Last night began my adventure with my sieve / bakki shower. My bacteria house media came in with none broken and I began the sieve portion of the shower,
I started with Acrylic, since plastic wasn't readily available and silicon'd it into place. I used bricks to hold everything in place, as well as clamps... very creatively.
Then I attached the sides: holders that would support the sieve screen and suspend it in place. For this, I used some plastic molding I found in the window screen aisle at lowe's. It was $3 and bent it to shape with a torch and some finesse. It has a groove inside where the sieve will slide in.
When that was finished, I used a cheap harbor freight plastic welder... which I recommend using outdoors... in a well ventilated area... to weld more of that plastic molding into shape. A few cuts here and there and we're set. Then I took the screen I purchased off of etsy (fine surgical mesh 100 micron, stainless steel) for $15 and just melted the plastic of the frame through the mesh on the back all the way around, not leaving any gaps or edges. The plastic came through well and it adhered perfectly. My original thought was to add more plastic and sandwich the screen in place but this worked out much better as I was tired of welding the plastic and breathing in nasty fumes It holds better also.
Now I'm siliconing the rest of the acrylic at the end where the detritus will be dammed up and then drilling my holes for bulkhead fittings.