Vertical tank brain fart...need suggestion

[Tokaybyt]

New to the community in the aspect of posting; been visiting the site since the days of Nathan Hall. Some of you may know me on here by other screen names on other forums: TokayKeeper, ChondroKeeper, or ChrisNM. Unfortunately GU wouldn't let me register TokayKeeper.

That said, I've had a brain fart on my first vertical tank build. I'm currently working on some "black jungle" type tanks for some P. quadriocellata and if I can find any available (hint hint) some L. williamsi (jumping on the bandwagon late it seems). The tank in question is a Aqueon 20gal high. I've already expanding pond foamed the former bottom of the tank (now a side) and placed a nice piece of mopani. I then got to thinking...how in the world am I going to create a basking spot?! So short of drilling the tank to accomodate an undercabinet puck halogen and running the risk of cracking the glass, how can I fix my n00b error on my first vert?

Chris

 

[Hilde]

How anxious are you about keeping it neat looking? I had the same problem years ago with my goldies, and decided to aim the light through the screen lid (which was now a front door) about 1/4 of the way down. I siliconed a bracket to the glass on one side of the tank, then used it to hold a clip-on light to shine into the front of the enclosure. That means you have to be careful when approaching the tank so you don't knock the light off, but it works well enough.

 

[Tokaybyt]

I'd prefer to keep it nice looking if possible. I've thought about dremeling the black borders and then trying to cut the glass out so that I can fab up a screen.

Edit: solved my problem. Whoever Dusanka is at Aqueon Aquarium Manufacturing....you are awesome at aligning glass panels, for I could not get a razor blade between them and the silicone bead. Your skills at doing such forced me to resort to a drill, tire patching punch, a hammer, a pair of pliers, and an hour and a half of my time to remove a glass panel after having to break it. LOL The best part was actually removing the black bordering. < /lameness >