Good lord, that's a huge sheet. I'm thinking of doing a 9' long build that will be at least 2' deep and 3' high. I THOUGHT it'd be nearly 1000gal. I was surprised to find out after using the conversion calculator (elsewhere in this website) that it will be "ONLY" 405gal. Now I gotta go find the other pages that covers minimum glass/acrylic and plywood thicknesses for given water column size.
4300 Gallon Plywood Build (3600+ Take 2)
- Thread starter nolapete
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Dude I feel what your saying. I was going to build a tank that was just a bit bigger than that and I going to tell people it was going to be more than 1000 gallons. Well thankfully I looked into it more before I said anything because it turned it to only be about 550 gallons. Man was I shocked.Lanaka;3620758; said:
Anyways here's a link to Rivermuds thread about glass thickness:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258490&highlight=rivermud
And a link to his calculator (also in the above thread):
http://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/rivermud76/glass-thickness-calculator-1
From what I've seen it looks fairly accurate and it it seems a lot of thought was put into it.
Calculation is is Length x Width x Height in inches divided by 231 gives approximate gallons.
At 3', you can use 1 inch acrylic or glass and be safe. I could have gone with 1.25"-1.5", but I got a deal on 2" I couldn't pass up.
John Starret at Laird Plastic in Houston is who I dealt with. Tell him I sent you there and have him refer you to the closest Laird office in your locale.
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I had promised myself that I would salvage as much as possible from the first attempt at framing the tank. I have a pocket full of 3" deck screws and enough 2x6s to go up another 2 levels on the header like I decided to. I should only have to buy a couple 1x4s and 1x6s to finish up the framing. I'll need more 2x6s for the floor, but not counting that in this part. At least not yet.
Going to cut the pieces and fit everything before screwing and gluing it. Pictures sometime late this afternoon.
At 3', you can use 1 inch acrylic or glass and be safe. I could have gone with 1.25"-1.5", but I got a deal on 2" I couldn't pass up.
John Starret at Laird Plastic in Houston is who I dealt with. Tell him I sent you there and have him refer you to the closest Laird office in your locale.
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I had promised myself that I would salvage as much as possible from the first attempt at framing the tank. I have a pocket full of 3" deck screws and enough 2x6s to go up another 2 levels on the header like I decided to. I should only have to buy a couple 1x4s and 1x6s to finish up the framing. I'll need more 2x6s for the floor, but not counting that in this part. At least not yet.
Going to cut the pieces and fit everything before screwing and gluing it. Pictures sometime late this afternoon.
I had someone come over today to bring a redtail catfish, so I didn't get over to Lowe's to get the 1x6's and 1x4's I need yet.
First pic: The screws are pushing the 2x6 up above the 2x4 frame. I need to trim the upright boards, so I didn't bother with it. A 1x6 goes between the 2x6s to even the header with the wall so that they can tie in together.
Second pic: The piece of 2x6 is where the acrylic goes in front of the 2x4 frame. I need to put a piece of 1x6 between the 2x4 frame and the 2x6 vertical boards to make up the difference.
Third pic: Right side of the window looking from back of tank. 1x4s will be used to increase the 2x4 thickness to make up for the 3/8" space all around the acrylic for Dow 795. BTW, Dow 795 bonds to hard rubber so much so that it becomes part of it. It also bonds to wood incredibly well.
Fourth pic: Left side of the window viewed from back of the tank. In hindsight, I wish I had attached one of the vertical boards to the wall as I was assembling it. It's not flush in spots. Nothing to worry about, but just not as well done as I would like. The boards seen attached to the left wall are for aligning the boards during assembly. It helped, but I really needed another set of eyes on it.
Fifth pic: The right corner from the back where the tank jogs over the support for the house. Two of the header boards are screwed down all around. Still fitting in the front and figuring out the rest of it.
First pic: The screws are pushing the 2x6 up above the 2x4 frame. I need to trim the upright boards, so I didn't bother with it. A 1x6 goes between the 2x6s to even the header with the wall so that they can tie in together.
Second pic: The piece of 2x6 is where the acrylic goes in front of the 2x4 frame. I need to put a piece of 1x6 between the 2x4 frame and the 2x6 vertical boards to make up the difference.
Third pic: Right side of the window looking from back of tank. 1x4s will be used to increase the 2x4 thickness to make up for the 3/8" space all around the acrylic for Dow 795. BTW, Dow 795 bonds to hard rubber so much so that it becomes part of it. It also bonds to wood incredibly well.
Fourth pic: Left side of the window viewed from back of the tank. In hindsight, I wish I had attached one of the vertical boards to the wall as I was assembling it. It's not flush in spots. Nothing to worry about, but just not as well done as I would like. The boards seen attached to the left wall are for aligning the boards during assembly. It helped, but I really needed another set of eyes on it.
Fifth pic: The right corner from the back where the tank jogs over the support for the house. Two of the header boards are screwed down all around. Still fitting in the front and figuring out the rest of it.
You can't really get the feel for how big this thing is through these pics, but here's two with the plastic down on the front.
Discovered a huge measurement problem on the 2x4 frame. I calculated the 2 side 2x4s at 1.5" each and ADDED 3" to the length like they were going to be on the sides and cut them to where they would be in between the two long boards. Fortunately, I am only fitting everything right now and was able to catch it before I started gluing and screwing everything down. Easy fix with the long boards 3" too long. Two cuts to make and then all is well. I'm going to use this to my advantage and adjust it to fit my vertical boards snug. All works out.
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