Well, my temporary 'stop-gap' fix for the failed top supports in April 2013 ended up not being as temporary as I planned. Here's a link to the post with my 'temporary' fix for broken top supports.
Last week, I noticed that I was going through more top-off than usual. There was no water in the garage where my bulkheads, pump and chiller are, so I inspected under the tank. Yup... there was water in the stand and occasional drips. I have a leak. The front left where the bowed glass meets the side has a pretty steady drip of water flowing down, welling up in the trim all the way around the tank, and flowing over into the stand underneath. I guess the 'fix' was ok for the back, but the broken supports were putting strain on the top front as well and allowing them to bow out and the seams to fail. After a day, I noticed the flow had slowed due to salt creep, so I got some super-glue gel and crammed it all around where the leaky seam was. I've reduce it to a gradual drip... for now... I think I may put a strap around the top to prevent catastrophic failure.
If I hadn't of spent the better part of a year and good chunk of change building the custom stand and canopy, I would get a new, larger tank. Instead, I have decided to remove all rock, livestock, and substrate, then completely drain, reseal, and repair the tank. Although I am just getting SPS back in after an alk swing killed 90% of it, everything is doing great. Zoas and shrooms are spreading everywhere and not looking like frag plugs, and it's just finally looking more natural. And now I have to tear it down...
I had to figure out a way to to provide front-to-back support on the top where the trim has failed. I decided to use two cables with brackets spanning from front to back with brackets hanging over each end. All stainless steel to prevent corrosion. So far, the only progress on this part are the brackets. To prevent them from slipping up over the edge, the cables will attach lower than the front lip causing it to pull in towards the tank.
Both supports are broken at the back.
I have set up a temporary system to house everything in.
The 150 gallon tub should hold most of the livestock and rock pillars. Complete with a frag tank and 1/3 hp chiller beneath the top resevoir. Water flows from the big tub up to the black container where I'll have a skimmer and calcium reactor drip, overflows into the 20-long frag tank which will hopefully hold smaller frags and anemones/clowns, then back into the 150 gallon tub. The amazing part of this setup is I didn't have to cut one piece of PVC or hose and didn't have to buy buy a pump, valve, chiller, or anything. The bulkhead attached to the pump even has an outlet for my skimmer and a ball valve with a hose for circulation in the tub already set up. My wife is a bit upset because my hoarding ways have been validated. She's very pleased with the state of our living room right now, too.
Thankfully, Ty is also a hoarder and has loaned me his old T5 setup and MH fixture and ballast.
I have ~40 gallons of saltwater ready for the transfer. I should be doing the transfer now, but I am writing this update instead. Procrastinating... Maybe it will all fix itself while I'm up here. Maybe I'll wake up and it was all a bad dream. Anyone want to go get a beer? Once I start this, I don't think I'll be getting away until it's done.