Stock 10 gallon tanks

[bededog]

I have 20 or so 10 gallon tanks and am wondering if anyone has had any luck drilling them. I know I can drill them with a dremmel but I have heard that they tend to break when you try to put in a bulkhead. Oh, the tanks are glass.

Has anyone used them? I am thinking I could put a 4"x4" or 6"x6' piece of acrylic on each side of the glass with the same diameter hole and put the bulkhead on that way.

Anyone have any ideas?

I want to set up a growout system for clowns that would make water changes easier and also make it possible to shut off a tank for some time during the larval stage and just turn on the water when the babies are ready for some flow. I have the 10 gallon tanks and would like to be able to use them if possible.

I know I have seen a system of someone's pictured on RC similar to what I would like to do. It was in a thread that that was called something like "Show me your breeding system".

Thanks, Matt

[Fishboy42]

I use standard 10g tanks that I drilled with a dremel for fish growout. They are a bit delicate (I broke a few during the first few months with rough handling), but I don't think the acrylic is necessary (of course make sure the glass isn't tempered). If you are careful with them they shouldn't break. The good thing about my system is that the plumbing is "open," so I can just drain a tank and pull it off the shelf for cleaning.

Here's my setup. This may have been the setup you were referring to? There is a picture of it in the thread you mentioned.



Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions.

-Matt

[jacob30]

I have drilled 6 regular ten gallon tanks. I broke the first two I drilled. The keys to not breaking them are use water to cool the glass and bit, little to know pressure and very important to drill about one diameter or more away from the edge.

[parshmar]

dremel is the best way to go. I get a bulkhead, put it where I want to drill, then go around it with a dremel. then I remove the bulkhead and follow that line, over and over and over and over.....you get the picture. It takes a long time, but it's not hard to do.

[bededog]

Thanks to all three of you. I was thinking of fishboy's photo when I wrote the email. I will start drilling tomorrow.

[jnowell]

Matt - Nice setup, I have a few questions. First, what bit did you use in the Dremel? I have a #7144 Diamond Point bit but haven't tried it yet. I bought a glass & tile drill bit, but broke the first one I tried with it. I had a freind make me a steel plate with the right diameter circle in it to use as a guide, so your bulkhead tracing idea sounds like the way I was headed. Any thoughts on how many you can cut per bit, i plan to do 16 tanks total, and only have one bit.

I think I can handle all of the plubming, but was curious what you use to cover the overflow openings, or more specifically, how you keep the fish in the tank. I love the glass covers too, I assume you just had glass cut and bought hinge material?

Thanks for sharing, I'm at the point where my third batch is about to hatch, and my first is through metamorphasis. I thought this would be a neat thing to try once or twice, now I'm looking for more breeding pairs, and trying to figure how to raise every hatch. It kinda gets addicting doesn't it.

Thanks,

Jason

[Fishboy42]

Thanks, it's addicting for sure, and it's hard to resist raising every nest from every pair, resulting in LOTS of fish to care for...watch out Jason, if you're like me you'll end up with tanks EVERYWHERE...

I used #7103 to make a pilot hole and a longer one (#7144) to actually cut the circle. I drew the appropriately sized circle with a sharpie and traced it with the bit, using water in a sprayer to keep it cool. The hole isn't *perfectly* round, but the bulkhead doesn't need a perfect hole anyway. I think it took three bits to do the 18 tanks in the pictured system (didn't break any in the process, only broke them after by doing stupid things like jamming a pipe into the bulkhead). Funny thing is, the bits are like $10 -- more than the tank!

Yup, I had the glass cut locally and bought hinges (that I cut to fit) and handles, came to less than $5 each. If you can find a local glass guy and give him exact measurements and a tank (he was even able to make a cutout in the back corner for the return pipe), you can get exactly what you want.

For the overflow openings, I use these:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1
but I cut off the top to allow the glass lid to rest on the tank and the water level to stay high, and this is also insurance in the case of clogging; the water would flow over the top and into the standpipe rather than overflowing the tank.

Hope this helps

[jnowell]

Tanks everywhere? I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about I already have 5 that I bought with heaters, lights and small filters that I use for the fry. My big sump for the grow-out tanks is already completed, and will start the shelves soon. No pet shop in town will have a ten gallon in stock soon

That helps immensely, or at least it gave me the confidence to start hacking on a tank. I realize this is splitting hairs, but do have a rough estimate on the flow (GPH) per tank in your system.

Got any pics of your sump? Mine will just be a 50 gallon plastic tub filled with LS, LR, and macro aglae, allthough I'm thinking about growing some more mangroves in there also. My plan is to have a custome built protein skimmer running continously, and a Magnum 350 on stand by for carbon and micron filtration. I'd sure like to hear more about the underbelly of your setup, or your thoughts on my plans.

Thanks a million, your setup looks like the right form factor for my space. It's nice to get a little advice from someone who's already been there. Thanks!

Jason

[jaybro]

I've used a lot of 10g standards that I had a local shop drill. They drilled well for the most part, but I had a heck of a time getting the bulkheads tight enough to be water tight without breaking the tanks. This was due to the 1/8" thick glass. All new 10g's I get have 1/4" glass in the bottom for drilling (I order them from the same shop, but I can't remember who manufactures them). This has helped significantly with breakage while tightening bulkheads.

[spk]

Folks,

If drilling with a drill bit vs dremel bit, the biggest thing to remember is as you break through on the other side you need to slow right down with the rpm and remove all pressure from the drill. I drilled 18 very quickly and there were no breakages. I used play dough to create a water well and drilled inside of that.

Good luck.

Steve

[Fishboy42]

Originally posted by jnowell
No pet shop in town will have a ten gallon in stock soon

too true, after setting up a couple of systems using 10's, I can tell you it really does happen!

hmm...it's hard for me to estimate the gph of each tank (and each tank is different since they all have valves), but it is fairly low. It probably takes ~8 min. to fill an empty tank with the valve at the normal setting, so I'm guessing ~75gph? Each tank also has an airstone though to keep the water moving and as a backup when I'm doing maintenance.

The sump is just a standard AGA 75g for that system (another system uses a brute trashcan, although I prefer a tank...). I keep nothing in the sump but water for easy cleaning. A PM bullet II skimmer running ozone and a large trickle filter & fluidized bed are the main filtration. I did run carbon once in a while before I installed the ozone for water clarity though. I also use sponges on pump intakes (cleaned every few days) and a 40w UV. I have some pictures of the filtration somewhere, but it's really pretty simple.

Mangroves are cool, but I'm not convinced they really remove anything from the water worth the trouble. I have ~50 4-year-old trees in a greenhouse (started from propagules collected in FL and HI), and when I had their "tubs" hooked up to a larger system, they really didn't seem to pull that much from the water.

[bededog]

I am not convinced that mangroves are that great either. I had 15 of them in a huge rubbermaid container hooked up to a system and they didn't do enough to make me think it was worth having them. Granted they look cool and they don't really require any work, but they grew to the point that I had to have the light two feet above the tank so I got rid of them.

Fishboy,

I would very much like to see what your trickle filter looks like or if you could answer these questions I would appreciate it:

I think you said the trickle filter is made from a plastic container. What are you using to make the water disperse over the balls and do you know of somewhere to get a bunch of bioballs for cheap.

The intake screens that you have on your standpipes. Are they verticle or horizontal? I am assuming that you have them verticle and that you cut a portion off of the top. How much did you cut and how loud are the tanks? I guess with low flow they aren't too terribly loud. Are your standpipes 3/4"?

Where can I get the hinge stuff for the glass lids. I am going to set my system up very similar to yours so, unfortunately for you, I have a ton of questions. I got "permission to turn the garage into a fish room so I have lots of room to expand my addiction.

Matt

[bededog]

I didn't have to buy all of the tanks in town. I work at an environmental lab and a faculty member here had a big system, or at least a bunch of tanks, that he used to study South American Cichlids. The administration was going to smash the tanks and put them in the dumpster. I took them home. I got 14 40's and 30 or so 10's. Setting up a new brood stock and growout system is going to be pretty cheap for me, which just happens to be the only way I would be able to do it anyway.

[Fishboy42]

I will find/get pictures of my trickle filter, but in the meantime I can try to tell you about it: It is a 20XH glass aquarium from glasscages.com (same footprint as a 10g--I ordered it and picked it up in Nashville when I was out there...but that's probably more convenient for me than for many others... I have a plastic tupperware box on the top with holes drilled in the bottom of it as a "drip-plate" and of course the tank is filled with media and is drilled with a bulkhead for return to the sump on the bottom. I pump air into the bottom to increase gas exchange. I ordered the bioballs, but I don't know a good source outside some of the commonly used online companies. For additional filtration I have a fluidized bed filter on the system:

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=RB7691

The overflow screens are vertical, and I have cut off 1/2 of the top of the screen. They are slip fittings into 3/4" pipe. The fishroom is pretty noisy, but I think the bubbling brine hatchers are more obnoxious than anything else. Hopefully if it's in the garage you can get away with it

As for the hinges and handles, you can try here (last two items):

http://www.petsolutions.com/All+Glas...929016-I-.aspx

Just order a few of the 30" hinges and cut them to size. I made three lids from each one.

[bededog]

Thanks Fishboy.

I get the idea about the trickle filter. No need to search for a picture. I was thinking about using two stackable plastic "rubbermaid" containers for the trickle filter. I guess my only question for you about that is how much water do you have in the bottom that you are bubbling air into or are you just forcing more air through the container.

I have two of the same FB filters running on my current brood stock system. I bought two because I figured I would need one for a growout system and this way it is already seeded.

Have you ever considered hooking a refugium with chaeto in it to keep nirtrates low? Do you test for nitrate? Do you have algae bloom problems in your system? It looks so clean in the photo.

Thanks again for answering all of my questions.

[Fishboy42]

No problem, I hope it helps you. There are lots of ways to do this and of course my system is only one take on it.

There is about 4" of water in the bottom of the trickle filter that I bubble water into, and the bioballs are suspended above the bottom by a section of eggcrate on top of 4" high 4" diameter PVC pipe rings.

Good idea on the FB filters. Your system should be quick to start up that way!

I've never thought about a refugium on the growout system, as I don't have space in that room. If I did have the room I might consider it, as algae could be useful for nutrient export. As it is set up the nitrates build up between water changes (my way of controlling them), but the tanks stay relatively clean, probably due to the ozone and UV. The tanks look clean there because I had just wiped them down (and then thought it would be a good time for a pic!). There is usually a bit more algae on the glass surfaces than that, but the water always stays clear.

[jnowell]

Thanks a lot for all the info man (I just noticed you fly RC, me too). It's perfect timing for me, and obviously bededog too

It is much appreciated.

Jason

[Fishboy42]

You're welcome Jason. It's been windy/rainy here, but I did get in a couple of flights last week

[Grunt]

Hey fishboy, I was curious what size hole you drilled in each of your tanks? You have them drilled i nthe middle of the bottoms if im not mistaken? Do you have any pics of your plumbing and filtration?
Thanks for the info
Cheers

[firebirdbandit]

Nice aquaculture setup Fishboy42. I've seen diamond bit drills online for about $40 but I haven't used them so I'm not sure how well they do.

[Fishboy42]

Originally posted by Grunt
Hey fishboy, I was curious what size hole you drilled in each of your tanks? You have them drilled in the middle of the bottoms if im not mistaken?
Cheers

See above for how these were drilled (custom-sized with a Dremel to fit a 3/4" bulkhead). The holes are centered about 1/3 from the back of the tanks. We now use a 45mm diamond-coated holesaw for 1" bulkheads. Even the "economy" ones for ~$6 will drill many tanks.

Originally posted by Grunt
Do you have any pics of your plumbing and filtration?

Hopefully this link can answer a few questions and avoid redundant threads:

Fishboy42 Growout

Hope this helps--any of you building a multi-tank system please feel free to post/hijack here and share your progress!

-Matt

[Grunt]

Hey Matt,

Thanks for the info. I'm currently in the process of planning my systems. I have so many questions, but my mind is about to explode. One notable question I had for you was how you were able to succesfully raise the % of fish that you have per batch.

Once laid, whats your process from beggining to growout? As far as collecting, removing, transferring stuff like that. I wish I knew you earlier. I was stationed at Fort Campbell, recently moved.

I look forward to picking your brain.
Thanks for all the info.
Cheers

[Fishboy42]

Originally posted by Grunt
One notable question I had for you was how you were able to succesfully raise the % of fish that you have per batch.

Once laid, whats your process from beggining to growout? As far as collecting, removing, transferring stuff like that.

That's a LOT of information! I'd say enough to fill a book, but thankfully, someone wrote it!

Wilkerson, Clownfishes Book

Seriously though, that book has most of what you will need to know to get going. I'm not trying to withhold information, but I'd rather not re-write the book on here. Of course each breeder has his own tricks and tips that may or may not be transferrable. Check the FAQ here in the FBF and in the Clownfish/Anemones forum for lots of good information as well. There's also a sticky about breeding setups here that may help.

Also, another book to check out that may help for your system designs:

Hoff, Raising Clownfish...

Don't hesitate to ask specifics though or make a thread so that all can help out.

Matt

[Grunt]

They were on order a few days ago. I use to own them but lost them in an Army move. :P

I'll have some questions for you later. Thanks for the info so far.
-Josh