Hi all,
New to the forums, and relatively new to the hobby. I've had smaller tanks my whole life, and I'm taking my first foray into the DIY tank modding world.
I've got a 30 gallon hex tank. I'm currently resealing the whole thing. I just etched a design in to the mirrored back (squid attacking a submarine- which is awesome if I do say so myself). I'm going generally for a steampunk theme.
In that vein, I would really like to add a spigot (like what you hook a garden hose to) to the bottom of the tank. I think it would look awesome and could potentially be helpful for water changes.
So the issues that I can think of so far- and I really would love to hear any other problems that you guys can think of in addition to solutions to these.
1) I've got to drill the tank. I've read enough online at this point that I'm willing to give that a shot. Diamond bit, go slow, keep it wet while you drill. Glass isn't tempered. So I feel okay about that (who's kidding, slightly terrified still, but willing to try it).
2) The spigot that I want is brass- which I'm going to assume is not appropriate to actually touch the water from tank (hard water issues, etc). So I need a plastic valve or something similar inbetween the fish and the spigot.
3) Clearly this needs to be sealed well, flanged, etc.
4) There needs to be some sort of drain/mesh-like thing on the inside so fish do not get sucked into the pipes. I'm not planning on having any really small fish, so this may be a non issue.
Any thoughts, suggestions, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated. My husband's helpful thoughts so far are "don't do it" and "you are insane and will flood our apartment". So I figure we can only get more positive from there.
Thanks!
Carrie
New to the forums, and relatively new to the hobby. I've had smaller tanks my whole life, and I'm taking my first foray into the DIY tank modding world.
I've got a 30 gallon hex tank. I'm currently resealing the whole thing. I just etched a design in to the mirrored back (squid attacking a submarine- which is awesome if I do say so myself). I'm going generally for a steampunk theme.
In that vein, I would really like to add a spigot (like what you hook a garden hose to) to the bottom of the tank. I think it would look awesome and could potentially be helpful for water changes.
So the issues that I can think of so far- and I really would love to hear any other problems that you guys can think of in addition to solutions to these.
1) I've got to drill the tank. I've read enough online at this point that I'm willing to give that a shot. Diamond bit, go slow, keep it wet while you drill. Glass isn't tempered. So I feel okay about that (who's kidding, slightly terrified still, but willing to try it).
2) The spigot that I want is brass- which I'm going to assume is not appropriate to actually touch the water from tank (hard water issues, etc). So I need a plastic valve or something similar inbetween the fish and the spigot.
3) Clearly this needs to be sealed well, flanged, etc.
4) There needs to be some sort of drain/mesh-like thing on the inside so fish do not get sucked into the pipes. I'm not planning on having any really small fish, so this may be a non issue.
Any thoughts, suggestions, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated. My husband's helpful thoughts so far are "don't do it" and "you are insane and will flood our apartment". So I figure we can only get more positive from there.
Thanks!
Carrie
