first diy acrylic tank..... a concern.... big concern

[surgy]

hey guys. im two months into the marine aquarium hobby. been doing tons of research and reading. I am an experienced diy er and i have had fresh water tanks for five years or so.....

with that said i decided to skip the crawling stage of my development (maybe not the best idea) and jump right in. i read a bunch and ordered plastic and started solvent welding. i came up with a tank with the sump/refugeum/return built into a chamber in the aquarium with an overflow.....

i leak tested it for 3 days, then added all the equiptment sand 1 lb live rock (will be getting more) and some "dead coral" rocks that im hoping will become live rock.

anyways ive noticed some potential weak points in my solvent welds. i dont know if they have always been there or if its a recent development. maybe you guys can shed some light. should i be super concerned? should i be draining the tank and reinforcing? or should i drain the water down past the weak point and just use some weldon 16?

sorry for the long winded post. just need to know. uin the mean time ill leave it full with the powerhead running and watch my pods :)

[peppie]

IMO it dont look good
What type of acrylic did you use? What solvent did you use?
How did you prep your edges?
What thickness are the panels?
How many gallons?
What are the dimensions of the tank?

[surgy]

the tank is 1 cubic foot so 7.48 gallons
panels are acrylic cell cast .177 inches thick from delvies plastics
i used ips weldon #3
i prepped my edges with 400 grit sandpaper on a wooden block
dimensions are actually 12x12.25x12 L/w/h

planning on having a few inverts only..... i like the peppermint shrimp

[peppie]

Must have been a typ-o I dont think that is 1 7/8'' acrylic shown in the picture.
If it were me I would drain the tank, dry it out real good. Prop it up so the corner is at the lowest point. Run a bead of 16 in the corner. Let it set that way for about 4-5 hours. rotate and do the other corners the same way.
Looks like the edge is not flat and the seam was starved for solvent.
The sanding block is not the best way to prep an edge.

[surgy]

yeah i edited it i meant .177 inch acrylic. i saw a 20 gallon glass bow front at petsmart for $100 yesterday i think ill go pick it up tomorrow and then just switch everything over. ive really grown fond of my little amphipods..... i have about 600 billion of them in there from that one piece of live rock. whats the chances they will survive the move?

[Gorgok]

whats the chances they will survive the move?

Really high. In fact, i don't think you could manage to move the stuff over without bringing enough of them to continue their survival if you tried (without getting everything dry/cooked/chemical bathed).

[surgy]

cool i have the new tank up and running. i went to petsmart to buy a 20 gallon bow front glass tank and for $30 more i got a 36 gallon SCORE! has t-5 full spectrum lamp. aqueon brand.