# Tank Dividers



## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

Has anyone made there own tank dividers before? If so how? I have a 55gal tank im using as a growout tank, but wamt to put a couple dividers in to seperate species. The few i have bought arent tight enough on the sides or arent tall enough.


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## Aulonocara_Freak (May 19, 2011)

There are a few way's you can make them. They can be made from glass, wood, plastic, or acrylic. It's a very easy project to do, just measure the height and width then have the piece cut to those dimension's. For example on a normal 55 it's 12 inche's wide and 19 inche's tall, I think.


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

I should have said this earlier. I need a divider the water can still circulate through since im only running 1 HOB on this tank right now. If i use glass or acrylic the water would be stagnet.


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

There is crochet mesh you can buy from Michael's (or any craft store, I assume) that has tiny little holes in it that not even fry could get through. They sell it in sheets of 2'x3' (ish) and it's only $1 a sheet! :thumb:


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

How can i get a tight seal on both sides and bottome without sealing it to the tank. Is there some rubber i can attach


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

My guess is you could get some rubber and silicone the rubber to the mesh, then fit it very tightly to the tank and have some covered in substrate. It might not hold up if a fish were to ram into it though.


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

Its all fry under 2in


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

Hrm, you might be able to run silicone around the outside of the plastic canvas that has been cut to fit... that would probably "seal" it to the edges. you might still need some way to keep it upright, but it might also just wedge in and "Grab" with the silicone edges.

-Rick (the armchair aquarist)


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

Here's a pic of what my crochet mesh looked like:


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

That would be perfect. If i can find some plastic strips that has the insert in the middle i can slide them on


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

I've seen people use binder clips (I think they're called? Maybe something a little different) and they come in packs, they seemed to work well! :thumb:


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm in the process of making a group of small boxes to hold fry. Rather than a divider that always seems to fail and is never tight enough, I am going for a full box of the mesh shown. I can make wire hooks to hang the boxes on the edges so that they can be placed and removed easily. If you cut and fit the edges together so that the "fingers" weave together, you can get a really tight joint. It takes a bit of time but I tie mine together with thread by just looping round and round the plastic. Filling the corner joint with silicone might speed it up as the lacing would not need to be so solid.

I'm thinking I can get a ten gallon divided into four spaces for small fry that don't need much. Saves three ten gallon tanks for better uses.


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

PfunMo said:


> I'm in the process of making a group of small boxes to hold fry. Rather than a divider that always seems to fail and is never tight enough, I am going for a full box of the mesh shown. I can make wire hooks to hang the boxes on the edges so that they can be placed and removed easily. If you cut and fit the edges together so that the "fingers" weave together, you can get a really tight joint. It takes a bit of time but I tie mine together with thread by just looping round and round the plastic. Filling the corner joint with silicone might speed it up as the lacing would not need to be so solid.
> 
> I'm thinking I can get a ten gallon divided into four spaces for small fry that don't need much. Saves three ten gallon tanks for better uses.


That's a good plan, although I hear from other members on this forum (in the Lake Malawi section) that most new fry can swim straight through even the smallest of meshes, "Pin hole" - which just so happens to be what this is. I assume you could cover it with something though!


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

They may not have found that the mesh comes in a number of different hole sizes. I like to have as much water go through with large hole size but then for smaller fry it requires the smaller hole size. The full boxes with four sides and bottom are more to build but I think it will work better for me. Part of the thinking is that I can take them in/out easy and change the boxes to fit the fish much easier than if they were fixed to the tank. I had been using DIY net boxes but they have too many problems so I am trying something a little more firm.


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## thefishkeeper (Sep 16, 2011)

crochet mesh, and use Poster Hangers for the frame, available at Michael's


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## Sand Man (Oct 12, 2006)

I made one out of egg crate and screen mesh. I put a bit of pebbles on the bottom to prevent the fry from swimming under and the sides are tight. No issues. But I do want to take it out and remake it even better. I will try and do pics when I do. Oh, and mine is in a 30 gallon tank. I want two dividers for three total areas.


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

Well I went to Home Depot and bought a screening kit without the screen. For my matrial I used a matrial called Tulle. I spent under $20 and was able to have enough materials to make 3 dividers. Here are some pictures.


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## Sand Man (Oct 12, 2006)

BNoel21 said:


> Well I went to Home Depot and bought a screening kit without the screen. For my matrial I used a matrial called Tulle. I spent under $20 and was able to have enough materials to make 3 dividers. Here are some pictures.


Looks awesome. Any pics or description how you got the screen material so tight? Also, are the outside parts made of plastic? Is it snug against the sides and bottom?


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## Aulonocara_Freak (May 19, 2011)

AWESOME, it's not bulky which make's it even better!c


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

I did a little reaserch and talked to the guy at Home Depot and told him what i was doing and said i need some sort of nonrust unharmfull material for my fish for my project. The outside trim is actually the same trim that is on your screen windows of your house. I just had to take measurements and a hacksaw to cut it down to fit in the tank.

Getting it tight was the easy part. Like i said it was a frame for screen windows so it has the slit on the sides that you place your fabric/mesh over and take the black rubber seal you see in the pic above and just push it down into the slit. Do one side at a time and pull your fabric a little to keep it snug while sealing is being installed.


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## Ron R. (Oct 21, 2003)

Go to home depot or lowe's and go to the section where they sell lighting/light fixtures. They sell the plastic white grating that is cut to fit the fluorescent lighting in offices, kitchens..........Measure the inside of your tank and cut to fit. You can keep it upright by placing rubber/plastic suction cups on either side of the upper portion of the divider. To keep the bottom in place remove some of your gravel/sand and bury it.

This grate/divider has spaces small enough to keep larger fish on either side of the divider and allow a good amount of water to pass through for filtration. When I had smaller fish that might be able to pass through the divider, I cut some plexiglass to fit the divider and used a drill/dremel tool to make a hole in each of the spaces. Took me awhile. I used plastic zipties to attach the plexiglass to the divider. When I have larger fish, I simply remove the plexiglass piece.

Hope this helps.


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

Wow! These turned out exceptionally well!


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

Thank you


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

Another possibility is a piece of reticulated foam perhaps 3/4" to 1" thick which will hold itself in place, as well as aid in filtarion.


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## BNoel21 (May 15, 2011)

I have someone locally that sells the type of foam good for filtration and the would have been the best idea for extra filtration but it was a little on the expensive side. So i a filter on each side of the tank and a bubbler in the middle to make sure that the water is getting circulated through the dividers a filtered in all 3 sections of the tank.


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## quentin8 (Sep 30, 2011)

The way that worked best for me is to get egg crate, cut to size and siclicone nylon screen to it. The screen for windows. You can buy it all at Home depot or lowes and have enough for 3 dividers. I think the total cost wasnt much over $10


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