# How-To: 40Breeder Vert Euro/Sherman Conversion



## asunderco (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi everyone. Thought I'd share briefly how I went about turning my 40 gallon breeder tank into a mix of a Vertical, Sherman vent, Euro Slider. 

EDIT: Some pictures are attached to the bottom of this post. Sorry for the inconvenience.


The beast.








Alright let's build this!

Props to Sherman on this awesome how-to, making his "Sherman Vent". It was straight forward and easy. I ended up going with some No-See-Um I picked up from Amazon for the screen.
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/90907-sherman-ventilation.html

My completed "Sherman Vent"!








So what I did for the bottom section of this tank was use a 6" x 17 3/8" x 1/4"(thick) piece of glass for the bottom of the tank. I placed it on the INSIDE lip of the standard Aqueon tank. To have the bottom piece of glass fit flush with the black plastic I needed to "trim" out some existing silicone from the tank with a razor blade(this sucks but do it slow and right the first time, otherwise this sucker won't be water tight later and that'll suck even more). Once my silicone trimming was complete, I put fresh silicone beads between the existing aquarium glass and the black lid. I was liberal with the silicone! Then I siliconed my new bottom piece into place also being very liberal, making sure I filled every bottom inch with silicone and using my finger to smooth the beads and to help press the silicone into tighter spaces to reach. I didn't take any pictures of this process because this was a messy process, I was wearing nitrile gloves and was using my iPhone to take the pictures and didn't need or want a phone that I had to clean silicone off of later. 

Now after the bottom of the front has cured its time to silicone your Sherman vent into place. This sweet puppy is going to sit on the top of the bottom glass on the INSIDE of the black lid with the screen of the Sherman vent facing the BACKGROUND of your vertical tank. Silicone into place. I used two Irwin Quick Grips to hold the Sherman vent in place. I also used a bubble level to make sure the Sherman vent was 100% perfectly level. This part was a little tricky but doable with one person.

While my Sherman vent was curing into place, I started on measuring my top vent. My top vent was made from the Home Depot Screen window and door isle. Everything you need (except the No-See-Um screen) all in one place, the frame, corners, spline and spline roller. If I was to do this build again I'd of probably gone with dual Sherman's, one on top and one where we placed our lower one. 

I this picture you'll see top screen installed on the upper INSIDE of the lid just like we did with the bottom piece of glass. I also removed the old silicone in the tank like we did earlier in this thread for the bottom, just this time so screen was flush as well. 








Also in the picture you might have noticed a clear "gap" between the top screen and another black piece of trim. That is a piece of glass siliconed in against the screen on the INSIDE of the tank lip to attach the Euro slider door track to. This "E" track is wider than the screen frame so the glass gives it a little more room to attach itself to.










Here is a bad iPhone picture of my purple couch, more importantly is the out of focus inner upper left hand side of the tank. The blue painters tape is helping to hold the E track into place which is also flush with the inner lid of the tank.









A picture of the inner bottom right hand side of the tank with the E track now install on the bottom.








Another picture of the inner bottom right hand side of the tank with the side E track installed into place. These side pieces I did not make flush with the inner tank lid. I made sure they met evenly with the bottom and top E track. The Q Tip is shoved into that gap to insure silicone does not find its way into the small gap meetings of the tracks. This means the doors can slide all the way closed without there being a gap because of silicone.









Another corner. Again apologies for the crappy phone pics...









All cured up with doors installed! The doors were cut AFTER everything else was in place and cured! This was to insure the doors were cut to the frame! the tape is temporary. Now I just need to get my hands on two glass marbles for some handles! 








A LOT of this build could not have been done without the advice and help of a fellow Dendroboard member so, many many thanks goes out to that person. They also convinced me to post this vert conversion on the boards for you fine folk! I'm more of a reader than writer. 

I hope this helps future 40Breeder vert builders! Let me know if any of you have any questions and I will help the best I can to contribute to this awesome community. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: This thread was created solely for the "conversion" aspect of a 40breeder. If I do a construction thread it will be a NEW thread and not associated with this thread. Thanks everyone.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Very cool conversion. I have just finished cutting the glass to do a very similar build, but done horizontally. It will be a 40 breeder on it's side.

This was a nicely done (or maybe just starting?) thread. Thanks!

Oh hey, I have some of those clear glass marbles. You are welcome to a couple if you want to drop by.


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## asunderco (Apr 4, 2011)

Thank you for the kind words Doug! Can't wait to see your build! I just may take you up on those marbles.


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

Question: Why put the glass retaining lip on the inside? Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you put it on the outside?
very helpful write up btw


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## asunderco (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks for the comment!

The stock rim on the Aqueon tank only has a 1/2" lip on the outside. This is a very small amount of space to work with. By placing everything on the inside of the the tank and against this inner lip you get a flush flat front surface. Place working on the inside helps hide all the silicone. 

Here's some pictures:

Upper left which also shows the 1/2" outer lip. 









Bottom right corner. 








Hope that answered your question. 

Another thing to mention is silicone clean up is much much easier to do after the silicone has dried. Also I didn't do a spectacular job cleaning up the bottom of the tank because it's not going to be visible due to the substrate.



goof901 said:


> Question: Why put the glass retaining lip on the inside? Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you put it on the outside?
> very helpful write up btw


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

It also allows you to silicone the front, lower glass to glass, instead of to plastic. Silicone doesn't always stick as well to plastic.


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## Followgravity (Dec 31, 2012)

Thanks for the write up and especially all the pics. This is a great thread I really like the idea of putting everything inside the rim.



Pumilo said:


> Very cool conversion. I have just finished cutting the glass to do a very similar build, but done horizontally. It will be a 40 breeder on it's side.
> 
> Pumilo, I am actually in the planning stages of a front opening 40g, is there any chance you were gunna put up a thread on this build?


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

Hows this tank looking now?


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