Recycling glass for aquarium media use, Fish tanks

I have always enjoyed having 15 to 55 gallon aquariums around me with goldfish, frogs, guppies and such in them as it is a great inside environment,
IF you can keep up with the responsibilities of cleaning and maintenance.

I have all my "fish tank" stuff stored away now as It has been many years since my "home" aka fancy cardboard box was climate controlled enough for the proper support of inside aquariums. As I cut back on the heated and cooled areas around the yard I also had to cut back on the aquariums until I had none set up.
So now to the topic.

I have been saving the colored glass from bottles and such for years wanting to build a LARGE rock/glass tumbler out of a old tire from a three wheeled terragator sprayer used on farms. The tire is about 4 feet wide and about the same in height. Pretty much a larger version of the tires on the smaller 3 wheelers of the past.

I have all the parts to make a LARGE tumbler.

Has anyone else tumbled broken glass until you have various sizes of smooth surfaced nuggets and such?

I have been saving broken glass for this project for years. I like the thicker parts. The bottoms of glass containers and such. The old glass beer and root beer mugs are nice as they are mostly thicker glass, but they are mostly clear glass. I also save the broken "milk glass" that is thicker.

Just some of my thoughts on recycling glass. I have always been fascinated with glass. I miss the days of mostly glass containers where we now have throw away plastics mostly.

Almost forgot as I Live in a TIME Capsule of sorts. The under gravel/media filters are best for the sort of critters I like to keep as wet pets.

The power filters are not all they are cracked up to be from experience. They are fine for "cleaner" fish and such, but goldfish are just fancy carp that have friends in low places...

I shattered my glass door on the top of my tank today , I opened it up to feed them and when I was pinching the food the door slammed down and shattered . I cleaned up my mess but I found this thread fitting as I just did this about 20 min ago . It's a large 55 gallon tank maybe with dual doors on the top . Must have fed them thousands of times and never had a problem untill today . Might just cover that half in plexiglass till I find a replacement .

Not a tumbler myself usually when I break glass I curse , I really hate glass . I am a liability to anything delicate or glass .

I notice that you buy video games.
I myself like to dabble in the mostly vintage video and computer game departments.
Not to sound the braggart, but I have a very nice personal collection and hoard from many years of buying and collecting.
I do like eBay as it is the worlds largest garage sale, well it "was" in the past. The times they are a changing.

Here is a song from a fellow Minnesotan of mine.


"The Times They Are A Changin"

Bob Dylan

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Thanks , yes I used to test games for take two interactive a affiliate of rockstar games , I have played my entire life , well not as much lately , I am working on complete collections for the nes and snes first but have branched into a little of everything . So now I have to ask best fighting game of all time ? feel free to check out my thread if you ever decide to liquidate or have any questions .

You and others may find this odd, But I have very little interest in playing video games. If I do it's the older stuff and arcade games.
I have a very nice collection of Nintendo brand items. Just to give you a idea. I have way over 200 of the first original grey Game Boy systems. I would buy lots of 15 to 30 of them at times. I have no idea of just how many I have after the many years of hoarding them. I do know that I have way over 200 of just the grey ones and then there are the Play it Loud ones that were other case colors. And from there it goes and goes and goes. Sega Game Gears, Nomads, Wonderswan, NeoGeo, handhelds............

I have many boxed Limited Edition systems. When I would see something that I had to have in my hands I would pay a bit more then I would most times for game items. The most I paid for a handheld was almost $160.00. The same handheld today is bringing many hundreds, that is if you can find one for sale.

I also have repair parts. I bought ALL the original Game Boy battery covers that Nintendo of America had in stock years back. Found out later that the person that took the order wasn't supposed to sell them all to one person as they were all they had left. I also won many auctions for boxes of new replacement parts that came from repair shops and such when the new handhelds replaced them for popularity.

I haven't thought about this stuff in years.

I also collect the children's learning systems and most anything that has lights and wires.

Part of the reason that I have been getting rid of some of my hoard that doesn't personally interest me is so that I can have more room for my favorite things.

The game stuff is one of those favorite things.

When you are single you can buy all the toys you can get your hands on for a nice price.

I really like the Japanese game items as I like the colorful artwork and such. I have a very interesting assortment of Japan only Nintendo and Sega items.

I don't have all the NES and SNES games, but I do have all the ones that are not rare and a few of the rare ones.

I mostly look for bargains when buying for my collections.

Do you have the SNES Super Scope and all the games for it? That is a must have. I do enjoy the shooter games.

I will have a peek at what you have posted on game items after I post this, that is if I don't get side tracked in my older age...

Working on a tumbler, medium size. have a smaller one but it's more of a prototype figure it out deal.
glass is 6 to 6.5 on the mohs scale but also weaker the larger and thinner the piece. the thick bottoms would be the choice pieces
tempered glass is the best for tumbling but no reason you can't use that thick stuff, to fast and it will drop causing lots of cracks and chips in the glass. large pieces also help with keeping down the chips ext. gonna have to play around to get smooth clear pieces that is the challenge with every type of material put into a tumbler right?
Here is some ran with garnet,water,sugar and coarse grind as the media.
[IMG]http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...psgnyqufp5.jpg[/IMG]
this is after three days of running.
after that tone down the medias to a polish media until you get the results you like.
Edit If your hard up finding garnets and coarse grind you might want to try crushed up grinding wheels. some of the glues used in the wheels can cause problems but the price is right to try a trial run.

That's interesting. I myself have never tried tumbling rocks or anything else. I have tried reading up on it in the past to find out what to use for polishing media and such. But never was interested enough to figure it all out.

I figure that a large version of a small rock tumbler should work. I have thick rubber mud flaps and floor runners for the side holes and plenty of rollers and gear reduction units from old grocery store counters with the moving rubber mats.

When I parted out three of those I found some coins in the bottoms of them. A few silver ones, but mostly dirty sticky spending change. I find coins and such in many things I end up with. Old women's purses can have rings, coins and unused postage stamps hidden within them. I have found money in clothing in the past. The best find was a bunch of 1976 2 dollar bills. It was about $80.00 or so worth of them from what I remember. They had been washed so they were not collectable in my opinion even tho they were all in series. I remember when I was paying for some gas with some after I had found them that a guy wanted all of them that I still had. Didn't matter to me as I was just going to spend them anyway. I noticed as the years went by that I found less money and not as often in jeans, jackets and other clothes that I would look through before storing the good and ragging the rest.

I thank you for your input and reply.

I've never tumbled glass before, but , I have tumbled because of what's in the glass.haha

However I made a bar top out of tumbled colored glass and liquid glass.
It was for a customer.
My point, that there is a market for it. Arts and carft people seem to like the stuff.
Just an idea, you never know.

lol junk
Childhooddream
The best way it was explained to me was, think of a wave inside the tire and it needs to fall on its base not the empty spot. that's what your looking for.
if you start getting chips and cracks just slow down the barrel speed and if you want really high quality use a small dremel type grinder to remove chips dings ext.. cracks are bad and will end up...cracking lol
this is a sealed system so i need to remove the lid once a day to release gases built up. the tire should be fine seen several of those type of machines that tumble larger stones .
If you get stuck try local rock clubs (?), they may even have a machine you can use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by junkfreak

I've never tumbled glass before, but , I have tumbled because of what's in the glass.haha

However I made a bar top out of tumbled colored glass and liquid glass.
It was for a customer.
My point, that there is a market for it. Arts and carft people seem to like the stuff.
Just an idea, you never know.

---

I figured that I could sell or trade my excess tumbled glass and rocks. I Live in a area that has soils of many types. My property has a vein/ridge that is mostly gravel and sand with veins of clay in areas near the top. I also have marsh areas.

I have always liked interesting looking rocks that I would find and after all the years I have a very nice assortment of "special" rocks that I have found and saved. I would guess over a ton or so as I have big trash cans and many pails filled with them. I have found every color of the rainbow, even purple. I like the colored quartz and the "volcanic glass" the best. And the floating rocks are cool. Floating rocks you say? They are much like pumice with enough air pockets that they float in water. I don't find many of those and they are small and roundish most times a yellowish brown color. They sort of look like big rabbit poop or coco puffs.

I do plan on making some progress in the direction of trying some rock tumbling this year as most of the rocks are on the smaller side. I do have a few of the small hobby tumblers
AND here is a interesting note. I have a friend that was into racing fancy go carts and I got some of the used go cart tires from him. I believe that they will make nice tumbler containers as they are the correct shape and size for a small tumbler and they are mostly soft and flexible. They are much different in shape and construction then a riding lawnmower tire and such.

I have so many hobby type projects on my list from many years of thinking on them. I have most of whats needed for many projects. Just have to find the TIME and put it all together.

At least I have many things to keep me busy and entertained as that is what Life is all about it seems.

Liquid glass? Is that a plastic based resin or a silicon based glass?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NHscrapman

lol junk
Childhooddream
The best way it was explained to me was, think of a wave inside the tire and it needs to fall on its base not the empty spot. that's what your looking for.
if you start getting chips and cracks just slow down the barrel speed and if you want really high quality use a small dremel type grinder to remove chips dings ext.. cracks are bad and will end up...cracking lol
this is a sealed system so i need to remove the lid once a day to release gases built up. the tire should be fine seen several of those type of machines that tumble larger stones .
If you get stuck try local rock clubs (?), they may even have a machine you can use.

---

I thank you for your input. I WILL try a little rock and glass tumbling later this year as it is possible within my plan as I need to move all the containers of glass and rocks to a central area in the yard. I made BIG progress last year around the yard right up till the winter said it was break time.

I'm actually EXCITED to get out in the yard when the weather is nice and agreeable. I also have some helpers lined up for a bit of help and company.

Will see where it all goes and ends.

CD,
Liquid glass is an epoxy resin.
I've done many bar tops with this product. Usually in pubs that I frequently patronize. Barter system works great for these type of jobs.lol

Junkfreak: will work for beer.