New 90L Betta Barracks...

Well, I've finally got around to my DIY Betta Barracks project.

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:


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:






Starting to come together.



The Silicone:


The dirty stuff:


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 acceptable appearence level. Bye!

Back again...

So. Managed to get a little done, over the w.end. Went to a plastics shop and had the rear partition cut to size. I've chosen grey PVC, as it's not nearly as reflective as Black acrylic. I'm not too sure about this colour, though, and it may be up for painting or covering of some sort...



I also got a couple feet of 38mm PVC pipe. This will form the uptake section for the filtration. I have a spare outlet fitting that came with the internal filter that I will take from the 70L. The outlet piece is a good 5mm too small in dia. to fit the pipe. Never mind, I found a piece of clear tube that will serve as a perfect collar to fill the gap. Fit's snug as a bug.



After a little drilling and cutting, I was able to fit an irrigation T-Piece into the bottom of the uptake. This T-piece will eventually draw water/waste from each of the compartments in the front section. HINT: If you try this, place the end cap over the PVC and drill thru both at once for accuracy. More on this later*



...and all together



With powerhead attached...



...and in place behind rear wall

*Back to the drilling story, and a quick health and safety course for you all. PVC plus high power drill plus brand new drill bit plus holding work in one hand whilst drilling, is a bad combination... Do not try this at home, kiddies!!



...drill went straight thru the tube and kept going! All good though, looks alot worse than it actually is.



That's all for now. Back soon.

Ok, so I've managed to get a little done on this over the past 24 hours...

First pic shows the rear panel measured and marked for cutting/drilling. Also, observe the drawings, to get an idea of what I'm aiming for.



Had a scrounge around thru my car model building tools and found my #11 X-Acto knife. Employing a technique used to cut plastic sheeting during model building, I drew the back edge of the X-Acto repeatedly over the PVC sheet, scoring the material away between the drill holes.



This technique is tiresome, labourious and tedious (especially when cutting 3mm sheet!), but it's easy to be accurate and affords pretty good control over ones work.



And oila...I mean, viola...I mean, walla! One section done! Only three more to do.....!!



Incidentally, these slots are for water to flow into the compartments. My main gripe with my previous barracks, was that the "holes in the wall" technique did not compensate for varying water levels, meaning the flow was one minute fast and effective, the next intermittant, then stopped. Once the water lowered to the next row of holes, flow would speed up again. Not good. The slots will allow for 3 inches (75mm) of water level variance.

I now intend to spend the next 24-48hrs figuring on an easier, similarly accurate, way to cut the rest of the slots!!

Back soon!