spawn tank sizes and siliconing glass

[fishish]

Am I going to get in trouble for hitting two birds with one stone here? Hope not! I'm scheming for the future and its heaps of fun

Wanting to know 1. how big should a spawn tank ideally be if its to double as a grow out tank?

2. (totally unrelated) has anyone siliconed glass before? In my last tank I siliconed in plastic book binders from office works myself and used them to hold plastic sheets as dividers in place. It was easy. I’m scheming on a new tank design and would really like to silicon in a piece of glass (will tell you about it later if it works), would just be a matter of getting someone to cut a piece to size, I think I know someone who would do this cheap or for free as he’s cut glass for me to repair a broken window before. He cut the glass, I took it home and did the rest. Would be cheap if I could silicon it in myself, I also really enjoy working with my hands and getting cand grubby (I’m a real lady )

However glass is a pretty different media to plastic and I’m not sure if 1. it would be more difficult and more importantly 2. what kind of silicon needs to be used, is it non toxic and easy to come by or or or??? The silicon I used for plastic dividers says it can be used to “repair cracks’ but doesn’t say anything about doing the original job of actual construction type stuff.

Mmmm quite enough rambling from me for today cheers in advance

Edited October 8, 2010 by fishish

[jondo]

when i modify or repair my tanks i use Shellys Glass Silicon Sealant for windows and aquariums. just make sure you thoroughly clean the surface with mineral turpintine for the silicon to hold to the glass.

[zhong89]

I recommend caution, coz if you didn't seal it properly leaking might be the least of your problems... Can you imagine your tank suddenly collapse when it's full of water?

I just bought a second hand 2 ft (60m) tank + a fluval canister filter + wood stand + some accessories for $50. It's much safer to buy a second hand one; unless you really know what you that is... :lol:

[fishbites]

Silicone is easy to apply to glass and since you already did it to plastic it won't be that hard....

Just to add a divider or something similar to an existing tank (or patch a cracked tank) just make sure the silicone is put onto clean glass - avoid turps as it's hard to remove from the glass and you don't want an oil slick in your tank - use isopropyl alcohol or metho to clean the glass (it evaporates easily and washes off easily).

Use the Selly's Glass silicone (it mentions aquariums on the label) ... its strong enough unless you're building a large tank....

Some people run a bit of masking tape each side of where the glass is to join on to another piece of glass to avoid smeared silicone (and the need to clean it up).... make sure you run a thin bead of silicone on the edge of the glass and then position and press it firmly against the surface you are gluing it to.... you can use masking tape to hold the glass in place till the silicone has set (leave it a few days).... once set the tank can be filled and let it sit for a few days then empty and refill and you should be right to go....

If you want to cut your own glass its quite easy as long as you have a good quality glass cutter (I went to a large popular hardware warehouse locally and found all their glass cutters to be worthless - not mentioning store name) - but for $30 got a trade quality glass cutter from a glazier and have cut glass with it up to 6mm thick so far and built tanks up to 3ft long so far quite easily.... Last 2ft tank cost me $10 in glass offcuts....

Don't forget to take the sharp edges off the cut glass with a diamond stone or sand paper wrapped round a block of wood.

Edited October 8, 2010 by fishbites

[fishish]

Thanks everyone. Not sure about constructing a tank... I did a little glass cutting in high school, didn't feel too confident with it. Am just wanting to put in a glass divider. Sounds like it will hold easily enough and I used that same silicon for the plastic dividers so have some left. I thought terpentine was known to be lethal to fish and hard to remove even trace amounts from tanks, ie lingers even after rinsing?

So the spawn/growout tank question??? 2 foot, 3?

[fishbites]

2ft is a good size for spawn / growout but.... if you had a 3ft tank you could put in a temp divider for spawning and then as the fry grow you can move the divider down the tank and eventually take it out....

[TasV]

As Fishbites says silicone is good for stuff like this. One tip, however, is that once you have let it cure for 24hours or so, fill the tank and let it sit another 24 hours and then do a complete water change to remove any residual chemcials that might leach into the water. I'm about to make some 2ft Betta breeder tanks and am going to use glass strips that I can slide perspex dividers down into the channels to make three sections. The plan was to spawn them in the tank with no dividers and once the deed had been done place a divider in one end to isolate the female and when the tails began swimming place the second divider in to isolate the male and then raise bubs in the last end. This way I don't have to touch any of them. Don't think of trying to silicone perspex to glass... it doesn't work.

Edited October 10, 2010 by TasV

[fishbites]

Those dividers sound like a really good plan TasV....

[fishish]

oow, thats vaguely along the lines of what im planning, but not removable dividers. i was going to section off 1 ft from the 3 ft tank with double glass, black plastic or something between that can't be seen through. Female can live there, male in spawning part, when i want to introduce them rather than putting her in a bottle or something in his tank ill be able to just lift the plastic. When they're done she can go back, male can later be re-homed till fry are jarred.

Thats what I'm thinking, opinions?