DarkSoul
Fish Fanatic
Alright, More pics.
I have successfully mounted my heater in a way that makes me happy and works for the heater.
As you can see below, I will take you through this process.
Since I already had a hole, I just needed to figure out a way to get the heater to slide down more.
This was touch being that the heater was right against the side of the aquariums frame. I had to cut a little more out of the lip on the frame for the heater to mount this way, But it worked out well in the end.
First thing I did here was disassemble the heater and slid it into the hole.
The hole clearly needs to be much larger.
Using my dremel I made the hole larger, but this left a rough edge that needed sanding.
Now I could do it by hand, But as it turns out my girlfriends curling iron was the exact size of the hole I needed.
So I turned it into a handheld drum sander, much to her reluctantness.
I Continued sanding out the hole until it was smooth.
Another test reveals that the hole is now the right size to mount the heater into.
Since the heater "locks" into the hood instead of it's locking ring now, I simply used an O-Ring I had lying around to keep it securely pressed up against the hood.
Now you can see my heater is safely at its water level.
Picture taken with the flash off
Picture taken with the flash on
To clean up some of my undergravel filter tubing I needed some elbows.
Since I couldn't easily find any, and I wanted to do this today, I made some of my own elbows.
This is the prototype, I used some extra air tube from the UGF, heated it and expanded one end of it.
Then I shoved a piece of wire, the same size as the I.D. of the tube, into the tube, and heated and bent it over a pen. I decided against using these when I came up with my better idea.
These elbows started out as flow control valves to slow the airflow from your airpump.
I removed the adjustment knob, and drilled out the hole.
Then I drilled out the main body of the valve so there was less restriction on the air.
One of the nipples was removable, I took it out and actually used it in the threaded part of the valve where the adjustment knob was. I super glued these into place, No need to have them removable.
Now I needed to plug one end of this, I discovered that the square part I cut out of my hood had these wonderful little spikes on them. I simply knocked these off and super glued 2 of them into the open ends of the valves.
A little bit of sanding and I had an elbow i could slide over the top of my UGFs airline tubes, and connect to a pump easily.
And the final product thus far.
I added the gravel yesterday. And I will put the castle back in once I'm finished playing around in there.
I just need to get some elbows for my filter tubing (can't find the right size anywhere) and some clips to mount the wiring behind the tank to the glass neatly.
Once that is done I can pick up the needed supplies (Nets, Food, Test kits, Treatments etc...) and then cycle and buy some fish.
I won't be able to make any more purchases until second week of next month.
I have successfully mounted my heater in a way that makes me happy and works for the heater.
As you can see below, I will take you through this process.
Since I already had a hole, I just needed to figure out a way to get the heater to slide down more.
This was touch being that the heater was right against the side of the aquariums frame. I had to cut a little more out of the lip on the frame for the heater to mount this way, But it worked out well in the end.
First thing I did here was disassemble the heater and slid it into the hole.
The hole clearly needs to be much larger.
Using my dremel I made the hole larger, but this left a rough edge that needed sanding.
Now I could do it by hand, But as it turns out my girlfriends curling iron was the exact size of the hole I needed.
So I turned it into a handheld drum sander, much to her reluctantness.
I Continued sanding out the hole until it was smooth.
Another test reveals that the hole is now the right size to mount the heater into.
Since the heater "locks" into the hood instead of it's locking ring now, I simply used an O-Ring I had lying around to keep it securely pressed up against the hood.
Now you can see my heater is safely at its water level.
Picture taken with the flash off
Picture taken with the flash on
To clean up some of my undergravel filter tubing I needed some elbows.
Since I couldn't easily find any, and I wanted to do this today, I made some of my own elbows.
This is the prototype, I used some extra air tube from the UGF, heated it and expanded one end of it.
Then I shoved a piece of wire, the same size as the I.D. of the tube, into the tube, and heated and bent it over a pen. I decided against using these when I came up with my better idea.
These elbows started out as flow control valves to slow the airflow from your airpump.
I removed the adjustment knob, and drilled out the hole.
Then I drilled out the main body of the valve so there was less restriction on the air.
One of the nipples was removable, I took it out and actually used it in the threaded part of the valve where the adjustment knob was. I super glued these into place, No need to have them removable.
Now I needed to plug one end of this, I discovered that the square part I cut out of my hood had these wonderful little spikes on them. I simply knocked these off and super glued 2 of them into the open ends of the valves.
A little bit of sanding and I had an elbow i could slide over the top of my UGFs airline tubes, and connect to a pump easily.
And the final product thus far.
I added the gravel yesterday. And I will put the castle back in once I'm finished playing around in there.
I just need to get some elbows for my filter tubing (can't find the right size anywhere) and some clips to mount the wiring behind the tank to the glass neatly.
Once that is done I can pick up the needed supplies (Nets, Food, Test kits, Treatments etc...) and then cycle and buy some fish.
I won't be able to make any more purchases until second week of next month.
Much better - and that heater looks even neater now 
/www.bigalsonline.ca/catalog/product...id1=3233;pcid2=
.
