Starting A New Project

[blinky000]

I've been debating doing something interesting with my axolotl tank and until recently I hadn't quite decided what. Well, I had a bit of a eureka moment earlier when the base of my old tank broke. It's an interesting shape, so I figured I could use the bits of glass, stick them to the back of the tank, put a mesh over it and grow some moss to create a natural looking cave.
Here's the tank as it is now:

Here's the project tank that will be going to pieces with the bits that I'm going to save marked in red:

And one with the mesh over the top. It makes for a much more natural shape and it's something for the moss to hold onto:

I'm also debating maybe HC instead of the moss but I'm not sure how I'd attach it. The axolotls would probably turf it up before it had a chance to grow in. I'd love to make the tank multi levelled for them again. They seem bored with nothing to explore.

I'll keep updating this topic as I go along and let you know if it works. And if not, at least I made a valiant effort to recycle Any comments and suggestions are of course welcome!

 

[daleboy]

Thats exactly the same tank I had that developed a leak and I chopped it up to make a fry tank lol.
Should look good

 

[blinky000]

Ah, cool Did you take it apart just using a blade? It went so smoothly on one join but in the next one, it snapped the blade in half

 

[daleboy]

Yes I used one of the snap off type blades, Did snap a few times though.
I cracked one corner of a piece when I got too carried away but still had plenty of glass left

Axolotl are cool.... maybe one day.

 

[blinky000]

I'm not sure my fingers can take much more abuse today so I'll leave it at one for now. That's good enough for one night! I finally got a good technique going. As soon as the blade is down a little bit, get a flat head screwdriver, wedge it in there and keep moving it down as you go

 

[blinky000]

The sealant on the glass is now in the process of drying upstairs and I've reinforced it with another piece of glass in the middle. I've sewn all the mesh together with fishing line and cut it to size and now I'm just waiting on the xmas moss to arrive and put it all together

I feel the need to apologise for my carpet. It was here when we moved in...

 

[hanny93]

THATS MY OLD CARPET!!

haha looks good bet they'll love it especially if they used to have multi levelled!!

 

[blinky000]

After HOURS of fiddly work, I finally got all the moss stitched in. The mesh is sitting in the tank tonight before it finally all gets put together tomorrow!

 

[blinky000]

Ok, so I tied some more fishing line along the edges of the mesh, sellotaped it in place while the blob of glue dried like so:

Now the glue has dried, I've taken the tape off and it's sitting in the tank until water change day so when the water level's low enough, I can dry the back wall and stick it on! It's being propped up by some bits of driftwood in the meantime and the girls are already getting some good use out of it