Dividing a tank efficiently

hrdneglcry · #1 08/27/2006, 11:39 AM

An old acquaintance divided one of his fish tanks nicely with a black piece of acrylic that "he said" he bought at The Home depot, although I have never seen it there.
He cut the piece, and siliconed it into place.
I do not know where to get the acrylic, or what it's called so that I can find it at The Home Depot.
Also I do not know how to cut it with good precision.
And lastly, I want to have small holes in it to allow for "good" water circulation between the two sides.
I need the fish in the tank to share the same water, but I cannot have these particular fish to share swimming space.
Anyway I need the black acrylic, I need to know how to cut it properly, and I am open to suggestions on how to get "good" water circulation between the two sides. I can drill only holes that are smaller than dimes due to fish size.
Thanks in advance fore replying to this thread.

DHyslop · #2 08/27/2006, 11:57 AM

Right now I have cuttlefish in a 75 gallon tank. For the first couple months of their lives they lived in a net breeder, but after they outgrew it they were still definately too small to find food in the big tank. I made a simple divider that I can move to give them more and more space as they grow.

Its very simple: I made a square with 1/2" PVC that fits snugly inside the tank. The bottom of the square has three T's in it pointing left and right to act as feet so it doesn't want to fall over. Then I cut a piece of egg crate to fit in the middle. You can spray paint the entire assembly black with Krylon Fusion if you wish.

Since my cuttles were small enough to get through the egg crate I took a length of fiberglass window screen and used cable ties to to secure it in place. When I put it in or move it I bury the feet with sand to help keep it secure.

My cuttles are about 2" long now and right now the divider has been moved a couple times so they have free reign over half the tank. I doubt they could get through the egg crate now but I still have the screen on because I don't wnat them to try

. Next time I move it I might take it off.

Dan

hrdneglcry · #3 08/27/2006, 01:05 PM

I am going to read your post more thoroughly, but can your fish get around the sides? Aren't there gaps on the sides, and if so how do you plug them?
Did you cap the T's on the feet?
Was it hard to cut everything to the proper length?
How many attempts did you have to make before you got the snug fit?
Thanks, and if you have a PIC I'd love to see it.

DHyslop · #4 08/27/2006, 02:28 PM

There's a small gap along the edges because the PVC fittings at the corners are wider than the PVC pipe that makes up the sides. But the gap is only about 1/8" or so.

I didn't put caps on because they're reasonably well buried in the sand.

As for sizing, it does take a little bit of planning. Measure the inside dimensions of the tank as best you can. One way to make a little bit of fudge room is cut the pipes a hair short: if you put the contraption in and its an 1/8" or 1/4" too narrow, you can always pull the sides out a little bit to make it snug!

Since the vertical dimension is the hardest to measure, you can forgo the top PVC member and just have the top of it be egg-crate. Recently I moved my divider to the center of the tank where it had to fit underneath the glass center brace, and I had to do this to get it to fit underneath.

I don't have a digital camera, so you can't expect pics anytime soon

But it is pretty simple. Just a PVC frame around a square of egg-crate, all held together with cable ties. The mesh is optional unless your critters can get through the egg-crate.

This is just one solution out of hundreds possible (that's why I love this hobby). Someone else probably has a home-made divider that's just as good, if not better! You might try a piece of egg-crate without the PVC frame if you can find a good way to keep it vertical. Maybe hot melt glue or something

Dan

ladyfsu · #5 08/27/2006, 03:31 PM

WOW awesome! This is what I needed to read. I'm making 10 student tanks that are 48 inches long and I need to divide them into 2's for more tanks. I like the eggcrate idea with mesh! I was just going to drill some holes in acrylic pieces but knew it wasn't going to allow enough flow...this is good! Thx!

devildij · #6 09/06/2006, 09:21 PM

i use a frame made out of acryllic sticks and then glue mesh to the frame. as i breed danios in freshwater i do this and also put cut pieces of airline tubing and glue them in the parts that the divider contacts the tank works great
i also have a 10g mating tand and i really need to seal it watertight so the males and the females don't know that they are actually in the same tank: i take a piece of acryllic, cut it, glue the airline and then i paint it with kriptex spray