HOW TO GLUE GLASS By: W. A. Soestbergen

After reading part 1 "Building your own central filter", I will explain here how I glue it together. You need the following materials:

Silicone glue (special for Aquarium)

Cup liquid soap

Stanley knife

Painter's tape

Thinner Woodblock 20 x 2 cm (3 pieces)

Throw-away tissue (many)

4 hands to make it :-)

As you see I have used the floor of the kitchen to build this tank. I put a newspaper on the floor and stick one on the wall. This is to prevent getting the silicone glue on the floor and wall. When you look closely you will see that I have already put the bottom glass plate on the floor.

Then we place the back wall glass plate to the wall and tape it so that it won't fall down :-). Watch out that it won't slide away. Now, with the thinner, clean all the places you want to glue. Clean a big area so you don't have to clean it again when you come to a short piece. Take your time doing this.

If you look closely you will see that I began with the bottom glass plate. Place the bottom glass plate to the back wall plate in a manner so that you keep on both sides the same spacing to glue the side glass plates. Push hard to press the plates together, and watch that the back plate does not fall down. You now have around 10 minutes to clean all the wasted glue. You do that with the liquid soap. Put your finger in the liquid soap and then on the glue and touch both glass plates, then wipe off the wasted glue in one move. When ready, clean your finger in a throw-away tissue. Because of the liquid soap you will notice that there is no glue on your finger.

In the same way we do the side walls. On the back wall we place some glue (and be sure that you have some tape around to hold them together) Then do the next glass plate and you have the back wall, bottom and both sides ready.

You need some help now to hold the glass plates in their place. Certainly when you do this for the first time. We are half way and I can tell you that when I need another one I make it again. When we are on this point we have to harden the glue for 4 days. After 4 days we fill the tank with water to look if it is leak proof. Do this on a soft floor and not on stone otherwise your glass will break.

When you are sure that it does not leak water then we begin on the next part. Glue the inner glass plates. Be sure that you calculate the distance between the glass plates.

I have calculated the following distances:

section 6, 12 cm

section 5, 3 cm

section 4, 3, 2 and 1 all 7 cm

all other sections are 2 cm

The following photos let you see that I am at glass plate 3. I began on the side where I want to place the pump. I did this because I wanted to know for sure that it has enough space to place the pump there. This is the easiest part of gluing your filter. Be sure that you have enough tape around and the wooden blocks to hold the glass plates in the right place and height. Glue every glass plate right away and remove all the wasted glue immediately.

I am working here on glass plate 4 and you see what I need the wooden block for. The water flow is to go under this glass plate :-) On the first day I have glued 3 glass plates and waited till the next day to do the other glass plates. I also glued the pieces that the cover glass lies on. See the result below.

On the first day I have glue 3 glass plate and waited to the next day to do the other glass plates. I also glue the pieces where the cover glass on lie. See below the result.

Then after 4 days of hardening the glue, the filter is ready to fill it again with water to see if it is leak free and to see if the water flow is correct. I let the filter stay filled for 5 days, then cleaned it and installed it by the tank.

I did this in June 1998 and till now the filter has done a good job.