Help With Custom Tank

[KkAaNnEe]

Basically I just need to know about getting a custom tank built

I was originally looking for a braceless rimless 48" tank, but I am having doubts over the safety and am not keen to spend out on 15mm glass.

What would be the minimum glass thickness for this tank, or if I was gonna get some Euro bracing, what would be the minimum width of the bracing itself around the edge of the tank?

Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

If you are using euro-style bracing, I suspect you could get by with only a 2 inch wide brace but I have never actually built a tank using that style bracing.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Euro bracing is really a second choice, only because im unsure of having no bracing... trying to gauge some opinions on this and the type of glass I would need for braceless, cheers

 

[OldMan47]

I do have a braceless tank that is 4 feet long. It is made with 1/2 inch thick glass, which is far thicker than a typical tank that size.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Oh nice, at the moment a braced one will be made from 6mm at £100 for 48 x 18 x 18

I will enquire about the 12mm for braceless

 

[KkAaNnEe]

What would you think if it was to be braceless rimless at 10mm glass, possibly with triangle supports in the bottom corners. Or do you think it would be ok without the triangles?

 

[BigTom]

For a given volume of water, the pressure on the glass depends mainly on the depth of the tank. Someone wrote a little java program for calculating recommended glass thickness specifically for braceless and rimless tanks, as most conventional guides assume bracing of some sort. You can find it here - https/sites.google.com/a/teamvn.com/www/AquaCalc.zip?attredirects=0

I can't vouch for exactly how accurate it is (it seems a little optimistic to me!), but it might give you an idea... personally I'd be willing to risk a 10mm tank with bottom corner triangles, but 12mm might be more sensible if you can afford it - at the end of the day its your furniture on the line

 

[OldMan47]

You are right Tom. The pressure varies directly with depth. Unfortunately we are dealing with the total force on the glass panels, not the pressure at the bottom. The total force is applied to try to bend the glass and if the force is great enough it will bend beyond its breaking point. As it is, a typical 30 inch long tank bows outward about 1/4 inch or a bit more in the middle. An unbraced 4 foot tank will bow out far more unless it is made with thick enough glass to resist that bowing.