DYI Tank Divider

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nzafi

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2008
2,185
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USA
Guys -

I am looking to build a sturdy tank divider that is not hideous. It will be going into a 75 gallon tank and will be separate 2 piranha. My plan is to do the following:
- Purchase black acrylic and drill holes into it
- Leverage suction cups to hold the divider in place

The plan is to drill holes and use suction cups like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6BBqWhciP4

My questions are as follows:
1) How thick does the acrylic need to be?
2) What size holes and how many should I make? The piranhas are over 4in so the holes can be a bit bigger.
3) Really worried about maintaining proper flow. I am using a FX5 and hydor 1300 on the tank. Really curious to the answer for question 2 to help me determine how many holes I need to make.

Btw, I am using black acrylic because I am trying to limit how much the piranhas can see of each other in order to limit stress. For this reason I am in favor for doing lots of 1/4in holes versus fewer 1/2in holes.

Any feedback is welcome!
 
Ur on the right track. I usually use egg crate from hardware stores. Don't drill the holes too close to each other because it will cause it to be fragile or east to break through. Depending how big and strong these guys are I say bigger hole and less amount. Hope this help. Good luck.


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Just made one for my 75g. I was able to purchase a 18"x24"piece of acrylic from home depot for $9 its .09" thick. I had to use a jigsaw to cut the top to fit the lip of the brace on top and drilled holes slowly with a regular drill bit and it worked great. I have it wedged in so the suction cups aren't needed but ordered some anyways on ebay for $2. I figured why not. Going to use this method from now on for a nice cheap tank divider. Also the Acrylic came with a covering so it wouldn't scratch. Leave this on while you drill to help it not crack I only had a few very small cracks in my holes. Slow and steady wins the race.
 
Use a masonry bit to "drill" thin acrylic, it melts through with no risk of cracking. Once the bit heats up drilling is very speedy.
 
I once used a black plastic grate that came with this air filter that you can get at Home Depot. The black grate worked fine for a few days in till I took it down in that the fish didn't need it anymore.
 
I just use egg crate depending on if the fish is big enough to not be able to fit through it
 
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