DIY Acrylic 15 Gallon With Dual Aqua-Bridge

[phiza]

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Just thought I'd see what you guys think of my first attempts at a DIY Acrylic Tank.

It consists of two 1ft Cube Tanks joined by two 1 1/2" Diameter Aquabridges. Should be about 15 Gal.

Just waiting for the acrylic "glue" to set then I'm going to water test it tomorrow, fingers crossed!!!!

 

[cichlidmac]

That's awesome. I want one for shrimp!!!

 

[AquaLady]

That is cooool! I like the bridge. Where did you get your acrylic from? Its hard to find some at a decent price.

 

[phiza]

That's awesome. I want one for shrimp!!!

Thanks cichlidmac!

Got another "normal" tank with some breeding Black Bar Endler Guppies and some Red Cherry Shrimp so going to move some of them in to see how they like it, and maybe add a Mystery Snail.

Be interesting to see if they'll all use the bridges!?

That is cooool! I like the bridge. Where did you get your acrylic from? Its hard to find some at a decent price.

Thanks also AquaLady.

I live in Australia and my son owns a small business here that cuts and etches, among other things, acrylic.
So we designed the tank and laser cut the acrylic to suit.

Our supplier in Aus charges about $120 AUD for a sheet of 1200mm x 2400mm x 6mm thk Cast Acrylic. The 75mm Dia Tube was approx $30 AUD for a 2M length.

 

[AquaLady]

That's nice your son owns a company. You must be proud. The prices are about the same here in U.S.

 

[phiza]

That's nice your son owns a company. You must be proud. The prices are about the same here in U.S.

Yeah I'm very proud! He's only just started really and he's still trying different things to see what sells etc.

I suggested he may be able to make and sell these small, custom made nano tanks, but he thinks he'd have to sell this one for example for about $250-$300 AUD and he believes people wouldn't pay it!

I said I've seen guys pay 100 bucks plus for a nice piece of driftwood for their tank, so who knows!

 

[cichlidmac]

Can he hire me so I can be allowed to move there?

 

[AquaLady]

Lol cichlidmac. Yes people who love fish and high quality equipment and supplies are willing to pay top dollar. He can do promotional discounts for a limited time to get it going and price matching. Those are good marketing strategies imo.

 

[phiza]

Can he hire me so I can be allowed to move there?

Ha! I'm waiting for him to give me a job!!

Lol cichlidmac. Yes people who love fish and high quality equipment and supplies are willing to pay top dollar. He can do promotional discounts for a limited time to get it going and price matching. Those are good marketing strategies imo.

Yeah we might have to make a few more variations, then maybe visit a few LFS's and see if they might be interested in promoting them?
I had an idea to, maybe do basically the same as we've done here, but create a tank in the middle so that the tubes go "through" from the tanks either side,(if that makes sense?) and the middle tank could house a nice Betta? Would be cool to see the fish swim from one side to the other safe and sound. Perhaps a bit cruel on the Betta though, he might get a bit agitated? What do you guys think?

Also I was thinking of having sand on one side as substrate and gravel on the other, maybe adding a couple of Peppered Cory's and seeing if they spend most of their time in the sand side as I've read that they prefer sand to gravel?

 

[cichlidmac]

Also I was thinking of having sand on one side as substrate and gravel on the other, maybe adding a couple of Peppered Cory's and seeing if they spend most of their time in the sand side as I've read that they prefer sand to gravel?

I think they'll prefer whatever substrate has more food in it. I wouldn't be surprised if they scavenge more from the gravel side.

 

[psalm18.2]

Very cool tank. I'm sure you could easily market those unique aquariums. Especially in your part of the world.

 

[phiza]

Quick update!

Water test today, had small "pinprick" leak in the joint between the lower bridge and one of the tanks.
Drained the water, (holds 50L or 13G by the way), dried it off and re-sealed. Just have to wait to re-test tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

 

[cichlidmac]

It would be cool to put screens in the middle of each bridge and have a betta in each side. Would be a flare fest.

 

[phiza]

Next Stage!

Visited my LFS and bought some Quartz Sand, 5kg of predominantly white with black flecks for the left hand tank and 5kg of predominantly black with white flecks for the left.
After a thorough rinsing of both I put them in the respective tanks and gently filled with water, got a bit of clouding (as seen in the first picture).

After a couple of hours the water is clearing nicely, (see 2nd picture).

I'm running an Aqua One 101F Internal Filter in each tank, running with media taken from existing mature tank filters, and at the moment I've got a 125 watt Jaeger heater in one tank (hoping this is sufficient to heat both tanks). The light is just temporary until I decide what I want to use. I've turned it off in the last picture to show the Aquabridges more clearly. (see 3rd picture).

I'm going to experiment with different combinations of rocks, driftwood and Plants tomorrow to see what I like the look of most.

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Aquabridge Tank, first attempt at Aquascaping.

I've tried to make two separate style tanks but with common elements, obviously one light and one dark, as I'm interested to see the way the fish look in each environment.

(The water still hadn't quite cleared after planting!)

I'd welcome any comments and suggestions.

Thanks

 

[bigt0006]

That looks really cool

 

[phiza]

I've now transferred my Endlers, RCS, a small Albino Bristlenose and a couple of Mystery Snails.
They've settled in great and are constantly using the Aquabridges, even the snails!

I managed to get a video, a bit shaky sorry, let me know what you guys think?

 

[horsin1787]

Cool!! I love that Now I want to make one...I don't think hubby will let me have any more tanks though, lol.

 

[phiza]

Thanks LisaAnne

Cool!! I love that Now I want to make one...I don't think hubby will let me have any more tanks though, lol.

Ha! I know what you mean, this tank makes it my 5th! I don't know how I've managed to sneak them in past my Missus!

 

[Lyfeoffishing]

Wow man awesome!!! The bridge is cool. I just recently started in this hobby and its so additcting lol. I have a 55 so far and I am planning a 30 gal breeder and a 120 or 180 gal angelfish tank (2 years away). Love the tank man!!!

 

[phiza]

Another Update

Added a new light to the tank, its a 90cm T5 High Output 78Watt with a blue and white tube.

I think it does the job!

 

[JimmyV723]

That's a killer idea and design. As far as what the cost would be just look at what some of the Fluval tanks go for and this is something that's similar but also a very unique design so just for the cool factor and the design of it many people would pay a premium for it. Nice job and the video where the one fish was just chilling in in the middle of one of the bridges was cracking me up.

 

[Aquarist]

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You've done a wonderful job!

Ken

 

[bmb0214]

That is just so neat! I would sit and watch for hours so I could watch them cross the tunnels. And you are quite the talented aquascapist (?) by the way I may have just made up a word but

 

[kevymd]

amazing!

 

[phiza]

DIY Aquabridge Another Update

So another update on my DIY Aquabridge.

The light was a tad too powerful for my tank, and despite reducing the amount of time the light was switched on I ended up getting a bit of an algae problem. Well to be honest a lot of an algae problem!!
So I decided to strip the tank and start from fresh.
This is the new look tank, to help with the light issue I removed one of the tubes and only run it for 5 hours a day.
I also removed all the original stones and went with just live plants and the red gum drift wood.
Also added a bubbler in each to increase oxygen levels.
I've attached some photos and a video, sorry about the poor quality of both!
Comments welcome!

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[MJDuti]

can we get an update please?!
I would love to try something like this but with maybe 3 tanks and less tubing between them. I like the space you provided though. It can store equipment or since the light is there you can even be creative with plants.

 

[Donnerjay]

Beautifully done! Thank you for the videos!

I wonder if only the "bravest" fish go through those tubes? It seems like they might feel scared going through an open space with no spatial anchors ... Like just open air! I wonder if you'd see more fish using the tubes if there were plants around the outside of the tubes. You know, just one or two leafy green house plants underneath with some leaves branching up around the acrylic. Even a fake plant could work and would not obstruct the view! Just wondering about that!

 

[phiza]

The video doesn't show many fish going through, but usually they are back and forth constantly! They even hang out in there for a while, I don't think they're scared at all, they may be hesitant the first time they try but once they've been in they seem to be not phased at all!