# DIY Acrylic 15Gal With Dual Aqua-Bridge



## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

Just thought I'd see what you guys think of my first attempts at a DIY Acrylic Tank.

It consists of two 1ft Cube Tanks joined by two 1 1/2" Diameter Aquabridges. Should be about 15 Gal.

Just waiting for the acrylic "glue" to set then I'm going to water test it tomorrow, fingers crossed!!!! :shock:


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## KPainter (Jun 12, 2012)

What are you going to put in there? I've never seen anything like it!


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

KPainter said:


> What are you going to put in there? I've never seen anything like it!


Got another "normal" tank with some breeding Black Bar Endler Guppies and some Red Cherry Shrimp so going to move some of them in to see how they like it, and maybe add a Mystery Snail. 

Be interesting to see if they'll all use the bridges!?


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## KPainter (Jun 12, 2012)

Me too!


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

I was thinking of having sand on one side as substrate and gravel on the other, maybe adding a couple of Peppered Cory's and seeing if they spend most of their time in the sand side as I've read that they prefer sand to gravel?


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## KPainter (Jun 12, 2012)

Cories definitely prefer sand. Mine sift it through their gills constantly and snuffle around in it. Quite a sight to watch.


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

I'm sure you're right.
I have Corys in my big tank and I have a split of 4/5ths sand to 1/5th gravel substrate and they seem to spend a fair bit of time on the gravel but they do seem to prefer the sand though. I also have a pair in a smaller tank that has gravel only and are happy enough to breed!


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

Quick update!

Water test today, had small "pinprick" leak in the joint between the lower bridge and one of the tanks.
Drained the water, (holds 50L or 13G by the way), dried it off and re-sealed. Just have to wait to re-test tomorrow. Fingers crossed!


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

My son owns a small business here in Australia, that cuts and etches, among other things, acrylic.
So we designed the tank and laser cut the acrylic to suit. He's only just started really and he's still trying different things to see what sells etc. 

I suggested he may be able to make and sell these small, custom made nano tanks, but he thinks he'd have to sell this one for example for about $250-$300 AUD and he believes people wouldn't pay it! 

I said I've seen guys pay 100 bucks plus for a nice piece of driftwood for their tank, so who knows!

We might have to make a few more variations, then maybe visit a few LFS's and see if they might be interested in promoting them?
I had an idea to, maybe do basically the same as we've done here, but create a tank in the middle so that the tubes go "through" from the tanks either side,(if that makes sense?) and the middle tank could house a nice betta? Would be cool to see the fish swim from one side to the other safe and sound. Perhaps a bit cruel on the Betta though, he might get a bit agitated? 
What do you guys think, cost-wise and any other ideas for variations on the Nano Tank? :-D


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

Visited my LFS and bought some Quartz Sand, 5kg of predominantly white with black flecks for the left hand tank and 5kg of predominantly black with white flecks for the left.
After a thorough rinsing of both I put them in the respective tanks and gently filled with water, got a bit of clouding (as seen in the first picture).

After a couple of hours the water is clearing nicely, (see 2nd picture).

I'm running an Aqua One 101F Internal Filter in each tank, running with media taken from existing mature tank filters, and at the moment I've got a 125 watt Jaeger heater in one tank (hoping this is sufficient to heat both tanks). The light is just temporary until I decide what I want to use. I've turned it off in the last picture to show the Aquabridges more clearly. (see 3rd picture).

I'm going to experiment with different combinations of rocks, driftwood and Plants tomorrow to see what I like the look of most.


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## Aurie (Jun 22, 2012)

If I was there I'd buy one, at the buddy rate of course


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

*Aquabridge Tank, first attempt at Aquascaping.*

I've tried to make two separate style tanks but with common elements, obviously one light and one dark, as I'm interested to see the way the fish look in each environment.

(The water still hadn't quite cleared after planting!)

I'd welcome any comments and suggestions.

Thanks


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## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

OMG I'd buy one of those for sure!! Maybe an even crazier larger one. When a tank is that cool I don't think I'd worry about the cost too much. I would do drastic themes like different countrys or something. Or asian and caribbean themes....I would pick two areas of the world for themes that people would think I was nuts haha. Barren desert then thick magical overgrown gardens. Are the fish in there yet?


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## kop71 (Jun 20, 2013)

wow impressive i can see i got alot to learn and this seems the place to do it


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

kop71 said:


> wow impressive i can see i got alot to learn and this seems the place to do it


Yeah some great advice on here!

I've now transferred my Endlers, RCS, a small Albino Bristlenose and a couple of Mystery Snails.
They've settled in great and are constantly using the Aquabridges, even the snails! 

I managed to get a video, a bit shaky sorry, let me know what you guys think?

Dual Aquabridge Aquarium - YouTube


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

*Quick Update*

Added a new light to the tank, its a 90cm T5 High Output 78Watt with a blue and white tube.

I think it does the job!


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## phiza (Mar 16, 2013)

*DIY Aquabridge Another Update*

So another update on my DIY Aquabridge.

The light was a tad too powerful for my tank, and despite reducing the amount of time the light was switched on I ended up getting a bit of an algae problem. Well to be honest a lot of an algae problem!! :shock:
So I decided to strip the tank and start from fresh.
This is the new look tank, to help with the light issue I removed one of the tubes and only run it for 5 hours a day.
I also removed all the original stones and went with just live plants and the red gum drift wood.
Also added a bubbler in each to increase oxygen levels.
I've attached some photos and a video, sorry about the poor quality of both! :-D
Comments welcome!

Aquabridge - YouTube


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## Aurie (Jun 22, 2012)

the bulb you had before looks like an atnic bulb. Not a plant bulb. Plants can't use that light spectrum. That light spectrum us for corals and salt water (if I'm right). It'd be a 10,000 kelvin bulb. Plants like a 6700 kelvin bulb. I used to use 2700 warm bulbs on my tank before knew any better and that was an algae farm. Algae doesn't care about light spectrum as much as plants.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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