{"id":286,"date":"2004-03-01T16:03:23","date_gmt":"2004-03-01T16:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/blog\/?p=286"},"modified":"2009-02-26T16:03:53","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T16:03:53","slug":"turtle-tank-and-dock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Turtle Tank and Dock"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we all know, Jenn and I have a baby named the Baron. Specifically, a baby map turtle named The Baron von Deutschenheim the Second. When we got him, or should I say before we got him, I knew he’d need a home so I made him an awesome one. First, I built the tank itself. Now, you may know where he lives now, unfortunately, dad and I tried to re-caulk this tank and it sprung a series of leaks we never got to finish fixing, so it’s in my house in Villa Park accumulating dust. One day though, he’ll live in it again.<\/p>\n

\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The tank is made out of 1\/4 inch clear acrylic with one side lowered for the filter. The lowered filter position allows for the water to be lower but there still be dry space at top. I used the foil and paper towel method to test for leaks, and she passed awesomely!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
This picture is the same, but deleting it would screw up the number order of my pictures.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
A close up of the strengthened joint, it’s epoxy, silicon caulk, and reinforced acrylic 90 degree bends.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The opposing dropped corner.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
So, his royalty will like a place to sit out and bask in the sun as well as a place to hide, like a cave. He also needs to be able to easily get up on it, and it should be pretty. I used some 1\/8 inch acrylic to make a custom dock feature. Here’s the simple piece I started with.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The first bends, done with a light butane torch.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The acrylic stretches when it is bent so the bends don’t have to be straight lines, as you can see. Who knew I was a sculptor too?
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
I’m inspecting the rig, I want the height to be right above the water line set by the lowered edge, so I made this little rig to hold it steady while I worked.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Preparation for the firing, notice my heat prevention gloves.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
BURN!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
THE MELTEY FIRE!!! The acrylic bubbles if it gets too hot.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Heating is a slow process.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Pensive.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Slowly taking shape, thanks for takin pics Jenn.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The bubbles are where it’s heated up a lot, but they make it easy to expand and bend. It’s really starting to take a dropped ramp shape.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The beginnings of the cave.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Beginning the drop side.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The ramp from the front, in formation.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Ok, here’s the rock structure, if I do say so myself it turned out spectacular, it looks really natural and flowing.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Again.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Side view, with an extender at the bottom. And a hottie in the background, studying.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
This is where my man is gonna sit when he’s sunning!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Seems the ramp is too short, think I’ll need to extend it.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Closeup on the drop side extension.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Here’s the extension on the ramp, with the whole unit installed in the tank. Temporarily, to make sure it fits.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Fits great, sits on little nubs glued to the side of the tank.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The dock out again.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
It may look ugly, but this is the extension held on with hot glue and acrylic scraps. It looks better in the end, and I did this knowing it.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
More.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
More.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Well, I want this thing to look beautiful, so I’m gonna make it look like rock. First, I covered the inside of the tank with laminated paper.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
So many repeat pictures!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The dock is in, see it fits. See why soon!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
It’s in.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
So Adam (my awesome resident) and I went to the volleyball courts and stole some janky ass sand.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Using the lid of my small tank as a sieve, we filtered out the bad sand from the good sand.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
See the fine nice sand?
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
This adhesive is used to put countertop laminant down, I laid it on thick.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Me painting the dock in the covered tank.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
More cover.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
And now do you get it??? It looks like rock since the sand sticks to the glue!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The underside too, which turned out to be a problem. . .
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The weight of the sand caused cracks which I had to repair.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Hidden and covered!
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Finished, with some stray pieces coming off over time.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
The repaired underside.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
Supported by nubs.
\n\"Dock<\/a>\n
So here’s the beautiful tank with the pic of a turtle in there, all ready to be enjoyed!
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we all know, Jenn and I have a baby named the Baron. Specifically, a baby map turtle named The Baron von Deutschenheim the Second. When we got him, or should I say before we got him, I knew he’d need a home so I made him an awesome one. First, I built the tank […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}