Permanent Watertight tank dividers

[Callatya]

I am about to reseal and divide an old 4' breeder tank. My plan is to divide it into 4-6 sections in order to reduce clutter and hopefully cut the need for so many heaters (powerpoints and energy consumption are a bit of an issue, and this will hopefully at least fix the powerpoint issue!) This is the first of 3 tanks that I plan on doing this with. The other two will either be divided in half or into 3, depending on needs. I am thinking of dividing the tank using 4-6mm glass petitions. These would be siliconed into place and there would be no gap between lids and the dividers. Hopefully, lids will run back to front as opposed to side to side, in order to have a separate lid for each section. 1) what is the most effective way of cutting glass? I have heard turpentine on the blade works well, has anyone got any other tips? 2) where would I be able to find 2nd hand glass suitable for this job? I don't relish the thought of $15 per divider. 3) is there a material that could be used for lids that is better than glass? I don't like perspex, if that could be avoided, i'd appreciate it. Now, the tank currently has a centre brace. This is going to be a bit of a hinderance. IF the glass petitions are evenly distributed, 1) Can this be removed without the tank bowing out? 2) If not, can it be replaced with something less annoying?

[Robbies Betta]

I don't think the centre brace can be removed, tho, if you want to place a divider in the same spot as the brace, I reckon it'll be alrite, as the divider will support the bowing. As for cheap glass, a second hand construction site (salvage yard), and because they're gonna only be dividers, I'd say u just need thin glass, as they're really not gonna be "holding" the water. The thickest glass would have to be the divider that replaces the brace tho. as for lids, the only thing I can think of is glass, or Glad Wrap and cutting glass? I wouldn't know the best way, but I "think" my dad has one of those glass cutters with oil in it (i think it's oil), I found that to be better than a dry cutter, mainly because you didn't get tiny frags of glass flying at you and it ran a lot smoother

[Figure_8]

the best way I've found to cut glass is to have it done for you (and have whoever cuts the glass smooth the edges off while they are at it). That of course involves costs that you probably want to avoid and understandably so, but after my last disaster at DIY I'd rather keep my fingers :)

[Bren MacFish]

Um... dividing it watertightly doesn't cut down on maintenance because the heat and the filtration can't move between the cells and without the filtration, it'll make cleaning harder since you can't pick the whole thing up and scrub it under the tap like you can with 8 x 1ftrs in a row. The easiest tank to clean that I have is a 4 ft one where the dividers stop above the floor and the final cell is devoted to filtration, heating and a pump to send the water back thru a pipe to the other six cells. One pump, one heater, one light. The only problem is that I have to use gravel on the bottom to keep the fish in the right place.

[Callatya]

Unfortunately having shared water is not an option, each must be separate. I have lost way too many fish and way too much money with cell systems, and i'm not going to go through it again Separate separate separate Glass is a rotten rotten insulator, so i'm thinking, with a 100w heater on either end there should only be 1-2*C difference over the entire setup. I heat my jars in that way, and have done it before with glass dividers that slotted in (about 1-2mm gap between divider and tank wall?) so hopefully it won't be that different. If it is, well, i'll breed killies in the cooler sections The filters are all running off a large air pump anyway, so I can have oodles of those. The idea with this setup is to get around the BFs new rule of "no more tanks" and to make the fishroom run a bit more efficiently by allowing multiple spawnings without tupperware balanced on every bit of furniture I'm thinking not only for bettas, but swordtails, guppies and killies, as well as bubblenesting wild bettas. Hopefully this will let me give everyone more space while not taking up a larger footprint and thus keeping the OH happy I can deal with cleaning Oddly enough cleaning without trundling everything to the bathroom is kinda relaxing for me I think the divider glass would have to be at least 4mm, as if i want one section fuller than the others, it could get tricky. I'm a little worried about the sharp edges on the top as I have no way to grind them down *sigh* bloody glasscutting extortionists! I give in, i'll just shop around for the dividers pre-cut. It was suggested elsewhere that I replace the single central brace with two narrower braces that sit directly over the top of the dividers. This *may* be an option, but I think I need more info on why having a horizontal piece of glass is better than a vertical one. Is it simply because the outward force may be too great and pull the silicone away from the glass? My thought was to perhaps have wooden braces sort of hooked over, in a boxy C shape, that would hold the whole thing together. Unsure how practical that would be though. This is all so hard!

[Robbies Betta]

I built myself an overly large 2ft out of thinish glass. without the brace it bowed, but I put in a lil vertical brace and have found that it works perfectly. the only thing with a top brace is that you can't see it in the water, but because you're gonna have a divider in there, it shouldn't really make a diff :dontknow: