Homemaid beta tank

Heres my (roughly) 10 gallon homemaid beta tank. its made out of an old bamboo displayer from work. i sealed the cracks and broke out all the dividers except the horizontal one (it was divided into 6 sections). Then i glued the slate, pebbles and driftwood. hood is made out of a sheet of acrylic light diffuser, acrylic "corner guard" for (commonly used for wallpaper protection), two industrial cable ties, a "kitchen use" floursent light fixture, 3 blocks of wood and the thing on top (which you can see). i use a sponge filter on both sides. eventually i plan to make a custom filter by using a small pump to take water out of one side, run it through a (external) sponge, then return it to the other side. I would have one of these running on each side. Theres a 1/4 inch gap between the bottom of the divider and the bottom of the tank, so water could diffuse to adjust for pump inequality. Each side has a beta, a cool looking platy, 2-3 ottos and 2-3 ghost shrimp. Whatcha think?

Well for me cost was low. I didnt have to pay for the tank itself (since it was junk to everyone else). I paid $7 for slate, rocks, driftwood. $5 for the canopy parts, 3 for a tube of silicon rubber(to glue everything down and seal the cracks) and i think 15 for the light (definatly the most expensive part). The sponges (they dont match, lol) i already had, same with the pump and hose. The stuff on top i already had. So it cost me $30, but i still have 5' of corner guard, half a tube of sealant, 3/4 sheet of light diffuser, about 7 feet of 2x4. I think i could have done it cheaper if i would have dug through the garage a little (I am an artist, so creativity comes very easy to me).

I thought about trying to make the gap bigger, but the acrylic dividers break in unpredictable ways, so it would have been hard to make it do what i wanted it to. If you do decide to make your own make sure to think about how you're going to feed the fish/ access the tank/ turn the light on and off....because i didnt. I now have the light on a timer, and i drop food in through the small holes in the canopy that the air hoses go through, but to access the tank i have to dismantle the whole hood....not that thats hard, it only takes a few seconds, im just lazy sometimes.

ryan

edit: heres an embarrisingly bad close up, i was trying to snap the shots and upload before my camera batterys died. normally the glass is clean and ususally i dont have huge flash feedback when i take pictures.