ON WITH THE ASSEMBLY! After my brush with death (or at least a broken wrist), I inserted the divider, and remebered some of the feedback I got today on the ReefCentral forums. I made sure the joint was horizontal, and cemented everything in. All went smoothly, the horizontal orientation did help make very nice seams.
Next I added the baffle behind the drilled divider. This was a simple stick it in and glue it, so I don't have pictures. I do have another LEARNING POINT, I had scrap pieces of acrylic that were 2" wide and had square edges. I used these to ensure the baffle was the right distance from the divider, and to keep things square vertically and horizontally. I forgot to photodocument the fact that during the assembly of the divider, I used a level to make sure it was truly vertical, and the square edges of the acrylic made it easy to keep it square horizontally. In this picture you can see the divider (see doesn't look to bad does it?) and the baffle cemented in place. I placed my AquaC skimmer in to confirm my measurements, and placed the first 10" baffle. In this pic it is not cemented, and still has the paper on it.
Of course these seams were better than my outside seams, and they don't even have to BE water tight...just structural. Here is a closer picture of the first 10" baffle, and the skimmer/overflow chamber. Anyone who is reading this from the ReefCentral forums, or the WetWebMedia forums PLEASE let me know if you think this is too small for the skimmer chamber. It seems kind of tight, but the skimmer return will be in the same area, so I don't think I will have a problem with the mag7 pump not being submerged.
And finally for tonight, another picture of the shattered and rebuilt divider. This took up WAY more time than I had planned for this assembly, and is why the entire project isn't completed tonight.
