Fish Tank Science Project - Sliding Divider?

[dcgolfer]

Hi. Forgive the intrusion. I'm helping my son with a science project and this looked like the most popular fish tank forum I could find.

He's doing an experiment where he needs a fish tank with a airtight divider. He wants to put different colored water on both sides (e.g. red/yellow). He needs to remove the divider and allow the water to mix, resulting in a new color throughout (e.g. orange).

I got a 10 gallon tank and was planning to have some acrylic cut to size. My question is how to have a quasi air-tight seal to prevent the water from mixing while the divider is still in place (while allowing the divider to be removed later).

I assume the best way would be to caulk some rubber seal to the tank. I was going to try Home Depot, but do they have such rubber parts available? If not, any other ideas?

Thanks. Sorry to intrude.

*twirlysmi

 

[Fuzz16]

you can put aquarium seal on the edges and when it comes time to seperate it you just take a razor to the stuff

sorry the name ecscapes me at the moment, someone else should say something soon though

 

[tropicalfish]

For it to slide out well out of the seal, you will need to remove about an inch of the frame from the middle on both long sides.

You could put rubber strips along the edges of the divider, and put some other seal in the groove that the divider will go in.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I'm assuming this isn't going to be used for fish, right? You could use play-doh or putty or something, that the divider could stick and be waterproof but would pull out easily. I agree, you'd either have to remove some frame or twist it at an angle to pull it out.