WTB 6ish gallon all-in-one

[eshook]

I am looking for a stock 6 gallon jbj nanocube or 8 gallon biocube.

I am willing to purchase the tank or trade a modified 8 gallon biocube. The modified tank has been drilled for a sump and has additional PC lights in the hood, but the hood appears stock. The tank is good and has no scratches on the glass. I would like to replace it with a stock tank, because the modified tank will not fit where I want it with the bulkheads in the back.

[medic29]

Eric, can you just plug the bulkheads and/or remove them and cover the holes?

[eshook]

I think I should be able to scrape the silicone and cover the holes, but they are rather large and are in the back compartments, so its going to be a pain. It might come to me modifying it again, but I have been very busy with class, baby, a new house and other responsibilities so if I can get away with spending a little money for trading or selling the tank and buying a new one I would be ok with that.

[eshook]

I have 2 bulkheads 1" & 1/2" (I think). They have a lot of silicone over the seal. If I scrape off the silicone and take out the bulkheads what should I put over the holes? The back is glass.

I don't think I trust putting a small piece of glass over the hole with silicone. Is there something like a bulkhead plug?

[medic29]

You can definitely silicone glass over the holes, it will work just fine. If you want to leave the bulkheads in place, yes you can plug them.

[eshook]

What thickness glass should I use? They are at the top of an 8 gallon biocube. I am covering a 1/2" and 1" bulkhead.

For the bulkhead plug: I was hoping I could get a plug that is similar to a bulkhead, but instead of having the long threaded portion that it would just be flat. Does such a thing exist?

[eshook]

Also which side should I mount the glass on if I go that route: inside or outside the tank? How clean should the glass be for siliconing?

[syrinx]

they make internal and external thread caps- check the home improvment centers. As far as glass thickness goes- whatever you wont break! the pressure will be minimal. The glass goes inside so the water is pressing it in place, so to speak.

[medic29]

I have some glass from an aquarium that broke on the bottom. We would just have to cut the glass to size. Might work out to another project. :)

[eshook]

syrinx,

Threaded caps would probably work. I was hoping for essentially a bulkhead except it not being a cap instead of hollow on the inside to make the seal waterproof. Apparently such a thing doesn't exist (or at least I can't find it through google)

As for the glass. I figured it should be on the inside for the same reason you pointed out, I just wasn't sure.

Rick,
I might take you up on that, unless I find little glass plates at menards or something. Is it easy to cut glass? I thought you had to have some funky high speed cutter to do it.

[fatheadfisheye]

Hey eshook. I have a peice of glass left over from making sump deviders. Its 1/4" think and 12"x 12". Yours if you want it. I dont have a glass cutter but Im sure rick has several. If you ever saw in his garage, you can tell he is set for about any project.
Let me know..

[bassist6108]

eshook - most of the hardware stores will cut glass to your specifications. Lowes definitely does it. When I sealed the 2 holes I had previously drilled in the bottom of my tank, I jsut doubled up the glass and siliconed it to death. Worked like a charm. For your purposes, one layer would probably be fine because it's way less water pressure.

[eshook]

fatheadfisheye,

Thanks for the offer. I'll keep you in mind. And you're right about Rick's garage. I wouldn't be surprised if he could *make* glass in the shop he has ;)

bassit,
Do you know how much they charge per cut or the glass? How much overlap did you have over the holes? I wouldn't imagine you would need a lot. As for the pressure you're right. Its at the top of an 8 gallon biocube - so not much pressure at all :)

[bassist6108]

I think they cut it for free, you jsut pay for the glass. It was less than $5 to cover two holes last time I did it. As for overlap, I would do at least 1" to 1.5" on around the hole, just for safety's sake.

[medic29]

You could also use the glass that is left over (the round piece of glass) from cutting a hole in an aquarium. I usually give this piece of glass to the person who I drilled the hole for, but that is how easy it would be to get a piece the right size. Actually, it might be better off since you could make it to where you had the same amount of over-lap on all sides, rather than using a rectangular piece. Now, if you can get Lowes to cut you a circle, call me, I want to watch. Also, their glass is less than 1/8" thick. You could get the same by buying a small 3x5 picture frame for <$1 and you wouldn't have to cut it and it would be cheaper than buying the piece in the glass area. Actually, I bought a couple of these when I first starting drilling glass to practice on...it was cheaper than buying a tank to practice or a bigger piece of glass.

Let me know if I can help out though!!!

[eshook]

I bought this aquarium with holes pre-cut and was not given the left over glass - although that would be awesome, because your right a round piece would be better than a square piece of glass.

I might look at picture frames as a cheap and easy solution. Thanks for the pointer!

I appreciate the offer Rick. I may call on your expertise! I think I will try lowes / menards first and if the price is right will just either get a small piece of glass or have it cut. I just want a nice simple solution to this problem. I also might check their plumbing section in case if I can just find a gasket type solution. (e.g. a plugged/capped bulkhead)

Thanks everyone on your input. This has been very useful and I will keep some of these tricks in my head for future use. I will try to post my solution and whether or not it worked when I get there :)

[syrinx]

you have to have overlap for sure- I would go for 1/2 inch around each side- or more if it doesnt matter. You could prob just tell the folks at a glass shop and they could give you a couple squares- or check their dumpster! The caps exist,as I have a couple in use around- but have no idea where they came from!

[fatheadfisheye]

Have you thought about just using plexi instead of glass to cover the holes? Illini plastics has a shelf in the back with scrap that they will just give you. You can cut that yourself with a hacksaw if needed. The glass you will get in a picture frame is only going to be about 3/32" thick.. quite thin. If you decide to use glass and have rick cut you a couple of large circles, I would go with the free peice I offered. like I said, its 1/4" thick and a foot by a foot square..
Does the biocube have a sectioned off back areas so that you dont see the fix? If so couldnt you just mount the bulkheads in backwards so that there isnt any hanging out the back which is what it sounds like your trying to acheive. then you could cap it off with a threaded pvc peice and a threaded PVC cap. That way you could always reverse it down the road if you decided to go back.. Just a thought.

[eshook]

plexi doesn't adhere very well to glass. I have had bad experiences with this before. Since glass seems to be cheap I will just do it in glass. In terms of the thickness I could be wrong, but I think 1/4" will be overkill. I don't think even my 24 gallon has 1/4" glass and this is an 8 gallon aquarium.

The biocube has back sections so no-one will see my hole coverings. I can't mount the bulkheads backwards, because the back section isn't big enough and the tank won't fit on the shelf with the bulkheads in the original position (this is the reason why I wanted to remove them). I really really like the idea of using a flat capped bulkhead so that I didn't have to silicone anything and can reverse it down the road.

[medic29]

There is another option, to cut the threaded part of the bulkhead off. I had to do that before when my bulkheads were way too long.

You can get plexi to adhere to glass just fine and would work perfectly in this situation. If in doubt come on over and I can show you several applications where this has been done by myself. If done incorrectly, no it won't adhere very well, but the same goes with trying to adhere glass. It is all about the application rather than making a blanket statement that it won't work. In all cases where I've seen this it has always been operator error, the person didn't apply the silicone to the plexi and glass properly.

[eshook]

Thats not a bad idea. Can I find a flat screw in cap for the bulkhead that will make the seal water tight? If so then that might be the winner.

In my personal experience glass-to-glass using silicone is extremely strong, but glass-to-plexi using silicone (and other adhesives) doesn't work as well. I had external overflow boxes attached to my 29 using this method. One started to slip and spilled water all over my living room :( I very well could have attached it wrong, but I had a *lot* of silicone on and around the attachment area. Is there a technique to apply plexi-to-glass?

[medic29]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13325959#post13325959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by eshook
Thats not a bad idea. Can I find a flat screw in cap for the bulkhead that will make the seal water tight? If so then that might be the winner.

In my personal experience glass-to-glass using silicone is extremely strong, but glass-to-plexi using silicone (and other adhesives) doesn't work as well. I had external overflow boxes attached to my 29 using this method. One started to slip and spilled water all over my living room :( I very well could have attached it wrong, but I had a *lot* of silicone on and around the attachment area. Is there a technique to apply plexi-to-glass?

You have to have the silicone between the plexi-glass and the glass, basically like having a space there and filling it with the silicone. My overflows on my 58 was put on this way. I had to re-do the overflows and had all kinds of trouble getting them off, even when using razor blades. The tanks that I have covered the holes from bulkheads, I used acrylic as well and am unable to get the acrylic off very easy...I'm sure I can get it off, but it is with great difficulty.

As far as sealing the bulkhead, they make threaded PVC plugs.

[fisheyefathead]

So what did you come up with?

[eshook]

So I opted to go to Lowes and have them custom cut my 2 pieces of glass. They have a single thickness, but it is thick enough for my application. The guy had a hard time cutting a 3"x3" and 2 1/4"x2 1/2" piece of glass, but he did it. I was charged ~$2.32 for a 10x12 piece and kept the extra.

With the nano being so small I do not have a lot of room for overlap. This is why I had to keep the pieces reasonably small. There is also a baffle between the 2 holes so a single piece would not have worked.

I looked at the plumbing section and Rick was right. I could have cut the bulkhead and used a threaded plug to plug the hole. I decided against this approach, because I have no intention on plumbing this tank so I might as well seal the hole with glass and keep the 2 bulkheads for other purposes. The cost would have been approximately the same between the two and now I saved myself a few bucks on bulkheads that I can reuse.

I plan on silicon'ing the glass soon and will hopefully have water in the tank by the beginning of next week! I did take pictures of the previous installation and will snap some during the process to see the tiny space and crazy silicone I was dealing with.