Sponge Divider?

[Shred]

I've been trying to think of ways I could divide my shrimp tanks in two. Obviously the divider would need to be very fine so that shrimplets could not get through, but it also needs to allow water to flow through it. I thought about getting acrylic, perspex or pvc and using it as a sort of frame, and then putting netting in the middle "window". But I can't seem to find any suitable materials, and even if I did I don't have any means to cut it accuratly, and I'm not sure how I would get it to stay in place.

So how about a sponge divider, it's fine enough, and if I cut it just oversized hopefully I would be able to just jam it in place. I'm just a bit worried about the flow, don't know if the water would go through it well enough! Any ideas?

 

[aly_starh]

You can use a craft grid, type it in google, It gives a good filter flow and the shrimp will not be able to get through.


Off topic- how did you do that woth your signature, the betta on the side?

 

[Shred]

I'm talking about RCS shrimplets, they're about 0.5cm when born, fairly sure they would get through that

Regarding my signature, just highlight the image code and press the "align right" button

like this.​

Or if you mean the transparency, I used photoshop.

 

[aly_starh]

oh...lol.. i dont know then. If you use the sponge attach a spray bar to your filter, so the new clean water can get around easily.

Siggy- ok thanks

 

[Shred]

Ah yes thats a good idea can't believe I didn't think of that... They're only small tanks so I've just got small internal pump, but Im sure I could attach an airline tube or something similar to it and put the out-take on the other side of the tank - forcing the water through the sponge.

 

[Shred]

Just to update this, incase anyone cares or finds this thread in the future, I managed to divide my tank sort of successfully yesterday. I bought a large pond filter sponge sheet about 2" thick, and cut it to size with a sharp fillet knife. I then siliconed an airline tube to the outtake of the internal filter and let it dry for 48 hours. Then, with the help of a chopstick, I threaded the airline through a hole in the sponge and set it all up. And to my suprise it worked perfectly! (nothing I do ever seems to go to plan)

However, I woke up this morning to find that the silicone has come loose and the airline is no longer attached to the filter. I guess I'm going to have to find a better way to attach it.

 

[mini_matt]

awesome glad it worked if only for a while, when I was doing this I pushed one of those blue airline joiners into theairline which stretched it slightley and it fit snugley in the output, might be worth getting some slightley bigger tube to go over the output instead of in it or if its close try putting the airline in boiling water then stretch it over

 

[Shred]

Yea I've tried stretching it over by heating it up etc but its just slightly too small! Gunna take a trip to the lfs asap and see if they have any bigger tubing.

 

[Shred]

I've attached it properly now and had it up and running for a week or so, grabbed a couple of the best coloured shrimp and put them in one half of the tank and the rest in the other half, as I had planned. However now I've just noticed that all the "good" shrimp have died... which I find a bit strange. The only difference in the two sides is the ammount of water flow, really don't understand why they have died.