Seeing as I think the glass in my 4' tank is too thin for it to be completely full, I'm thinking I'll only half-fill it (as all good turtle tanks should be! :lol:), and have a sort-of terrarium effect going on...

Any suggestions people? I was thinking of having the ledge planted, so some plants could trail into the water....

Maybe I could have a solitary eel or something in the water, just to keep things interesting

Why not creat a lake effect at one and and a land ing at the other and put a school of mountain minnows in it, and with having the land also you could have frogs.

B

Not so keen on frogs... I don't have a cover for the tank, so knowing my luck, the frogs'd all escape, and my cats would eat them!!! :oops:

I was thinking more along the lines of a lungfish, or maybe a bichir..

How thick is the glass and how tall, from what i hear there should be no problem filling the tank up as all a turtle tank is, is a standard fish tank with a shelf.

hmmm, maybe not such a good idea for the bichir, you would prob find that it wouldnt use the ledge, and you would need tight fitting lids, cause these guys are escape artists.

What about mud skippers? dont know to much about those though.

You could get some salamanders, they're amphibious.

How would a bichir get out though? The ledge is only halfway up the tank, so it'd have another foot to climb!!

I thought about salamanders, but they're tiny, aren't they? And they'd be dwarfed by a 48"x24"x24" tank!! :lol:

And the glass is only about 6mm thick... Using Warren's glass-thickness calculator thingamejig, the glass is too thin My boyfriend worked it out, 'cause he does mathematics-type stuff at Uni, and my brain melts when I see an equation! :oops:

Uh...how can glass be too thin? Was the tank made at a shop as opposed to being bought at a store?

How about brackish water with overhanging grassy plants and a couple archers? That way you can get some flies from the fish store(Make sure they can't get out) and the archers will have to shoot their lunch off the plants?

Bichir are good swimmers and good jumpers, it wouldnt need the ledge to get out it would prob just jump straight out, if you got some lids made up it would be fine, but if it was me i would still tape up around any filter pipes that go through the lids.

I really like ira's idea, that would be cool.

I would love to do that.

hmmmmm where could I put that tank and what can I sell to buy the archer fish.

B

Glass comes in different thicknesses Caper. A bigger tank needs thicker glass. 6mm glass is fine for smaller tanks but it needs to be 10mm thick for the larger ones, otherwise the pressure of all the water might break the glass

Thats the limit of my technical knowledge so don't ask me how big is a small tank and how large is a big one .............. :lol: :lol:

Cheers

Jude

6mm thick glass is quite adequate for 4ft tanks. You will find that even 5ft tanks with the appropriate bracing are quite common. My 4ft tank is made from 6mm glass and has only a single brace on the top and is filled to within 40mm from the top and I have never had any problems even with the recent earthquakes here. I've had the tank for over 10 years and have only had to remove the old Silicon and renew it. If you are worried about the tank bowing (assuming it already has some bracing) you can always add more bracing. I have made smaller 3ft tanks from 5mm glass with one 75mm brace in the centre and never had a problem. Providing it is already braced or you put braces in place ( a single 150mm wide in the centre or two 75mm is quite adequate) you will have no problems.

Regards Gordon

Yeah one of my 4ft's has 6mm glass and one brace, haven't had any problems with it either.

Gunstack said:

6mm thick glass is quite adequate for 4ft tanks

For "Standard Four footers .. yes... but

Aqua said:

And they'd be dwarfed by a 48"x24"x24" tank!!

A tank "this" deep would need to be more than 6mm.

Bill

But, how high is the top? Height is just as important as length. A short one, maybe 300-450mm will be ok with 6mm.

it's 48" side to side, 24" top to bottom & 24" back to front.

NO bracing, it's an old turtle tank.

Just for reference, I saw a tank at Port Nicholson glass that was about 3feet long by 2feet tall made of 6mm glass. The reason it was there? A section around 1 foot tall by 2 feet long blew out of the from panel one day because it had a safety factor of something like 1.00 and someone walked past the tank a little roughly I guess.

Excellent - I'll go with the half-full approach then!

Does anybody think Polypterus' would be able to get out of the tank if they've got 1' to go to get to the top of it?? :lol:

Trust me, it will. Not worth the risk id say especially for the $.

Definately go for a poly, but make up or get some lids made, shouldnt cost to much.

You may need to put some bracing on top just to support the lids, wich you could get made up at the same time as the lids.

It is very easy to glue them on too, i think it cost about $9 for a tube of aquarium safe silicon from mitre 10.

You wanted suggestions..... my best one would be to drop the tank off at my place.... :lol: :roll:

Not bl**dy likely :lol: Not unless you want to replace it with one the same size, just with 10mm thick glass!

Mmmmmmm...nah LOL

Greg on Trade Me does some real good deals but you probably dont want to buy another one....on the other hand there is no such thing as to many tanks

I paid $160 for mine, 10m glass from greg (same size)