new 10 gal. conversion project

[rhino43grr]

i'm working on a conversion similar to one in another thread here. i got a free 10 gal. tank thru freecycle (also got two 20 gal. tanks for free that way) and i'm converting it into a naturalistic vertical setup with live plants and a front-opening door.

after cleaning it out i removed the glass on one side to replace it with a screen top.

today i finished the screen top and siliconed it into place, siliconed the glass substrate barrier at the bottom and built the frame for the door.

i still have to cut my glass to fit inside the screen door frame and silicone it into place, get and attach hinges, notch out the aquarium frame for a magnetic door latch and attach the door handle.

here are the pictures of what's finished so far:


100_0198 by rhino43grr, on Flickr


100_0197 by rhino43grr, on Flickr


100_0199 by rhino43grr, on Flickr

as you can tell, i like to keep my work area nice and tidy.

 

[animeavatar]

What are you gonna put in it?

 

[rhino43grr]

What are you gonna put in it?

probably either an electric blue dwarf gecko (l. williamsi) or one of the small phelsuma species. possibly a pair of something.

here are more pictures:

doing a water test on the tank now to make sure the substrate barrier glass wasn't leaky.


100_0202 by rhino43grr, on Flickr

siliconed the front glass into the door frame.


100_0201 by rhino43grr, on Flickr

 

[rhino43grr]

and pictures of the (semi) finished product... i ended up going with a magnetic latch inside the tank to hold the door shut and spent way too much time on that part of the project. next time i'll either make the door frame slightly smaller so it shuts more easily or have an exterior latch system. probably both.


100_0206 by rhino43grr, on Flickr


100_0207 by rhino43grr, on Flickr

next step will be giving it a good cleaning to get all the little plastic boogers out of the inside and get the glass looking better. then i'll be making a background out of cork bark and great stuff (once i order/find some cork bark) and getting substrate in there so i can put live plants in.

i hope to have this tank, two vertical 20 gal. tanks and my 20 gal. long leopard gecko tank on the built-in cabinets i'm finishing in my office (where it is for these last two pictures) so they'll get regular attention. i just have to finish the tops for the other two sections of the desk/cabinets and build the bookshelves before that can happen, but the wife's got me on a strict 6 month deadline for the office project anyway.

 

[LeoIsland]

How did you cut the glass? Did you just remove the whole top glass pane? How does the screen affix to the glass sides? Did you just use the glass from the top as the front glass plate?


Thank you this is a great idea!

 

[rhino43grr]

How did you cut the glass? Did you just remove the whole top glass pane? How does the screen affix to the glass sides? Did you just use the glass from the top as the front glass plate?


Thank you this is a great idea!

i had them cut the glass for me at lowes. i took in the door frame so they could measure and test to make sure it fit so i didn't pay for a sheet of glass i couldn't use.

the glass was completely removed from the (new) top.

i made a frame for the screen at the top and used silicone to attach it. it already fit pretty tight, but i also put a line of silicone along the inside of the plastic frame in the front and back before putting it into place, siliconed around the bottom of it once it was in place and filled the gaps between the screen frame and the glass with silicone.

i had planned to use the glass from the top as the substrate barrier, but i broke it when i was trying to remove it, so i had lowes cut a piece the right size.

i'll be doing two more 20 gal. vertical conversions soon, so i will make a new step-by-step thread for that project as i go.

 

[LeoIsland]

I have a 20H that I am going to try this with. But I have sometime before I start it. It would be greatly appreciated if you would do a step by step with photos that people including myself can also do this. This is a great idea and I am excited to try it!

 

[rhino43grr]

i'm not really happy with the way this one turned out, to be honest. i have to re-attach the hinges with some kind of epoxy because the silicone wasn't holding up and i had to do a lot of messing around and grinding away the tank frame because i made the door a little bit too big.

there's also about a 1/4" to 1/2" gap beween the substrate barrier glass and the glass of the door which i'm going to have to figure out a way to fill so geckos, dirt, feeders, etc. can't get in between them. the original plans had that remedied by splitting up the front into a screen-frame rectangle at the bottom and the door above that so the bottom of the door overlapped just the top of the substrate barrier.