11/20/03 UPDATE: Thanks to the stories on MacNN, MacCentral and a number of other news sites, we've now had over 40,000 visitors to the page, and received a great deal of email regarding the CubeQuarium and Gil. We appreciate everyone who has taken the time to contact us and would love to hear from more of you. - Carrie Ann & Joe
Pictures
Tank w/ lamp 1 ||
Tank w/ lamp 2 ||
Tank w/ lamp 3 ||
Tank w/ lamp 4
Four shots without a flash. This is very close to how it looks in the room.
Fish Picture 1 ||
Fish Picture 2
That's Gil. The second one turned out quite excellent, you can see his awesome blue and red colors as well as his spots.
Tank w/ flash
This is a shot I took with a flash.
Empty tank 1 ||
Empty tank 2
A couple shots of the tank without any water in it. (Sorry, the sealant is a little sloppy in these.)
Bottom plate mounting
This is how I mounted the bottom plate. There are three of these pins, one on each side, and one in the back.
Info
Background:
I've had this machine in my possession, after salvaging it from a garbage
bin, for almost 3 years now. It was originally a (very) dead 450mhz G4 cube that
someone apparently tossed, failing to see the potential greatness it still
held. I always knew it would make an awesome aquarium, but just never quite
got around to working on it. After packing it up, as we moved from San Jose,
CA to Tacoma, WA, and then to Seattle, WA, I figured it was finally time to
really get this project underway.
The Case:
Removing internal parts from the cube was pretty easy, as I recall. (I did
it about 2 years ago, and the exact details are rather cloudy.) I believe there
were 3-4 screws in the top that came out, and the whole assembly essentially
drops out the bottom. *If anyone has more notes on this step, please feel
free to share those.
The cube case is approximately 7.5" across on each side and about 10" tall.
The back has a cutout for cables that sits about 7" down from the top. I
decided it would be easier to mount the bottom of the tank just above this
cutout. That way, there would only be one piece needed, and the water in the tank would be just about the same size as the original cube.
The sides of the cube are
around 1/4" thick at the bottom and appear to actually taper a little and get thicker
toward the top. The sides are perfectly smooth all the way up, so mounting
the bottom would require something other than mere glue to hold it in place.
The Bottom:
Using a Dremel tool, I cut a piece of 1/4" plexiglass for the bottom by
tracing around the outside of the cube and following that line. This gave me
about 1/4" extra on each side that I would have to cut off in order to make
it fit. I decided, early on, that it would be easier to start big and trim
down. (Anyone who has worked with wood, or similar materials, knows it's
always easier to subtract than it is to add!) I carefully cut out the piece
and then slowly trimmed it down using a round sanding bit on my Dremel tool.
Eventually, I got it to a size and shape that was a nice, snug fit in the
cube.
Mounting It:
I had one major goal when it came to mounting the bottom in the cube: make
as few cuts as possible. Once I had cut into the cube case, I knew that I
would never be able to restore it to its original look, so I needed to be
very careful with this step. I couldn't just glue the bottom in place and hope it didn't
come crashing out later. My worst nightmare was the sound of 1.3 gallons of
water, rocks, and fish hitting the top of my desk in the middle of the
night. One gallon of water is 8.33 pounds, and the tank will hold around
1.25 gallons. (7" x 7" x 6.5", 300ci, give or take a little) So we're talking about
11 pounds of pressure resting on this one piece of plexiglass.
I placed the plexiglass into the case and wedged it into the exact position
I wanted. With it tightly secured, I drilled 3 very small (approx 1/16")
holes about 3/4" into the case, in the center of the back, left, and right side of
the bottom piece. (I excluded the front one for aesthetic purposes.) I then
put 5-6 drops of superglue into the holes and slipped a small nail into each
of them. The purpose of the superglue is to keep the nail from popping out
as I worked with the cube. As an added benefit, it leaked a little between the
case and the bottom, creating an even tighter seal.
After the bottom was firmly in place, I got a tube of (non-toxic) sealant,
and ran a bead of it around the bottom edge. It's a very tight fit, getting your hand in the top hole of the cube, and trying to manuever a tube of sealant, or a knife. I went over it with my finger to
smooth things out and then waited a couple hours for it to set. I went back a few days later, after testing it for leaks, and trimmed down the edges of the sealant a little. So far I haven't had a single leak, nor any indication that it will be leaking any time soon.
Finished!:
The tank was complete and I went out with my girlfriend in search of the
lucky occupant of these swanky new digs. A few hours later (OK, so we made
a stop for some Pho, too.) and we returned with a couple pounds of black
aquarium rocks, some plastic plants, and a blue-green-red Betta that we
named 'Gil' after Apple's former CEO Gil Amelio. The tank is sitting in the livingroom, near the couch, with a nice little halogen lamp providing added lighting and heat for it. He seems happy, oblivious
to the fact that his fish tank once cost $2k.
Disclaimer:
For those concerned that this is not a large enough tank for the fish, let
us reassure you that there is, in fact, plenty of space for one betta to
happily inhabit. Were we to acquire others, we would take the necessary
steps to upgrade to a larger tank (And keep them seperate, of course. Male
bettas are quite surly and do not get along.), but considering the natural habitat that these
types of bettas are found in, the CubeQuarium makes a perfectly suiteable
home in terms of size. No need to worry, Gil is just fine and sends his best. :)
Page Created: 11/17/03
Page Last Updated: 11/20/03
Contact: Please feel free to email us with questions and/or comments - carrie@dangerisland.com & joe@dangerisland.com
