Hello, is 25 mm of tempered glass good enough for a 1909 gallon tank?

AR1

Redtail Catfish
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Jan 27, 2023
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Lol. I dont know, never tried anything near that big. Never seen a glass aquarium that size either.
Sorry for bothering you. You are the only one who comes to mind when asking about glass thickness. Maybe thebiggerthebetter thebiggerthebetter will know, especially since the guy owns a two ginormous 4500 gallon tanks.
 
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M1A1

Piranha
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Jun 10, 2013
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Well into the realm of commercial, non-DIY tanks with this question and rarely are tanks that size made out of glass.

The safety factor on 25mm tempered float glass, fully braced, for that size window is about 1.5; the safety factor on 40mm glass is 3.0 for what it's worth.

Gamble accordingly.
 

jjohnwm

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Mar 29, 2019
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Well into the realm of commercial, non-DIY tanks with this question and rarely are tanks that size made out of glass.

The safety factor on 25mm tempered float glass, fully braced, for that size window is about 1.5; the safety factor on 40mm glass is 3.0 for what it's worth.

Gamble accordingly.
Just as a frame of reference...the "typical" safety factor usually quoted for glass aquarium manufacture is 3.8; the glass aquarium maker I worked for back in the 1970's insisted upon no less than 4, and preferred to shoot for 4.5 or greater.

Food for thought.
 

Tucker.97

Feeder Fish
Aug 31, 2022
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the glass in total would need to carry 8 tons (including water, substrate, etc..) and as for the bracing, can i also use tempered glass for it?
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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It is not clear to me whether you are using glass thickness calculators of which there are several reliable ones AFAIKnew. Part of the calc is the safety factor, to which the prior posters alluded to.

The only thing that matters is the water pressure on a piece of glass and the weakest link is the length x height pieces. The longer the unsupported length (no posts for instance) and the deeper the tank, the thicker the glass must be. The width of the tank is irrelevant. The pressure on the bottom is also irrelevant to the thickness of the vertical walls.

IDK if it is a good idea to have braces of tempered glass. Maybe commercial manufacturers do that, IDK. I imagine if you chip an edge, the brace would then instantly disintegrate, which may cause a cascading break on the vertical walls.
 
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