VickiandKev
Fishaholic
I'm currently in the process of costing up and planning a full breeding setup of plywood tanks with front viewing windows. As these are for plecos of varying sizes (and chewing ability 
) I'm going to be making some fake backgrounds, and sidegrounds lol - basically there's going to be a fake concrete-coated scape of some description on every bit of exposed plywood as this should take the brunt of the plec's rasping and prevent them from breaking the waterproof seal on the plywood itself.
This obviously creates a few problems of it's own - firstly is where and how to attach a heater. I was considering leaving a gap in the fake stonework and applying perhaps a length of acrylic to suction the heater, this would mean the heater is sat back into the background though.
My concerns with this idea are water flow over the heater might be reduced meaning the tank isn't well heated, and that the polystyrene background (although it will be coated with about 6 layers or so of concrete) might melt or something if it's exposed to that amount of heat.
Other options I've thought of are installing a pair of plastic 'hoops' into the background before coating the lot with concrete which will stick out into the tank and the heater can be installed into these. I'm already considering making some heater guards out of black plastic tubing as it is so this may go some way to protecting the background from the heat.
I have no idea what to settle on though - obviously it drastically affects the construction process, it's not like a modification I can easily do after the build so I need to decide.
Which is best - or does anyone have any much better ideas?
The only bare bit of glass will be the front viewing window and I REALLY don't want a heater across it!!
Oh, just though of another - as these tanks are only 12" high, I suppose I could fashion some sort of bracket to hook over the top rim and go down into the tank to hold the heater - this could get very complicated though ... when I'm sure there's a simple solution.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I know you guys are all full of brilliant ideas for dilemnas like this
) I'm going to be making some fake backgrounds, and sidegrounds lol - basically there's going to be a fake concrete-coated scape of some description on every bit of exposed plywood as this should take the brunt of the plec's rasping and prevent them from breaking the waterproof seal on the plywood itself.This obviously creates a few problems of it's own - firstly is where and how to attach a heater. I was considering leaving a gap in the fake stonework and applying perhaps a length of acrylic to suction the heater, this would mean the heater is sat back into the background though.
My concerns with this idea are water flow over the heater might be reduced meaning the tank isn't well heated, and that the polystyrene background (although it will be coated with about 6 layers or so of concrete) might melt or something if it's exposed to that amount of heat.
Other options I've thought of are installing a pair of plastic 'hoops' into the background before coating the lot with concrete which will stick out into the tank and the heater can be installed into these. I'm already considering making some heater guards out of black plastic tubing as it is so this may go some way to protecting the background from the heat.
I have no idea what to settle on though - obviously it drastically affects the construction process, it's not like a modification I can easily do after the build so I need to decide.
Which is best - or does anyone have any much better ideas?
The only bare bit of glass will be the front viewing window and I REALLY don't want a heater across it!!
Oh, just though of another - as these tanks are only 12" high, I suppose I could fashion some sort of bracket to hook over the top rim and go down into the tank to hold the heater - this could get very complicated though ... when I'm sure there's a simple solution.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I know you guys are all full of brilliant ideas for dilemnas like this
