Mike's Playground

		Here's a close-up of the aquarium edge. See the small black rectangle imbedded in the silicone? It's actually a thin rubber spacer and it's there to prevent all of the uncured silicone from being squeezed out while the clamps are holding the aquarium together.

		Here's how I made the spacers: A bicycle shop gave me a used inner tube from the trash. I cut a section out of the inner tube than made a slit down the side so the rubber would lay flat.

		I used a machinists scale and X-Auto knife to cut the rubber into narrow strips. The work surface is a piece of glass.


		A made about 40 of these spacers. Each aquarium edge got 4 of them.

		Ready for assembly! The aquarium bottom is to the left in this image. The aquarium back has 2 suction handles attached.

		My neighbors gave me a hand with some of the assembly duties.

		I ran a bead of silicone along the edge of the glass then stood the glass into position. Plan was to assemble the back, left end, right end then the front... in that order.

		Aquarium with clamps in place.

		Water test in progress. I let the silicone cure for about a month before I attempted this. Notice I have not installed the bracing along the top of the aquarium yet. I wanted to be sure there were no leaks first.

		...half way there!

		Made it. NO LEAKS!

		The center brace was cut from a piece of the old discarded bottom glass-- as were the two corner braces.

		I decided to paint the back of the aquarium black. The paint is just plain 'ol Rust-Oleum gloss black applied with a brush.