Installing acrylic dividers in running full tank

[AnthonyP]

Has anyone ever sectioned off a tank with semi permanent divididers while up and running? I really do not want to have to take it offline vinegar clean the coralline and glue in acrylic as down the road I may want to open it back up so would like to have removable divoders and why not
Be able to install them while the tank is full if I engineer it correctly!!
I have a 40 long bb frag tank that will be converting into 4 sections. I read an article on pressure fitting baffles using Epdm marine safe weather stripping and am considering it. Anyone use it???
Or what about cutting my acrylic dividers and having them just a tad smaller than the width and holding them in place with magnets???
Thoughts suggestions???
Which magnets would i get as magfloats would be expensive...
Also with a skill saw and drill any ideas how to make teeth?
Should I use egg crate for any part Of this????
Gutter guard??? Is that leach stuff bad??



Thanks for help

 

[JohnK]

The tricky part with the pressure fit baffles is that acrylic will absorb a small amount of water and in the process it swells a bit. People have cracked tanks with acrylic baffles that were siliconed in place without much if any pressure, so if anything the pressure fit approach is all the more risky. If you must go that route, I'd suggest considering glass baffles insted of acrylic.

Interesting idea on the magnets. IIRC you would want to source out rare earth magnets, but I have not figured out the detials on this. I know that it's not hard to find strong magnets online, but I haven't come to understand how they rate the strength of magnets so I never got around to ordering any (for a couple of somewhat similar projects I have toyed with in the past).
I would assume that you would want to encase the magnets in epoxy, acrylic or something to keep them seperate from the water but I don't really know. It wouldn't be particularly difficult to make acrylic baffles, then attach acrylic flanges and encase the magnets in the flanges. Basically just make the flanges out of 3 pieces of acrylic sandwiched together, with the center being the width of the magnet and having a matching hole or slot cut into the acrylic so the magnet would fit inside, the attach 1/8" acrylic on both sides so that the magnets would be sandwiced inside and sealed from the water.

For slotting baffles, you can rough cut baffles with just about anything. Keep in mind that if the slots are too thin they will clog easily. (If you come up with a plan and want nicely cut baffles, let me know and I could do that for you with a router jig I have)

Egg crate or gutter guard attached across the top would also work fine for a substitute for slotting a baffle.

 

[AnthonyP]

I agree with you on the pressure fitting baffles an I was thinking the same thing about pushing on the glass and that is where I was trying to come up with a magnet alternative. I am picturing the flange idea you have and love it. I am just wondering how many magnets I need. For each baffel. I am picturing 2 sets per flange meaning I would need 12 magnets for 3 baffels.

Another option is that the tank is on 4x4s and I can access the bottom glass (never put plywood on the 4x4)
It is an open top tank so wondering if I could brace in the dividers on top with egg rate perhaps by zip tie drill a tiny hole on eachlip so the divider is almost like a huge slide gate and then on the floor of the tank use magnet on eather side and Under neath to hold it in place. That way it may prevent More work with flanges.... But I still think I need 1 set of magnets per side which is 4 per divider and 12 total... Any thoughts?
Btw I may take you up on that for the teeth also!!!!
Thanks

 

[JohnK]

Your guess is as good as mine on the magnets.