gumball machine betta fish tank build

yep, $50, but I have to admit it was used

 

This photo just shows that I've siliconed the srew into the top of the lid. I made sure I got a thin layer over the bare metal where I made the cuts to help reduce corrosion.



Now the plastic piece that fits inside the lid needed just a bit more modifying. I want to allow the battery-holder to sit flat on the plastic piece, so I flattened the plastic by removing a small strip of raised plastic. (how many times can I say plastic in one sentence??)



This is how I want it to basically fit together.

There's just enough room for me to slide the cover off the battery holder when I need to replace a dead battery. I'm probably just going to silicone these together on the bottom, but I want to get some of the other parts of the lid figured out before I make it impossible to alter.

 

It'd be cool if you could rig the screw in the lid to push down on an on /off switch for the light.

 

are you going to make this a planted tank

 

One problem. Silicon will NOT adhere to acrylic, do to the fact it's too smooth of a surface. I found this out when building my 40gal sump. It will give way. If the bowl is glass, use a glass bottom piece. If the bowl is acrylic, then use acrylic glue. Better to do it right, then having a mess on your floor.

 

You are 100% right! it will not hold. When I built my 40sump I had this problem when testing. It failed! I spoke to a rep at All Glass & the mfg of the silicon & both stated the same thing. You can check my 90gal build thread & see what happened. I alway use tank building silicon that took 5 days to dry. It sounded like glass cracking when I was cutting it away with a razor to remove it after.

 

Looking good though.. Great job!

 

Way cool build, looks awesome. We have our kids beta in a 5 gal planted tank but I've been trying to think of something different as well.

 

That's a good idea. I thought about it for a while but couldn't think of a good way to do it. I suppose if I spent more time.... lol

 

I don't think so. How easy would it be? I've also been reading about planted tanks but I've never done one. Actually, I've never done any tank before.

there would probably need to be a different substrate (I'm planning to use marbles that would resemble gumballs) for the plant's root system and there's the heater in the way. I've got another idea about the heater though, something external, on the bottom that would radiate the heat up from below.