author Share July 22, 2013 The big rock on the back of the right one is kind of neat, and I am regretting laying it on it's back like that. It's a huge colony of some kind of acro, I guess, which has kind of a pedestal where it was cracked off at some point. Same thing with the really hollow looking one to the left of it. It's kind of diamond shaped and I'm supporting the bottom point of it with rocks around it. For that matter the huge rock on the far left is also diamond shaped with a pedestal facing down as it grew. Maybe I should make some rings out of PVC coupling, stand the points in the rings, and glue rock to the outside of the rings to hide them. Might look kind of cool to have it in it's former natural orientation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni July 22, 2013 Share July 22, 2013 I really like the new scape. One thing you can do to stabilize is get a small piece of acrylic and three small acrylic rods. Drill holes in the rock to slide the rods in. Glue the rods to the acrylic sheet and you'll have more stability and also have the appearance of the rock standing up at an interesting angle. Honestly though, I'd keep what you have now. Just remove the piece sitting by itself in front of the left reef structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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