tank dividers (removable)

[helen2289]

I am wanting to make some tank dividers that are removable. i have been reading up on posts about this and i like the idea using air hose around the outside to make a seal.

does this work?

is there a better way to do it?

and does anyone have any photos of ones that they have made?

[ryanjury]

Yeah you can use the airline hose or garden hose around the edges to roughly seal it.. If you do this and leave a gap with gravel underneith you can run a canaster filter through the tank and filter/heat the whole thing, you need to have that water flow through the tank to heat them all. I have done it don't have any pics though sorry. Problems I have with it is the fish can still find little gaps especially little babies. It is also hard to get the dividers to stay up (I have used rocks and suction cups etc) especially with the water flowing through them all.

Other option is to seal the dividers in which I have done to an old tank and cut the corners off the dividers with fly screen over the holes.. It basically ruins a tank for display purposes but it is 100% and the fish cant get through the dividers, well the african fry that I keep cant anyway.

[lmsmith]

I was going to do removable dividers with airline to seal around the edges, and as far as I could tell with all my testing, cutting a big hole out of the middle and putting flyscreen in the middle (silicone it on each side so you have 2 layers) works pretty well.

Sorry, I don't have pics as the tank is now full of angelfish babies

[TM]

how often were you planning on taking them out? You could just put a small drop of silicone in each top corner and then cut it out when you wanted it gone.

[Spink]

I have a 4 foot tank that I was setting up for breeding, and wanted removable dividers too.

You can buy commercially made ones, but they weren't the right size for my tank, so I made some from Polygal (plastic conservatory roofing product) ones.

I put them in and it was working fine until I went and had a look at my tank one morning a few weeks ago....

I noticed all my baby mollies were in with the guppies, my catfish were all over the place, and even my largest female guppy was at the complete wrong end of the tank.

What happened?

The dividers I had used caused too much pressure on the front and back of the tank, and the pressure caused the brace along the top middle of the tank to pop off

My front and back glass panes were bowed, but luckily I got to them before they cracked. Mad rush to empty the tank and rehome all my fish, but I got it sorted, now I'm just waiting for the glue to cure before trying again.

Just a word to the wise - be careful and make sure your tank is strong enough to stand up to the dividers you choose to use.

[mickey_1975]

Heres another idea I came up with. Use baking sheets from the warehouse and the plastic ends of folders. To hold in place use a paper clip at the top. It resembles the ones you can buy but a 10th of the price.

[smidey]

i needed one in a hurry so made it from a wire coat hanger & the netting material used for vales etc. I bent the coat hanger to the tank size & cut a strip of filter wool to seal between the wire & the glass. Worked well.