my 55/juvies/homemade betta tank

This is a photo of my 55 gallon juvie tank and the thirty juvies inside. The last photo is of a betta tank I recently finished. It is meant to hold three bettas. The book lites were a nice idea, but I am still looking for something that gibes off a little more light. Any ideas?

Hmmm, it seems the pictures are too big for the screen. Sorry about that. You can go to the bottom and scroll over if you think it is worth it.

Megham...Your Angel juvies are lookin' great!!
Are they around nickel size now?..nice pic.'s!!
You've done a great job with them!!
You still waiting to get some of JohnA's once they are a bit older too?

In answer to your question about more light for your betta tank...
what size is this tank?
I have my 10 gal. Betta tank divided like that as well. ( 4 sections)..
and I bought a strip light to sit across the whole thing.
I don't even have a glass lid.
I actually cut a piece of
Egg crate ( what I use for my dividers in my Angel tanks) and it fits snug inside the rim.
Light sits on top.
Most LFS should have small enough lights to fit from 5 gal.
tanks on up.

Thanks Dizzee. The betta tank is almost two gallons. It is a big improvement on the tiny divided thing they had before. It is homemade so I am not likely to find a standard aquarium light for it. I am looking for something I can just clip on. Could you post a photo of yours?
Yes the juvies are around nickel size. The largest are near or at quarter. There are a couple that are still dime.
I am really looking forward to those golds from John. I am trying to get him to post photos. I would love to see how they are coming along.

What kind of lights are those on your tank now?
Look pretty "cute"..are they similiar to reading lights?


As you remember..I am not the best at taking pictures..
But here's the betta tank...

The lid, grid & light..



A view of the entire tank

Megan: Did you actually frabricate the betta tank? If so, did you use acrylic or glass, and how is it held together? Maybe you could share the plans/details.

Thanks for the photos Dizzee. That does give me an idea of what I can do. The lights on there now are reading lights. The only thing I do not like is the LED is not very bright and the battery life is short so I must use them sparingly.

John, yes I did make it myself. I do not have a drawn out plan of what I did, but I can give you a general idea. First I drew out a plan on paper of how long tall and deep I wanted the tank to be and basically drew a picture of the individual parts. These included a bottom 5x18 inches. Two sides at 7x18 inches and two ends at 4 and3/4 x 7. I then went to home depot and bought two sheets of 1/8 inch acrylic and a scoring tool. After some trial and error I got it right and was able to cut my pieces. Personally I think it would have been better to buy them at a plastics shop and have them do the cutting for me for some additional cost. My cuts were not perfect therefor making sealing more difficult. As for sealing, I did some research and found that a product called weld-on is perfect for bonding acrylic aquariums. They make it in several different thicknesses and strengths depending on what you need. With perfect joints you would use weld-on #4 which has the consistency of water and is absorbed into the joints by capillary action. A needle and bottle are used to apply it. However, with my imperfect joints I needed a thicker solvent and my research told me that weld on #16 was best to fill small gaps. It has a thicker consistency. After gluing all my pieces together, I waited 24 hours and put water in it. It leaked so I reapplyed another bead of solvent. This seems to have done the job. There are more detailed instructions online on how to work with acrylic and despite the trial and error I seem to have succeeded.

The betta tank turned out great Megan. And your babies are looking good too. If that's the tank with the diatom issues you're doing a great job hiding the fact. How old are these juvies now? I just wanted to know what to expect for size vs. age.

Thanks , I had just cleaned the tank the day before so it hadn't come back yet. As for the age of the juvies, the eggs were laid in April I think. They should be around three months old. I may take some to the fish store next weekend.

That's really impressive, Megan. I wonder if you could heat up a sheet of acrylic and bend it enough to make a large tube then bond it together. Somewhere I have a chart that lists material thicknesses required to make various size aquariums. If anybody is interested, I'll try to find it. I've always wanted to make an aquarium that looks like a treasure chest, but that would require some artistic ability.

Megan,
Nice baby angels, and a good idea for a homemade betta tank...
The baby angels, are they silver and black lace veils?
Karen and Jimmy

Wow, I just realized I am behind on posts. Thank you all for your compliments on the betta tank. John, it is possible to heat and bend acrylic. I have read it is rather tricky though due to the fact that it can melt and leave an unattractive warped spot. I would be interested in any information you have regarding working with acrylic. I am hoping to advance my skills and maybe start a moneymaking custom aquarium hobby on the side someday.
Jim and Karen, the baby angels are really quite a mix. The father is a black clown and the mother is a smoky who is apparently hiding a stripe-less gene as well. The babies so far have been black, smoky, silver, silver ghost, smoky blushing, smoky lace blushing, and zebra lace. The also range from standard to super veil and at least one has the fathers comb-tail trait. Talk about variety.

Megham..That is so cool that you have such a variety with your juvies!! So..are you going to keep one of each then? I know I always tried to.
Yours sure are pretty...so I bet
your LFS will be happy with them!!
..Also...for you making that tank yourself..you did a fabulous job there lady!!...you GO GIRL !!

Beautiful Babies!!!

And GREAT job on the tank!

I make signs... and I have an acrylic bender... it's kind of a really cool idea... I use Weld On when I make neon signs.

I may see if I have any extra acrylic tomorrow... that'd be a cool thing to fool with, and the baby's been wanting a betta... BLAH!

LOL!

Thanks Angela . Yes, I found it quite fun to make. It took me over a month. I was taking my time and buying supplies as I need them. I think when I get bored, I may make another.

I looked up a few acrylic vendors and found out the stuff is kind of expensive. One place had six inch diameter acrylic tubes, which could make an interesting aquarium. Years ago there was a place called Cadillac Plastics here in Phoenix. I bought some thick Plexiglas (acrylic) from them, drilled a bunch of holes, cut some supports and had myself a genuine home made under gravel filter. It worked, and all the fish lived. Most of the specialty acrylic vendors now seem to be on line now, and the only local sources are the big home improvement stores.

Like a forgetful old coot, I lost the web address of a place that had specifications for home made aquariums. It had a list of glass and acrylic thicknesses for different capacity aquariums. If I ever find it again, I'll post it here.