Combining Two Tanks.

[Rynoah]

Recently, I found a five-gallon tank that I thought had been thrown out. It was holed up in my closet, looking rather scared for its life.

Anyway, I compared it to the current five-gallon tank that I own and realized that they're both the same width and height. Since I own a single three-spot gourami, I want to combine the two tanks to give him a little more room. The problem is that the newer one is acrylic and the older one is what seems to be plexi-glass or glass. Would it still be a good idea to connect them, and would it even be helpful to the gourami in the first place (should the tank be made deeper as opposed to wider)?

Thank you for your time!

 

[Rynoah]

Wow. Those look incredible! A little ambitious for me, though. I'm not sure I could pull it off, but it's a great project to plan for.

 

[windsor-aquatic]

The major difficulty you will encounter is the fact that glass and acrylic require different bonding techniques, and I am not aware of one product that will do both. Conventional silicone will not form a suitable bond, one that will hold up under sustained water pressure.

 

[nativecollector]

we are talking 5 gallon tanks here silicone/aquarium sealer will work just fine. but how do you want to connect the two is more the question, are you removing the two ends and putting the two tanks together or are you cutting holes in the side of the tank and putting in a peice of pvc pipe. I think that by the time you went through all the trouble it would be cheaper to go buy a bare 10 gallon tank and move all your stuff into that.

 

[Rynoah]

Actually, I was just gonna remove the ends and combine them. I figured that a pipe would be too much hassle.

 

[dylema]

Just My two cents, but I think a short fish highway just linking the two ends would be less hastle that cutting the ends out of the tanks and re-joining them. You might even be able to find a really big U-bend at a plumbing suplier and that would be about all you would need. Otherwise just a couple of 90 degree bends and a little bit of piping would do the trick. You could pipe the output from the filter into the other tank so you get some water flow through the highway too.

 

[BWBettas]

The question is! you'll go to all that trouble making a highway... and he may not even use it!!...

LOL jus my twenty seven pennies

Bret

 

[Rynoah]

Well, he's a three-spot gourami, so he's gonna get to be at least six inches sometime down the road. That's why I'm concerned with the size of the tank (and, in the case of a fish highway, the size of the piping). Would a gourami be happy with a fish highway? I'm not concerned about whether or not he'd use it, because once he gets over his shyness, he's a very ambitious and curious fish.

 

[dylema]

I don't mean to be picky but I can see problems with cutting the ends out of two tanks and re-joining them. Unless the join is braced with something I can see the water pushing the glass out and possibly breaking the seal ending in disaster. I think you would need to put another sheet of glass on the outside over the join which would look a bit messy and be getting expensive.

I think that by the time you went through all the trouble it would be cheaper to go buy a bare 10 gallon tank and move all your stuff into that.

I agree^^^ plus when your gourami is six inches you might want a bigger tank than the 10g proposed joined tanks anyway.

Sorry to rain on your parade.

 

[Rynoah]

It's not a problem. I'd rather have an idea shot down now than go through with it and have it fall apart later. I'll just use the extra tank for a betta or something. Thank you all very much for the input!

 

[madmom]

Rynoah
I guess I just have too much time on my hands. I found your post 2 weeks ago and it interested me. I started searching the web and found something similar to fishkiller nomore's design

http/www.bio-elite.com/waterbridge.htm
looked interesting

 

[samyboy]

well im off to build a fish highway!!!!!!!!!! fish highway

just a word of warning make shure its fully braced where the join is thats alot of water its going to be holding back and in the long run buying a 10g would be much simpler although theres no fun in that

 

[pto]

I'm excited, take pictures

 

[Harif87]

well im off to build a fish highway!!!!!!!!!! fish highway

just a word of warning make shure its fully braced where the join is thats alot of water its going to be holding back and in the long run buying a 10g would be much simpler although theres no fun in that

A 10 gallong isnt enough for blue gouramis, they need at least a 20 gallon tank. I got me a pair, and if im not mistaken they only grow to be about 4 inches so you dont need to plan more than that.

Another thing. I dont think a fish highway would suit a fish who needs a bigger tank. they need the 3 dimentional room not just added figures that come out to be similar to the number they require. They need room for LIFE. Its like saying, why not build a really long tank thats 2 inches high and 20 feet long, after all thats about 10 gallons......

Although a fish higway would be pretty sweet its not a way to make up for minimum tank requirements.

 

[nathan01]

hi maybe you should bridge them there are pages oh how to somewhere on this site