# Terrarium Inside of An Aquarium



## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

Hey guys,
I am currently in the process of building a terrarium inside of a jar to close up and place inside of my aquarium. Obviously, the jar will not sink and so I have used my 3D printer and printed out a stand in order to place weights (rocks?) on to counteract the buoyancy force. I am struggling to figure out what I can use that is extremely dense to hold it all down. I am wondering if it is practical to take a block of metal (aluminum, or mild steel?) and coat it in candle wax? I have a bunch of rocks but as they are volcanic rocks, they aren't very dense. I understand that placing metal inside of an aquarium is a very tricky thing and I am curious whether the wax is 1. safe for the fish and will not screw with the water, and 2. whether the wax will be able to coat the metal well enough to keep it from oxidizing. 

If anyone could shed some light on my question, I would be extremely grateful!

If I need to post pictures of what I am doing in order to better explain my question I have no problems doing so.

--Will_1_Am


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I think I know what you want to do, but perhaps share some pictures to confirm 


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

jaysee said:


> I think I know what you want to do, but perhaps share some pictures to confirm
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


Of course! What would you like pictures of? I will be able to take them when I get home in ±3 hours.


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## KapitalJ (Sep 28, 2018)

If you are using steel, use Stainless steel. Also, aluminum is super light and would not help you.


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## aussieJJDude (Jun 9, 2012)

After you add all the substrate to the jar, it will also increase weight. A couple of largish river stones inside the jar would also work well!

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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

Ah, I didnt really think of that! I was just thinking of a bunch of quarter-sized rocks at the bottom of the terrarium, I hadn't considered using larger rocks, thanks for that suggestion!


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

KapitalJ said:


> If you are using steel, use Stainless steel. Also, aluminum is super light and would not help you.


Okay, I understand that I would use stainless steel for the metal, but is it safe for the fish to be around pure paraffin in the form of candle wax? I am considering using this as stainless steel will eventually oxidize but the candle wax should be slow the oxidation process, right?


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

So what exactly are you wanting to do? Place a terrarium below the surface of the water?


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

A cool thing I always wanted to do was put a fish bowl inside of a fish tank, where the bowl would have air in it for a fiddler crab or something. I would have the bowl upside down but at a 45 degree angle. I would silicone the bowl to the tank and place a heavy stone inside. Then I would run an airline into the bowl which would displace the water making most of the bowl full of circulating air as excess air is pushed out from the raised lip of the bowl.
You know what that’s something I might do now that I can only have one tank.... gotta make it cool!


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

Interesting. I would like to see your pix too.

I am thinking stainless steel should not be a problem unless it's a saltwater aquarium. Flatware and cookery is often made of stainless. If so, this would ease some of your worries.

Oh, BTW. Did you know wax is edible and used in some foods to add shine and uniformity? It's true. Think candy. 

I'm thinking wax, unless it flakes into the water, would not be a problem but I don't know the facts

Good luck with your project! 😆


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

Okay, so I am going to attach some photos of both my 3D printed terrarium stand, glass jar, and fish tank. I live in the Netherlands so I don't have a United States quarter for size comparison but the 50 euro cent coin that is in the picture is roughly the same size as a U.S. quarter. I used 0.4mm PLA filament for the 3D print with a 10% infill but I have used a red-hot sewing needle to poke holes in the bottom of the print to allow the water to enter the inside of the print(though, I am doubtful of how successful this actually is going to be). The glass jar is a peanut butter jar that I have built my terrarium inside of already, I still need to paint the plastic cap black to fit with my tank theme(any suggestions for what paint to use? As of now I have no ideas..). If you need clarification or any more information feel free to ask and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Thanks to everyone in the community for being so helpful and knowledgeable with this project, I really appreciate it!


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

I am still getting used to this forum posting thing so apologies if I don't do things correctly. I believe I posted my pictures and the answers to the questions on a second page of the thread? I am unsure of what I did exactly so if you can't find it I guess here is the link...
https://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com...ssion/terrarium-inside-aquarium-706785/page2/

My Apologies!


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

No, you did it right, your pictures are there. My mistake! I am also very new here and am learning how to use it! Thanks for responding to me and also for the link. It looks wonderful! How did you ever think of it and how to construct it? I hope you post pix again when you have it all.finished 😊 Karen


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

Construction Sam said:


> No, you did it right, your pictures are there. My mistake! I am also very new here and am learning how to use it! Thanks for responding to me and also for the link. It looks wonderful! How did you ever think of it and how to construct it? I hope you post pix again when you have it all.finished 😊 Karen


Phew! Glad I'm doing a-okay! Well, I wish I could say that I was the first to make one, but to be completely honest I am doing my own version of something that I saw off of Youtube. The reasons why I thought of making my stand out of 3D printed plastic was that I recently bought my own Ultimaker 2+ which I was looking for something to do with and the fact that I was trying to avoid doing anything to my fish tank that I couldn't undo. That way I could completely change my fish tank to the season or to what I feel like doing with it. In fact, I already have some Christmas decorations in mind that I am hopefully going to be able to make in the CAD (computer-aided design) software (Fusion 360, and then that goes into Ultimaker Cura). I am still learning how to use the software so only time will tell how well I will be able to implement my ideas. :lol:


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

I love it! You are so smart and clever! 

Also wanted to tell you another thing I thought of for the stainless steel. Maybe you could use aquarium sealant. I bought some and it's pretty cheap. I didn't really think of it till this morning. I guess you could just spread it out with your finger and let it dry real good. One of the good things about using that is it won't grow algea and who knows what ever else.

Maybe?

Thanks for responding to me! Have a great day! 😆

Karen


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## Will_1_Am (Sep 16, 2018)

Construction Sam said:


> I love it! You are so smart and clever!
> 
> Also wanted to tell you another thing I thought of for the stainless steel. Maybe you could use aquarium sealant. I bought some and it's pretty cheap. I didn't really think of it till this morning. I guess you could just spread it out with your finger and let it dry real good. One of the good things about using that is it won't grow algea and who knows what ever else.
> 
> ...


That's a wonderful idea! I never considered that. Will I need to worry about it sticking to my stainless steel? I'm planning to order some 316-grade stainless steel from a UK supplier as it has better corrosive resistance than 304-grade steel. Also, do you know if I would be able to buy some aquarium sealant on Amazon or some other website? Any kind you would recommend for my project?


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

Hi! I don't know anything about grade of Steel, but I'm sure you do!

In all truthfulness, I'm not a good one to ask for a referral to excellent product.

The one I have is from DAP and it's the one that the Paint & Glass Company in my town uses. The man who sold it to me also builds aquariums for people. I haven't needed to use it yet, but that's what I know.

It says all purpose adhesive sealant 100% silicone. Forms a strong waterproof seal. In tiny print on the back it says it's safe for aquariums. The color of the tube I have is green

At that store, it was $6.25 for 2.8 oz in a squeeze tube. I think that store is sort of a specialty store, so it's likely you could get it for less than that.

Oh, those are US dollars.

Maybe you should start a new thread and ask the other people if they have a favorite?

Sorry I couldn't be of more help! Karen


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## couger (Jun 4, 2018)

*Couple of thoughts...*

1) aluminum is very toxic to fish
2) pretty sure paraffin is also bad ju ju


I do not have enough signal to view your pics so I maybe totally off but have you considered the other direction...Struts pushing down instead of anchor holding down? Imagine a v with the terrarium as the bottom with two pieces of acrylic (flat or round) VERY WELL attached to its top. Wedging the two pieces under the lip of the aquarium on opposite sides would achieve downward force. Wrap java moss around the struts and tie it on with clear fishing line to make them blend in. If you go side to side with the struts and use a lot of moss you get a living back wall effect. Java moss is a super easy floating plant that removes metals from the aquarium.


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I’m still at a loss as to what’s going inside the terrarium 


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

Jaysee, it's tough to come at the end isn't it? 

Well, go back and read the posts and you will find that the original poster is.making a tank inside a tank!! How clever! Check out the pix and talk to OP. Super fun stuff! Glad you joined the conversation! 😁


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## couger (Jun 4, 2018)

*A bit more info*

Here is one example of rod
https://www.acmeplastics.com/cut-to-size-clear-acrylic-rod


You can also boil river rock.


Or get your freak completely on and glue together a hamster run and drop a dragon on one end. Oh wait that is me...for my Pom Poms


How big is the critter?


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Construction Sam said:


> Jaysee, it's tough to come at the end isn't it?
> 
> Well, go back and read the posts and you will find that the original poster is.making a tank inside a tank!! How clever! Check out the pix and talk to OP. Super fun stuff! Glad you joined the conversation! 😁




I was post #2 and posted several times throughout this thread...
I’m sure you didn’t mean it as such but your assumption that I haven’t read anything and don’t know what’s going on could be taken as insulting.

I asked what was going inside the terrarium - didn’t see that stated anywhere by the OP.


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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

Jasee, post number 2, I'm sorry you were offended by my comment. All I meant by it was if a person can read all the comments, they would know everything and certainly way better than I could explain it to another.

I didn't know you were following the thread. I'm very sorry I hurt your feelings. I was just trying to be helpful.

But rest assured, I will never encourage a person to review the previous comments again.

Warmest regards Karen


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Construction Sam said:


> Jasee, post number 2, I'm sorry you were offended by my comment. All I meant by it was if a person can read all the comments, they would know everything and certainly way better than I could explain it to another.
> 
> I didn't know you were following the thread. I'm very sorry I hurt your feelings. I was just trying to be helpful.
> 
> ...




Karen you could never hurt my feelings 



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## Construction Sam (Sep 22, 2018)

😆 ok, I'm glad! I love that we can all learn from each other and I really enjoy reading your posts 😊


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## couger (Jun 4, 2018)

This guy used a heavy jar...


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