Frankensteining a tank...

[Seisage]

So, I'm in a somewhat interesting position. Hopefully I'll be able to get some feedback on a potential solution I've come up with.

• I'd like one or two white's tree frogs
• I have a ~25gal aquarium (30"Lx12"Wx15"H) — this could potentially be suitable for one frog, but bigger is better, and it'd be nice to be able to have two
• These tree frogs can get large (5") and are arboreal, so height is preferred. As such, I'd love to have a tank with more than 15" of vertical space (it'd be even less once I add 2-3" of substrate)
• I live in a remote area with limited access to glass in general, let alone the 1/4" glass necessary to build a tank. Trust me, I've looked
• Glass is expensive in my area, especially 1/4" glass — I'd be looking at ~$200USD at least for just a partial tank build. Otherwise, yes, I'd vastly prefer to just build a tank from scratch
• Theoretically, I could buy a brand new, appropriately-sized terrarium, but they're also pricey and it wouldn't fit on my stand anyway

Therefore, I'd prefer to attempt modifying my current tank.

• My current tank is built from 1/4" glass
• I plan on building sliding glass doors for easier cleaning and feeding access — these can/will be made of 1/8" glass, which I've already purchased
• Building the space for the doors requires removing the front pane of the tank and cutting it down — I will save a 4" tall piece and replace it at the bottom to hold substrate and a bit of water

Now, on to the true Frankensteining. This is where I would really like input.

• I'll have a decent chunk of leftover 1/4" glass from cutting the front pane, which will be replaced by the 1/8" glass doors
• I could cut down that leftover chunk into pieces that could be siliconed to the remaining perimeter of the tank to add ~4" of height to the tank
• This portion of the tank will NOT be heavily load-bearing — the most it'd need to hold is some foam, some light sticks/bark/moss, and a lightweight screen top
• I would add silicone seals to help support the new seams and there's the potential for plastic tank frames or a built-in screen top to support the overall structure as well, depending on how I choose to build things
• I don't care about looks — the seams/seals would be covered in decor on the inside and I could use black paper to hide things on the outside

Here's a diagram to hopefully illustrate what I mean. The yellow shading is 1/4" glass from the original front pane, green shading is the new 1/8" glass doors, the dark red lines are cuts, and the blue lines would be the new seams where the glass is added.

Would it be possible to accomplish this? If so, what would be the best way to go about joining the glass together? I have 100% silicone that I could use, but I could go and get a different adhesive if necessary, as long as it's animal-safe once cured.

 

[Magnum Man]

What are you using for tracks to hold your sliding glass doors??? I assume you have some double track channels???

 

[Seisage]

What are you using for tracks to hold your sliding glass doors??? I assume you have some double track channels???

Yes. I didn't include them because I didn't want to complicate the diagram. I will have small strips of glass on which I'll silicone plastic E-channels for the doors. However, I'm asking about the structural integrity of siliconing the glass pieces together to add height to the tank.

 

[Magnum Man]

Silicone, holds together some pretty big tanks… as long as there is enough contact surface, and it’s clean enough, it will be great… your E channels could be a concern, silicone sticks great to clean glass, but doesn’t stick as well to most plastics… to get enough purchase surface might be challenging for your door tracks, but I’m confident, if all the glass is clean and dry, and you could spread about a 1/2 inch of silicone, it will hold together fine once cured

 

[Seisage]

Silicone, holds together some pretty big tanks… as long as there is enough contact surface, and it’s clean enough, it will be great… your E channels could be a concern, silicone sticks great to clean glass, but doesn’t stick as well to most plastics… to get enough purchase surface might be challenging for your door tracks, but I’m confident, if all the glass is clean and dry, and you could spread about a 1/2 inch of silicone, it will hold together fine once cured

Great, thank you. And yes, I've definitely heard of the challenges with silicone adhering to plastics... I've seen people recommend really roughing up the bottom surface of the tracks with sandpaper to get more surface area for the silicone to hold onto. I could possibly also use super glue, since it can be used to bond glass to plastic. It's not permanent either, but may be better than silicone in this case.
Edit: or I could get a double-sided adhesive tape

 

[Ceez]

I want to see when it's done Seisage. It's pretty neat what you're doing and personally I don't have the confidence myself to pull soemthing off like that so I'm living vicariously through you! Very cool

 

[Seisage]

I want to see when it's done Seisage. It's pretty neat what you're doing and personally I don't have the confidence myself to pull soemthing off like that so I'm living vicariously through you! Very cool

Thank you! I have no experience with tank construction, so we'll see how this goes It'll be a learning experience for sure... But I have hope for it! Lots of patience and lots of youtube tutorials

 

[Seisage]

Good news! I think I won't have to attempt frankensteining after all.

I called a glass shop out in the city and got a quote from them. 1/4" glass for the entire build (except the doors) will come out to less than $60
It's obviously more expensive than using the materials I already have, but it's way cheaper than I was expecting and it would give me so much peace of mind in terms of construction stability. Building the tank from scratch using full, solid pieces will honestly be so much easier than trying to partially dismantle/cut down the current tank and stitching pieces together with silicone. Plus, the current tank actually has a lot of scratches in the glass...

It'll be a long drive, but I have other errands to do in the city anyway, so I think it'll work out perfectly

 

[Ceez]

I just found this 10g for sale for $35 here locally. Idk if this is helpful for your design purposes but I thought of you when I came across it.

 

[Seisage]

I just found this 10g for sale for $35 here locally. Idk if this is helpful for your design purposes but I thought of you when I came across it.


View attachment 340167View attachment 340168

Thank you, this is definitely interesting. I had considered swinging doors with hinges instead of sliding doors, but wasn't sure about being able to install a proper latching mechanism... Looks like this person used magnets, which is pretty handy. I might have to look into some hinges and magnetic latches. May be cheaper than the plastic tracks for the sliding doors

Edit: Apparently silicone actually sticks to metal! So, getting metal hinges and magnetic latches could end up being a sturdier installation on the glass than the plastic tracks

Edit 2: Just kidding. After doing some research, hinges may end up being trickier than the sliding doors. Metal hinges meant for glass doors often require you to bore holes in the glass, which I don't have the tools to do. The ones that just clamp down on the glass can usually only accommodate pretty thick glass (e.g. shower doors) and are more expensive. Plus, a lot of them leave gaps between the door and wall, meaning I'd have to create a seal to keep feeder insects from escaping... sigh. Thankfully, it actually looks like original gorilla glue is useful for bonding glass to plastic and is often used for vivariums, so I think I'm back to sliding doors, even though hinged doors would probably look way snazzier.