a crazy mans aquarium mod...

[rDr4g0n]

ok guys... ive tried to drill holes for an overflow into a 10 gallon tank... well 3 10 gallon tanks.

i bought a diamond coated 1/2 inch spade bit. couldnt find any diamond core bits. anyways i read all over teh net, watched supermans glass vid etc. got my 10 gallon and successfully drilled one hole! i attempted the 2nd hole, and cracked teh tank. dangit.

i swapped out the cracked tank with a perfectly good 10 gallon that i had a snake in. i dont think the snake minds the crack

so i started drilling the tank that was formerly a snakes tank. BOOM! glass explosion. mustve been tempered glass. I stare at the pane of glass, watching the little cracks spread (its really cool looking lol).

i went to the lfs and bought another 10 gallon. Theyre $10 each so its not a HUGE loss... still adds up though. This one cracked after about 15 minutes of drilling. At this point im at wits end. Ive spend $40 on drill bits and tanks... I slouched down on my couch and thunk long and hard.

heres waht i came up with.



i took the tempered glass tank and ripped out the pane of glass that exploded. it was one of the smaller end pieces. my idea was to use that part as the TOP of the tank. IE a 10 gallon TALL. I bought a piece of thick acrylic, measured, cut, and glued it onto what was teh top of the 10 gallon tank. Since its acrylic, i dont have to deal with cracking glass trying to cut holes. I was easily able to make 2 holes for my overflow.

So now i have this 10 gallon tall tank. The last thing i considered is that the tank was not designed to support its weight in this way. To compensate for this, i glued a piece of 1/8th thick acrylic onto the bottom glass.



This gives teh tank additional support, which i hope will be enough to keep it from breaking or leaking. i also put a ton of sealant on it lol

im planning to, if this thing works, put a powerhead in there that will circulate water straight down to be sure that the bottom of teh tank gets good flow. ill fill it with LR and put my cardinals and clows in there so that my lions can live in my 30g (which will also be a reef tank eventually).

as always, what do you guys think1?! there must be a reason i havent seen this done before....

[boozeman]

necessity is the mother of invention

btw, spade bits are a poor choice for tank drilling...good on wood though

[lcstorc]

Interresting concept. I'm not at all sure how it will work but it could be pretty cool. You are going to have to stack everything in a very interresting manner. Be sure to post pics. I'm very interrested to see what you do with it.

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by boozeman

necessity is the mother of invention

btw, spade bits are a poor choice for tank drilling...good on wood though

yep

[saltwaterfarm]

Just curious...

[Mr Bojangles]

how dos it work? Just a little advise, I did something similar for my first refugium on a 10g and tried the same thing with the acrylic and glass, and lets just say it did not last long before it was starting to leak and come apart. Ebay has the best prices on the bits for drilling glass and you can do a 10g with no problem. Then you can remake your cash drilling local reefers tanks

[Witfull]

you are my kinda scarey reefer~

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by Mr Bojangles

I did something similar for my first refugium on a 10g and tried the same thing with the acrylic and glass, and lets just say it did not last long before it was starting to leak and come apart.

lets hope i get lucky and this works out ok...

one thing i feel is in my favor is that the black "frame" of the tank will be holding the plexi in place as well as the gobs of sealant i put on there. im hoping it will be adequate to keep the thing in one piece.

i moved all my fishies into the fuge in preparation for teh arrival of my lions. hopefully ill be able to put water into this new tank on sunday and move my fish into that.

[Dentoid]

Interesting concept, kudos for ingenuity. Did you consider the decrease in surface area of the water column and it's relationship to the height and volumn of water? Just a thought.

[boozeman]

your skills are improving...I notice no blood stains in pics

[EmergencyDpt]

I think you should wrap the whole thing with baling wire, cotton twine, and shoelaces. It will make it last longer and give it more of a DIY look to it!
LOL
You are the DIY man!

[Dentoid]

Don't forget duct tape!

[aquaman3680]

Awesome idea! Great DIY!

Matt

[lcstorc]

Originally Posted by Dentoid

Don't forget duct tape!

LOL My father in law uses that stuff for everything. He had a car once that I swear was held together by duct tape. It worked though. I have to give him that. Looked like hell but worked.

[rDr4g0n]

dude, duct tape for sure!

now mr dentoid, i had considered the height and ways to work around it (ie move the water from teh bottom up), but hadnt considered the air surface area. since the tank will be part of a system, i think there will be enough air exchange in teh sump and the 30g to be sure to get all my gases moving, but what other factors do surface area affect?

Originally Posted by boozeman

your skills are improving...I notice no blood stains in pics

alas, there are many cuts on my hands from cleaning all the pieces of broken glass out of the frame of the tank. that stuff is glued in TIGHT. it cuts you and you dont even notice till youre bleeding.