Jump to content

Re-doing Divided Tank


JohnH

Recommended Posts

So I started seeing a few wild cherries appear in my divided tank. On closer inspection it appears the glass dividers in the 3' tanks have come away at the rear. Late at night my yellow, choc and red rilli cherries have been doing raids on each others section and getting jiggy with the other colours.

This is an old photo of the tank

IMG_0989_zps81a18c7c.jpg

So I need to strip this tank down and re-do the silicone on the dividers. Any special requirements for preparation or can I run a new bead down each side of the glass? I intend to just give the area a wipe down with some vinegar as the only prep.

I'm also thinking about re-doing the top as the fixed glass in the top centre makes it hard to get into the centre section. I'm not sure if that will impact on the strength as the dividers are only siliconed on the front and back glass, the sit about 2cm up from the bottom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey mate ,

I'm no expert on tank building but I wanted the same setup as you so I took my tank to my LFS

They removed the top centre brace , siliconed two dividers in ( front , back , bottom ) the dividers are the same height as the tank. He cut the old lids to fit the left and right hand tanks , made new lids for centre tank also cut out sections in all three lids for the HOB's also added glass strips to the dividers for the lids to sit on ( everything done for $80 )

He told me the tank would be stronger this way than with the centre bracing ( he has been building tanks for 25 years )

Good luck fixing your setup

Cheers Twellsy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As long as the dividers are siliconed in well it will be fine without the top brace, best way to get it out is either use a one sided razor blade or a fine guitar string. Also as long as the surface is clean & dry the silicone will do a great job on the repair. :victorious:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool, what was that aquarium safe silicone that everyone uses? Was it V.. something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive got this sealer specifically designed for pond/aquarium

null-4.jpg

Can send to you if you thing you can use it....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting BB. The destructions say it can be used underwater with the fish still in it. Have you tried it underwater?

I think I need to strip my tank down anyway as I want to re-do the top lid arrangement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No probs BB. I think I will need to buy some silicone so there would be enough to do the top anyway, but thanks for the offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a Selley's brand version available at Bunnings & also a Dow Corning version available at some LFS's. just make sure it says "safe for aquarium use" on it :victorious:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      Thats a great photo, beautiful blue bolt, I hope it survived the molt without dropping the eggs! I think I can just about see some black dots (eyes) on the central egg but can't be 100% sure. I used to (and plan to again) do weekly water change of 10-15% but if you do too large or quick (not drip in new water) that would likely trigger a molt. What KH are they in, my new setup is sitting at (and refusing to budge) KH 3 and PH 7.5 so I may have to settle for neocaridina shrimp this time as opposed to the caridina I want, though not looking/deciding just yet, give the tank a bit more of a run in! Tap water here starts at kH 14, tds 320, when filtered goes to KH 0 and PH 6 but when put in the tank keeps going to KH3 and PH 7.5 despite 3 x 50% water changes???? You may be at 'maximum capacity' with only 20L tank especially if the tank is a cube type rather than shallow type?
    • beanbag
      Right now this tank only has blue bolts and golden bee (red bolts?).  The eggs start off all brown, but at the end, I notice that some are kind of a clear pink-ish color.  So I don't know if that is the egg color of dud or golden bee.  Picture of shrimp only about half hour before molting. The water is always RO + remineralizer, so it should be ok. The tank seems to still be on a "good streak" ever since I started the regimen of weekly water change, monthly gravel vac and plant trim.  The point being to keep the amount of waste low and removing moss / floating plants so that the nitrates go towards growing algae.  At one point, I had three berried females, but only netted about half dozen babies by the end, due to this early molting problem.  There might be about 30-40 shrimp total in 5 gallons, but still very few full-sized adults.
    • ngoomie
      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
×
×
  • Create New...