Building a 1500 Gallon plywood & glass tank
- Thread starter VLDesign
- Start date
nolapete;2883508; said:
Actually I am the least bit brave when it comes to tanks.. I always go bigger than needed.
I called several aquarium places and they build 36" tall tanks with 3/4" glass without issues. most aquariums have what 1/2" support on the top & bottom with the plastic trim and nothing on the outer edges. Mine has 2-3" of solid support all around the entire window. Also note that the tank is only 36" tall so it will only hold 34" of water and still allow me to sleep at night.
I am curious as to what scale you are using to base your thoughts on. Can't have too much information when it comes to this kind of stuff.
I've always been told that you need 1" once you hit 36 inches. Maybe that's something that needs to be questioned. It may be that they built in a higher safety factor and didn't go with the minimum to get by. I don't know for sure. I don't want to hijack your build thread, so I'll start another.
My friend's 2600 gallon tanks have 36"x72"x1" windows x 3. They are 26' long and 4' front to back. I know that the hydrostatic paradox explains there's no difference in pressure horizontally, but only vertically.
My friend's 2600 gallon tanks have 36"x72"x1" windows x 3. They are 26' long and 4' front to back. I know that the hydrostatic paradox explains there's no difference in pressure horizontally, but only vertically.
cvermeulen;2883566; said:
I wouldn't say everybody...... I still consider myself a noob at a lot of this stuff, despite doing it for years. It all comes down to where your standards are.... It's possible to have a better grasp on things than a great majority of the population but due to high standards you could be a "noob" OR lower the standards and be "an expert"..... Eye of the beholder's standards.
It could very well be that 3/4" is good UP TO 36" and they meant that 1" is required at 36"+. I dunno, but want to find out. The glass thickness sticky is pretty useless for plywood tanks as far as I can see after reading the entire thread.
What I was getting at is everyone has an opinion, sometimes people can be dead wrong, but they read something somewhere and so they preach it like they are experts.DB junkie;2883645; said:
Nolapete does seem to know what he's talking about, but I think he's being pretty conservative. I've seen plenty of 36" deep tanks with **1/2** glass. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go there, but I wouldn't have any doubts about 3/4 glass in this application, especially the way it's supported.
I know.... Opinion are like ********s. Everyone's got one....cvermeulen;2883725; said:
I never doubted Pete's knowledge. I don't doubt anyone's until they prove lack of it.... I was just curious exactly WHERE it came from?? Just asking for clarification is all.....
I know Rich pretty well and know he has plenty of stock in the overkill market.... I've seen his Tenecor that he payed extra to have overbuilt. The thing's bulletproof......LOL
I mostly tossed it out kind of fishing for references because I'm building mine very similar to this one, except that the viewing window is 4'x8'. I have more stock in build within tolerances and allow a margin of error than overbuild, but overbuilding is better than underbuilding. My first inclination is to go with a 2" sheet of cell cast acrylic, but if .75 does the trick on 36x96, I should be able to go 1.5".
