Finally Upgrading: 600gl Plywood build

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
kallmond;3645071; said:
Why is it that acrylic tanks don't warp? I never thought about absorption.
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Hahaaa, I asked the same thing. The general consensus is that they DO tend to warp, but since they are a rigid box with water pressure pushing out, and the tendancy is for the plastic to bow inward, the two effects largely cancel each other out, so the acrylic doesn't ever tend to take on a permanent inward bow. In the case of a lid, the lower side is already in tension from gravity, opening the micropores in the material. As it absorbs water and sags further, more water can be absorbed until the lower surface of the acrylic is completely saturated. If you flip the lid over it will generally come back into shape after a week or so, and begin to bow the other way. Sometimes this effect is strong enough to cause permanent deflection in the plastic however, and you get a wrinkly lid.
 
kallmond;3645071; said:
Why is it that acrylic tanks don't warp? I never thought about absorption.
Click to expand...


Thickness most likely. Or structure.


a 1/2" lid seems excessive. But I'm not sure of the span you covering or weight of it.

That corrugated stuff looks interesting. Does it let light through well and is there any UV blockage? Don't want the lid eating up your plant lights useful rays.
 
It comes in various treatments. You can get bronze tinted, silver tinted or clear. It IS UV treated so that the polycarbonate does not degrade, but UV is outsite the photosynthetic range for most plants. UV also degrades fiberglass, and most fluorescents don't produce UV anyway.

(Besides all of which this will be a low light tank, with no plants.)
 
Thanks! Zero progress lately. I'm on my 13th consecutive day of work, and I had to travel damn near into the Northwest Territories earlier in the week. Efforts to spruce up my house have taken precedence in my spare time, as the wife unit is coming up north for a visit soon. That and I'm a lazy bastard these days - might be the lack of sunlight.

Feeders are all still doing well in there. I haven't done a waterchange, or bought pumps or anything. I think I may initially run the tank off the bucket filter I have on the big black tub, just to get it set up and get Norbert into a reasonably sized home. Then I can screw around with my in-tank filter at leisure.

Temperature outside is down to -15C or so on the average morning (although it was a balmy -3 today). The garage is staying relatively warm though, and the 600gl tank is holding at 70-72F with a single heater. Looks like it might not be as expensive to run as I thought! We'll see how warm the garage is next week, as the forecast is calling for -30.
 
A 2nd heater would be a good safety and probably not too expensive.
 
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