The Puffer Forum

Hello,

So I picked up a 10gal from Petsmart for super cheap and I had a plan in mind to do a divided tank. I'm hoping to divide the tank into a snail breeding side and a hospital tank side for my DPs. My original plan was to cut some glass to size and silicon it in place, making two completely isolated sides. This is turning out to be QUITE the headache/time-waster/money-sink as absolutely nothing is going to plan..

Could I do this type of setup using some sort of pourous-type divider? My main concern would be if I had a sick puffer in the hospital side it would be polluting the food supply (can snails get fish diseases?).. but I really don't know what else to do..


Side note: I simply cannot have another tank, so it will have to be a divided setup

Thanks!

if I were doing this, i'd go with the glass divider
your plan should work, but you'll need separate filtration on each side, probably just one small heater for the fish side
what is causing so much difficulty?

eieio wrote:if I were doing this, i'd go with the glass divider
your plan should work, but you'll need separate filtration on each side, probably just one small heater for the fish side
what is causing so much difficulty?

Yeah, I've got all the filtration/heating on stand by already.

So I tore apart a broken 10gal I got in a bad craigslist buy and decided to re purpose the 2 remaining good glass panes. I left about 1/8' on each side of the pane (as directed by many DIY baffles for sump builds) I learned how to cut glass, and after measuring 3 times, I cut the desired sized pane. Problem? 1/8' seems like way too much room, I'm not convinced that after I add silicon, this thing is going to stay up by itself (this is the last piece of glass I have). Also, the pointed edges on the corners of the glass that sit on the inside factory-seal seem like a disaster waiting to happen, as I feel like they will damage the seal and cause eventually a leak. (I also don't have the tools needed to create rounded edges, all I have is a block of med-grit sandpaper)

I think I'm just overwhelmed with this project and have no good advice to go on.

Deltaphi wrote:

eieio wrote:if I were doing this, i'd go with the glass divider
your plan should work, but you'll need separate filtration on each side, probably just one small heater for the fish side
what is causing so much difficulty?

Yeah, I've got all the filtration/heating on stand by already.

So I tore apart a broken 10gal I got in a bad craigslist buy and decided to re purpose the 2 remaining good glass panes. I left about 1/8' on each side of the pane (as directed by many DIY baffles for sump builds) I learned how to cut glass, and after measuring 3 times, I cut the desired sized pane. Problem? 1/8' seems like way too much room, I'm not convinced that after I add silicon, this thing is going to stay up by itself (this is the last piece of glass I have). Also, the pointed edges on the corners of the glass that sit on the inside factory-seal seem like a disaster waiting to happen, as I feel like they will damage the seal and cause eventually a leak. (I also don't have the tools needed to create rounded edges, all I have is a block of med-grit sandpaper)

I think I'm just overwhelmed with this project and have no good advice to go on.

If you're not too worried about aesthetics you could use 4 small plastic 90° angle pieces and silicone them to sides of the tank and the new glass pane?

or take the tank to a glass shop, have them cut a piece to fit, and they can grind the edges & corners smooth for you
i can cut my own glass if I need to, but i'm lucky to have a local shop that works with me on this kind of stuff

Iliveinazoo wrote:

Deltaphi wrote:

eieio wrote:if I were doing this, i'd go with the glass divider
your plan should work, but you'll need separate filtration on each side, probably just one small heater for the fish side
what is causing so much difficulty?

Yeah, I've got all the filtration/heating on stand by already.

So I tore apart a broken 10gal I got in a bad craigslist buy and decided to re purpose the 2 remaining good glass panes. I left about 1/8' on each side of the pane (as directed by many DIY baffles for sump builds) I learned how to cut glass, and after measuring 3 times, I cut the desired sized pane. Problem? 1/8' seems like way too much room, I'm not convinced that after I add silicon, this thing is going to stay up by itself (this is the last piece of glass I have). Also, the pointed edges on the corners of the glass that sit on the inside factory-seal seem like a disaster waiting to happen, as I feel like they will damage the seal and cause eventually a leak. (I also don't have the tools needed to create rounded edges, all I have is a block of med-grit sandpaper)

I think I'm just overwhelmed with this project and have no good advice to go on.

If you're not too worried about aesthetics you could use 4 small plastic 90° angle pieces and silicone them to sides of the tank and the new glass pane?

I'm definitely not worried about how it looks, it's more for purpose than show. What do you mean by the 90deg pieces? I haven't seen anything like that? also wouldn't that cause the bottom to not be flush anymore?

eieio wrote:or take the tank to a glass shop, have them cut a piece to fit, and they can grind the edges & corners smooth for you
i can cut my own glass if I need to, but i'm lucky to have a local shop that works with me on this kind of stuff

Yeah, this was going to be my "worst-case" option if I can't get this piece to work. I'm mainly boycotting this one because my local glass shops are $$$ (I'm a grad student = no $$$)for 3mm glass and they're only open during my work hours..

how much do they want to charge you?

I was more thinking these pointing outwards:

http://www.ema-models.co.uk/index.php/a ... ngles.html