Ghengis Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Well, as promised in my "Sikaflex" Thread, here's the DIY of the Betta Barracks tank. This could take a few weeks to complete...I need to buy a new canister filter to replace the 500lph internal that I plan to hijack from the 70L community. Plus, there'll be costs for acrylic and plumbing bits... Anyhoo... A quick look at a few the future inhabitants: Some glass. Dimensions of the tank are 800x375x300mm for spot on 90L. I used 6mm clear float glass: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 To provide neat Silicone edges, I ran masking tape around the perimeter...: ...then measured (twice!!) and trimmed the tape to size. I settled on an amout of Silicone I wanted around the edges, and compensated for glass thickness where neccessary. In this case the measurement is 11mm along the bottom and 5 up the verticals: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Starting to come together. The Silicone: The dirty stuff: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Tape off and all done. The strapping is from my work, with the intention of holding the whole shebang together during curing time. .....it's about this point where I decided to tear the whole lot down and start again. Not happy with my Silicone efforts, so I'll hook back in tomorrow. After I clean all that goop off!! Lemme tell ya; anyone unsure about the grip stregth of this Bostik gear can relax. Took a serious mission to separate the glass again. Sheeza strong!! Come back tomorrow, maybe I'll have this thing up to an acceptble appearence level. Bye! :thumbs: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 wow that was looking awesome! one day hope to be able to create tanks for myself one question... what's the "dirty stuff" ?? oh and I wasn't aware that the bostik silicone was aquaruim safe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 I hope the Bostik is Aquarium safe!! Take a look at my "Sikaflex" thread. I'm sufficiently confident it will do the job...fingers crossed. The "Dirty Stuff" is the Silicone application. Very, very messy process. As for hoping to create your own tanks, well, this is my first shot at doing this. The re-construction tomorrow will be the second go. It's actually surprisingly easy, and there are a wealth of Threads, Hints, How-To's, Topics etc, all over the Web. I'm a member of Monster Fish Keepers and Aquaria Central, among others. There are oodles of Topics on DIY tank building, from Nano's, right thru to 1,000L+ in-wall plywood tanks...that's a bunch of people that know how to wield a caulking gun. Reef Central Online DIY pages are also brilliant.... I digress. All you need is to sit down and do the planning, carefully, have the glass cut and have at it. I should advise: DIYing tanks (under a certain size) seems to be quite exy. The glass for this one cost $126, then $6 for the silicone, $7 for the tape and, as noted, I'm yet to sort filtration and acrylic partitioning. The pay off is that I will have the exact size and shape tank that I want, so the cost will be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 ...does that mean that your silicone is black ??? coz my selleys stuff is clear... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlc33 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Wow Ghengis u r an ambitious lad! Reading thru the post I was wondering how much the glass had cost u and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Recently I went to a local glasier for a quote on a cover with a cutout and was quoted - sit down NOW - $216 for a piece of glass 450mm x 220mm with a cutout which apparently costs squillions of dollars. The original piece of glass $20. Good luck with the barracks, keep us posted with lots of pics. Personally I too am a fan of the black silicone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlc33 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 PS can u come and clean my kitchen.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canfeleq Posted October 2, 2008 Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 Just out of curiousity, what were the containers that your fish are currently housed in originally? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 PS can u come and clean my kitchen.... I bet that what you ask all the boys But seriously, though, with all the little bits of Silicone that I've scraped from the glass, now, falling on the floor and anywhere else, I reckon I'll be cleaning my kitchen for a week! So, if you don't mind waiting, then, yes. How's Christmas sound? Just out of curiousity, what were the containers that your fish are currently housed in originally? Those were 3L orange juice bottles with the tops cut off. Not ideal accomodation, but they do have a decent space to swim around in and do their little "angry dance" when they're un-carded each arvo... They get a 100% change every three days, which is why I'm building this barracks...all I seem to do lately is bloody water changes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted October 2, 2008 Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 lol I know the feeling *rolls eyes* water changes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canfeleq Posted October 2, 2008 Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 Same here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 ...and oila!! So far, so good. After tearing down the previous incarnation and spending the next two days doing and trying everything to get the glass absolutely free of any silicone residue, I managed to recruit the assistance of my GF as an extra set of hands. Made the job so much easier and quicker, and the results (I'm sure you will agree) are a hundred percent on the last. As mentioned above, I will need to source the Acrylic dividers next. Which I can't do until I've worked out the plumbing. Which I can't do, until.....you get the idea. I'll be back soon with some updates, as they occur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 OMG that looks great!! Just like a bought one. I know a betta breeder in Sydney who deals in plastics in his day job. If you're having trouble finding something local I'm sure he would ship to you. I think he might lurk around this forum sometimes. But I don't know his username. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divy Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 bunnings also sells skinny sheets of perspex which might be worthwhile to checkout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainy Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 also check out local hard ware joints i found bunnings more expencive and they didnt cut to size either let me know if you need to drill holes in perspex and ill post some pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 let me know if you need to drill holes in perspex and ill post some pics Yup... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divy Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 how is the barracks comming along Ghengis? im waiting for pics and updates!!!!!!! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 No further progress, yet. It'll be a while, I'd say. Need to do a leak test (fingers crossed), probably this w/end if I can get the time. I'm also waiting for my Canister to arrive. It'll need to run side by side with the internal in the 70 for a week or two, before I can take the internal out and start measuring and finalising the design of the partitions, etc. Never fear, young divy, updates will be posted in due course... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Quick little update. Did a leak test yesterday, very nervously. All went swimmingly! Yay! Musta glued that thing good and proper... Hoping to see the Canister today...provided bloody TNT "Express" can sort their XXX ! What's the point in paying for Express, if it takes a week to get anywhere??? No, I am not happy. I'll come back to youze, as I know more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 So, I ended up getting the new filter on Monday. Had to go round to TNT and collect, myself, in the end. Not to worry. I'm so excited! Never had a Canister before! This thing was dead easy to set up and being the Advance Aquis model (Aqua One), it has a primer sytem built in, so no sucky, sucky required. It's dead quiet, as well, and with a 4 year guarentee, I'm (so far) happy with it (this is a free advertisement for Aqua One Products...). I realise this "pictorial adventure" is becoming something of a monologue, but rest assured, there will be pics soon. Ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divy Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 good to hear you got the canister filter.... im still waiting on the pics ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainy Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Yup... Ok hear goes first i got a really thick pice of wood to go on the bottom then i got a thiner piece to pre drill the holes in so they were even all the way then you place the perspex between the 2 and clamp them together and drill VERY SLOWLY this minimises the chipping when the drill goes out the other side and it should look like this good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghengis Posted October 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Rainy, cheers, mate! My plan is for something somewhat different to the "hole in the wall" style (which I used on the last incarnation), something like a cross between divy's design and this one, but there are at least two ideas in your tutorial that I will definitely be using, so big thanks for that. Still no real updates, sorry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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