Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a couple 10 gallon aquariums that will soon be of no use to me. I think I remember reading somewhere about joining two same-sized aquariums together by breaking to bottom out of one and then stacking them and joining them somehow. Has anyone ever done this? What would be the best and safest way of breaking out the bottom? Would silicone be sufficient for joining the two tanks together? Is there anyway to remove the plastic edges just from the front side so that there wouldn't be a thick black bar running across the middle of the front of the tank?
Thanks,
Brian

i dont know about joining two tanks together but maybe some H shaped molding might help (metal H shaped molding i think can be found in most hardware stores). i do however know that silicone is all that tanks are held together with so a razor should allow you to get them appart. also the black plastic is held in the same way and i think is much easier to remove then the glass itself. last if you are planning to use this to hold water i would worry about the strength but if not then i would think it should all work out well. good luck anyway.

What would I do with this molding and what function would it serve? I dont intend on the tank holding water, just some geckos and cage furniture. My concern is making it look decent and hold together reasonably well.
thanks,
Brian

well the reason i say H molding is because if you want to take the bottom plastic and glass off one tank and attach it to the top glass (with plastic removed) of the other tank. in my head i cant see how you would just join two pieces of glass by butting them together and end up with a solid piece. the h molding would get cut into four pieces and form a square with a channel on the top and bottom. this would be similar to the plastic pieces you would remove from the ends of the tank except there would be another channel to receive the other tank. this is the only way i can think of to combine the two tanks. you wuold be left with a metal band around the center but i guess it wouldnt be too bad.
let me know if you need clarification.

I had a 10 gal with a broken bottom. So I removed the plastic piece from the bottom along with any remaining broken pieces of glass. All I did was place the broken tank directly on top of another 10 gal and used 100% silicone to join them. It has held up well, all I have used it for so far is for a nursery for some houseplants.. but I see no problem using it for small herps.
Roxanne

interesting .. so basically you just have a seam in the middle with silicone? and it is stable? if you have them id be interested in seeing some pictures of how it all worked out.

well I did not remove the top plastic piece from the tank on the bottom. so there is a visualy barrier from the plastic.. I will try to get a picture tomorrow.
Roxanne

sounds like a "smashing" idea(no pun intended) It would be pretty difficult to attach glass to glass without some sort of connector. Even if you gob silicone in between the pieces, you will have a visual line of silicone through the middle. I would suggest just leaving the black plastic(it also holds the sides of the tank glass), and living with the "black line." It's not really that bad. My only experience was taking out broken glass from the top half of my 40 gallon I had on end. It was tough, but doable, but be careful!!! It's like window glass, and gives a nasty cut!!

PS: If you leave the black trim, you could just attach them with black electrical tape. If you take your time, and do it nice, you won't even be able to tell that tape is holding it together. The benefit of that is that you could take them apart if you ever wanted to re-model. I would think it would be a pain reaching down the height of two tanks to reach the bottom.

I think what RJ is saying is that with the bottom plastic removed, the glass bottoms that are left fit perfectly along the lip on the top of the "bottom" tank. I can see that working. I think he still has the plastic on the bottom tank, which in turn has become the middle. Tough to think about!
Sorta like this:

Thank you everyone for all of your input. I think using RJ's method would probably be the easiest. I can live with a 1 inch bar running across the front. Though I do agree reaching down 2 feet to get to the bottom of the tank may pose a problem. I know it's a stretch, but just for fun...What if I were to stand both tanks on end, knock out the two inside walls, use some of that H molding with silicone to join the glass top bottom and rear, and then devise some sort of a hinged screen door to attach to the front. I know I'm probably missing something really obvious but humor me anyway.
Thanks again,
Brian

sounds to me like it would work. i would go to the hardware store and see if you can find some molding similar to the h molding for the front to give you something to attach the door to. you could also use wood i would assume, but i dont see why that idea is not possible.