How to Calculate the Glass Thickness for your Aquarium

[oscarluvr]

Can anybody tell me how thich the glass would need to be for a tank thats 48"x48"x12" high? Thanks

go to about.com (sorry i could not find the link) than search for glass thickness calculator

 

[jjdsplace]

great if your an engineer, dont meen crap to me, can some brainiac tell me what mine should be, its 6 foot long 18 high 24 deep.

i found this is the most straight forwa info on builing your tank gives full cutting sizes as well as thickness

http://www.garf.org/tank/buildtank.asp

 

[coolkeith]

I'm not so sure you want to use this to calculate your glass thickness. Warren does not calculate the pressure correctly.



pressure is actually density*gravity*height or
p=(rho)*g*H in N/m^2 (easily converted to N/mm^2.

That is the correct formula, but the density of water at sea level = 1, so Warren's formula is correct also. I used some of those formula's for a web version of a thickness calculator.

http://www.geocities.com/chefkeithallen/MaterialThicknessWizard.html

happy holidays.

 

[coolkeith]

great if your an engineer, dont meen crap to me, can some brainiac tell me what mine should be, its 6 foot long 18 high 24 deep.

Not a problem.

3/8" inch thick glass would give you a safety factor of 4.9 for a tank that size. 3/8" would be an ideal glass thickness.

 

[coolkeith]

Can anybody tell me how thich the glass would need to be for a tank thats 48"x48"x12" high? Thanks

I'd go with atleast 1/4" thick glass for a tank that size. If the tank is in a traffic environment with people, you may want to go with thicker glass though.

 

[Jamietron]

yeeehaaa thats an NZ website right thar!!!

 

[dmfd305]

As I watch others calculate the thickness of glass needed for an aquarium, you begin to wonder how much precision is truly needed. I watch a formula go up and another person correct it by a factor or 1/100th of a lb for pressure. I watch another correct it by adding the height of water over glass height. And even another and a fraction of a lb to the deflection of the center of glass or plexiglass. So how accurate do we really need to be? Isn't this why we ad the safety factor into these formulas? If not, I think we need to start calculating the absolute height from sea level so that we also include the atmospheric pressure. So here we go; P=Pb*exp [-g0*M(h-hb)//R*Tb].

P = Static pressure (inches of mercury) T = Standard temperature (Kelvin) L = Standard temperature lapse rate (kelvins per ft) h = Height above sea level (feet) R * = Gas Constant (using feet and kelvins and gram moles: 8.9494596×104 kg·sq ft·s-2·K-1·kmol-1) g0 = Gravity (32.17405 ft/s²) M = Molar mass of Earth's air (28.9644 g/mol) In other words, in Death Valley the atmospheric pressue is one thing and on Mt Hood it is another. So figure out the formula you want to use for glass thickness and understand if that formula has a safety factor in it, then go up to the next size glass for your own safety factor.

We could go on and ensure there has been a tensile strength test done on your glass, has it been checked for flaws, we could go on and on as far as correcting formulas.

 

[zennzzo]

HOLY thread resurrection batman!

This one was put to rest a year ago...

Oh yeah, welcome to MFK, you might wanna check the thread dates...

 

[CHOMPERS]

I wish I had resurrected a really dead one for my first post


Maybe we should have a contest to see who can bump the oldest thread

 

[zennzzo]

I wish I had resurrected a really dead one for my first post


Maybe we should have a contest to see who can bump the oldest thread

Yeah, like
On my new UGF, am I supposed to run one air line or two?