Building an aquarium from scratch; 4G glass corner triangle.

[UncommonSense]

Hello all!

This is my first attempt at building an actual aquarium out of just silicone and glass! — I call it the Ugly Duckling, I’m sure you can see why…

I should clarify that I’ve had around a dozen tanks over the years, the smallest display being 30g…

I’ve built several components, and all glass assemblies; but never anything over a gallon in size!

This idea came up simply because I had some scrap glass laying around, a diamond blade on my tile saw, and a free afternoon!

I masked literally nothing besides the work surface itself so the tank wouldn’t stick to it… silicone was applied mostly via caulking gun, and a bit by syringe…

Dimensions are 12”X12”X18”X14” tall… minus the front pane which I forgot I wasn’t overhanging the bottom pane too, and left cut 1/4” too tall… Rookie mistake!

Viewing pane and bottom pane are 6mm thick, viewing pane short spans cut to 45 degree bevel. 12”X14” side panes are 5/32” thick (my weak links!)

The AIO divider is 3/16” thick glass, overflow teeth cut directly into it. Reinforcement brace for overflow teeth, and “eurobrace” for tank is 3/16”

The rear 90 degree corner has a scrap 1/2”X~1/2” square bar of glass I used as a corner reinforcement. The front 45 degree corners have glass gusset corner reinforcements…

At the end of the day; I think you’ll all agree that the name suits the tank well!

Assuming it holds water once the silicone is all cured; what do you think I should do with it? Hospital tank? Microfauna cultivation? Something more unique?

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the adventure! The sharp angles may create some challenges for fish, but the angles also create some unique viewing opportunities. This would seem to make a good invert tank or a unique macro algae tank. Good luck with whatever you chose!

 

[UncommonSense]

Congratulations on the adventure! The sharp angles may create some challenges for fish, but the angles also create some unique viewing opportunities. This would seem to make a good invert tank or a unique macro algae tank. Good luck with whatever you chose!

Thanks! Haha It’s certainly an adventure, but is also extremely satisfying!

I actually considered the tight angles, and saved my scrap strips from the 45 bevel cuts… these will fit into the 135 degree corners nicely!

Each strip will serve as both a corner reinforcement as seen in the rear; in addition to squaring off both sharp front corners! (I didn’t want them to spread the front corners apart if added while silicone was still wet!)

Macro algae is an excellent idea! Shrimp would work very well too… my LFS is also already bugging me to make them for the current Betta craze…

Has anyone ever seen an AIO with a glass divider, and glass overflow teeth?

 

[UncommonSense]

I played around with finishing touches for a few hours today, it’s starting to look like something!

— The lid has glass locating tabs now
— the AIO divider was drilled to 1/4”, with doubled up glass thickness for return “plumbing”
— a fun little pair of media baskets fabricated from acrylic, plus a heat bent acrylic retrieval handle for them!
— I did have an 80gph, 1ft max head ATO pump around for the return pump, but it’s fried apparently… it looks like I need to find another!

 

[UncommonSense]

Well, the Ugly Duckling has been curing for a few days now…

so, I brought it by my LFS, whom was extremely excited about the unusual design, and wanted it for themselves!

I said it was all theirs, and they promptly filled it up with water for a pressure test! (My glass divider is 100% watertight; not a drop into the AIO compartment with the main display filled!)

I’ll get a photo tomorrow morning from my LFS showing if it held water overnight, and will share the results! (I’m confident; I built the tank itself in one fluid motion during a single silicone application, and all my seams are bubble free!)

— here’s how it’s resting overnight… (drips on butcher paper are me farting around with the media baskets and making a mess)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[UncommonSense]

The overnight pressure test was a success! -no leaks to speak of!

The only issue so far is my silly little “ladle handle” for the media baskets being too long to get it out with the tank on a shelving rack…

I’m thinking I’ll just cut it in half and connect the halves with a pair of small stainless steel rings, making the handle flexible!

I’ll update this evening once I get a chance to fix that, and my LFS has it all decorated!

 

[UncommonSense]

Media basket handle(s) fixed; just waiting on a pic of the final product!

 

[UncommonSense]

The tank’s up and running; the glass divider/weir combo is working exactly as intended.

My LFS stuck a beta in it, and ought to be finished decorating soon; I’ll get a pic then!

In the meantime; I have another tank in mind, also for my LFS, built with SIGNIFICANTLY more care than this little prototype… specifically, as the owner’s personal desktop tank!

It’ll be a corner pyramid shape. Another shape which is essentially Impossible to manufacture with traditional methods… shaped like a 18” cube, but with a 10-15 degree bank angle to two perpendicular viewing panes.

— that is; Two squared up, trapezoidal viewing panes and two angled, trapezoidal viewing panes… it will have one straight/square exterior corner, and three exterior corners at angles… one of which is a three dimensional angle… (if your head hurts thinking about it; you’re not alone! There’s a reason that this shape isn’t commercially available!)

 

[UncommonSense]

Six week update: still going strong!

The tank’s been happily running away at my LFS for six weeks now, no problems to speak of!

I finally got a chance to get a photo of it decorated; not a fan of the undersized background, but it looks great otherwise!

The next tank is coming soon…

 

[UncommonSense]

3.5 months in, still going strong!

 

[Calmwaters]

Neat looking little tank! Good job.

 

[UncommonSense]

I keep forgetting to get photos of this funny little tank when I visit my LFS… it had a beautiful ecosystem going before they rotated stock a month or so ago and chucked a fistful of plants in it, but I’m sure it’ll be getting redecorated before long!

It definitely feels like more than 11 months since I decided to make this science experiment…

 

[UncommonSense]

Wow, it’s already been over a year since I set this tank up… time flies!

And, it’s still up and running, despite everything going against it!



— I really need to carve some free time out to build this tank’s bigger, much more geometrically complex brother… I have probably 5x the requisite glass in 8-10mm low-iron (much less all the 12mm low-iron), all the necessary tooling (plus some), and a full cut list ready to go…

As seen here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/b...-scratch-clarity-—-20g-right-frustum.1112754/