barracks

[Bettamuse]

This is just one of the betta barracks I made for someone when she was breeding bettas full time.

I made a couple of different designs on the same theme.

Its made from acrylic and holds 80 fish.

Dimensions of each box is 250mm high x 100mm wide x 250mm deep

Overall size of the stand is 1800 high, 970mm wide and 300mm deep.

Todd

[Jess]

The barracks look great Todd, not messy at all! What sort of filtration do you use for this system? How was the flow distributed to each barracks, was there holes?

[Bettamuse]

Each divide is just up off the bottom. There is no filtration in this set, you still have to siphon the muck out of each tank. The pipes at the end lets you just turn the taps and drain the barracks down for a general water change. Although making the drain pipes in the end larger it could be turned into a filtered system very easily. The filtered systems I made of similar designs run off the large wet/dry filter system we have the cichlids tanks running on.

[Jess]

Ahh, I thought it looked tricky. The taps that down out are still a great idea, draining via a siphon would take ages :wall:

[edie]

Looks spiffy Todd. One thing though, apart from the heat, is there a way to card each container? Those bettas will get bored after awhile seeing each other.

[Chuckie]

is the glass between them clear? It looks frosted.

[Bettamuse]

The acrylic between the sets is white, most of the fish in these barracks were females so carding them wasn't needed. I did cut some white acrylic divides that just slipped in against the fixed clear senter divides for the males. I was a little bit of a pain as you couldn't see the fish in the back unless you removed the card. This was done when feeding so the fish could eat, flare and be cheacked to make sure they were alright. I've built a wall that holds 300+ beani baby boxs to replace the acrylic setups. Its not sorted out nicely yet, but when it is we will put up some pics.

[fuzzy_dragonfly]

I like this one, it's got a decent amount of space for each fish, looks neat and relatively easy to work with. Hmmm, I'm getting some ideas, with a few modifications maybe...

[Callatya]

Any reason you didn't put the drain pipes closer to the base of the tank Todd? is this set up specifically for 30% changes or just so they could never run completely dry?

[Bettamuse]

Spot on... it was set up for 1/3 water changes and that is the hight that I normally put the holes for trickle systems.

[Jess]

So you can drill holes in them easily enough? I was thinking if you can drill holes easily enough. I could add some suction caps and stick them inside my 4ft tank at the water line. Drill some holes down the bottom and sides for water movement. Think thats a good idea?

[Bettamuse]

Putting holes in them is easy as. They are acrylic (perspex) so any drill or hole saw can do it. Just a handy man hint: always put timber behind the acrylic when drilling it, the timber stops the drill bursting through and cracking the acrylic. I thought about making a single row ones just for that kind of thing in our fish tanks. Thinking about it was as far as I got with that project. I've seen glass versions and they worked very well.