Making Plans For A 180 Gallon Tank

[jgray152]

I have been working on plans for making a 72x24x24 tank out of 3 pieces of glass (sides and front) and 2 pieces acrylic, (bottom and back) The Acrylic would only be about 1/4 or so since it would have plywood as a support and the acrylic is only there to contain the water and to hopfully save cost. I was thinking of using Epoxy paint on the plywood instead of acrylic but though that any flexing would cause the paint to crank and make for a very messy interrupted day. This is not going to be a perminent in wall installation where epoxy paint probubly would work out fine. This tank may have to be moved if we happen to get another house or if I decided to rearrange the room its going in.

I would have maple trim on all sides of the tank covering the edges and to aid in edge support for the glass. I would also buy a 72x24 glass top for the tank or posibly just buy the stuff to make my own glass top.

I will have front to back supports on the top of the tank that will be dove tailed into place. Not sure if I want one 6" piece in the middle for a support and have one glass top on either side of it or use a 3 3" wide supports and have one 72x24" glass top. The glass top will be set into a routered groove along the sides that will be about 1/4 wide, maybe 1/2. So the total length would be about 71 to 71.25".

Anyways my question is, would it be a good idea to use Acrylic with glass and use silicone to seal the two together? My theory is yes it would be ok but not sure how will the silicone would seal on the acrylic. I don't think there would be an issue but I figured I would ask other tank builders out there.

I was also thinking of using 1/2" thick glass. My glass company says to use 3/8" but that seems to small for me. I need more of a safety factor.

Keep in mind that the plywood will be part of the whole tank since the trim will be secured to the plywood.Plass will rest on the plywood itself or Acrylic.

 

[T1KARMANN]

I have been working on plans for making a 72x24x24 tank out of 3 pieces of glass (sides and front) and 2 pieces acrylic, (bottom and back) The Acrylic would only be about 1/4 or so since it would have plywood as a support and the acrylic is only there to contain the water and to hopfully save cost. I was thinking of using Epoxy paint on the plywood instead of acrylic but though that any flexing would cause the paint to crank and make for a very messy interrupted day. This is not going to be a perminent in wall installation where epoxy paint probubly would work out fine. This tank may have to be moved if we happen to get another house or if I decided to rearrange the room its going in.

I would have maple trim on all sides of the tank covering the edges and to aid in edge support for the glass. I would also buy a 72x24 glass top for the tank or posibly just buy the stuff to make my own glass top.

I will have front to back supports on the top of the tank that will be dove tailed into place. Not sure if I want one 6" piece in the middle for a support and have one glass top on either side of it or use a 3 3" wide supports and have one 72x24" glass top. The glass top will be set into a routered groove along the sides that will be about 1/4 wide, maybe 1/2. So the total length would be about 71 to 71.25".

Anyways my question is, would it be a good idea to use Acrylic with glass and use silicone to seal the two together? My theory is yes it would be ok but not sure how will the silicone would seal on the acrylic. I don't think there would be an issue but I figured I would ask other tank builders out there.

I was also thinking of using 1/2" thick glass. My glass company says to use 3/8" but that seems to small for me. I need more of a safety factor.

Keep in mind that the plywood will be part of the whole tank since the trim will be secured to the plywood.Plass will rest on the plywood itself or Acrylic.

a 72x24x24 tank is not that big just use glass all round why are you so intrested in using ply and acrylic

the silacon wont stick to the acrylic proberly

just use 12mm glass for the whole tank it will stop alot of problems in the long run and use a double base

tanks are fine when made in 12mm glass unless you go above 24inch deep then you need to go upto 16mm

i see you mentioning stuff about the top just have a good look before you stat at someone elses tank

it seams you have never made a tank before i recomend you leave it to the experts and let them build it

 

[jgray152]

I saw only two things that you said that was helpfull. I do appriciate the info about the silicone with acrylic, that was my worry. I have also thought about going with all glass but was wondering how silicone would work with the Acrylic.

I will build this tank and I don't need your opinion on wether or not I should built it or not. Where does experience come from? From actually doing the work.

I had looks at others tanks. Have seen the type of supports but I felt I could do something different. I could use glass siliconed as well for top support so it really depends on the final design.

 

[CFC]

Why do you want to build the tank?

With the cost of glass and hi modulous silicon plus plyboard and whatever you are going to seal the plyboard with it will probably be cheaper to have a cheap 6x2x2 made by one of the many companies now offering large tank building services, i believe Windsor aquatics will supply a 6x2x2 with cover glasses for around £210 (this is of course presuming you are in the UK).

Anyway i fail to see any safe way of joining glass to plyboard if you only want the base and back as ply, usually ply tanks are a box made of ply with windows cut out in the front and sides and then acrylic sheet screwed onto the ply from the inside and sealed with a silicon bead.

 

[jgray152]

You wouldn't join the glas to the ply directly. You add trim on top of the ply toward the front and the glass gets siliconed to the back of the trim. Prices in the US are rediculous for tanks. I havn't found a company yet that buils them for cheap. They are usually over $1000 US.

So far the glass will be $290 and all the wood will be a lil over $100. Im going to get a price with an all glass aquarium to see how much that would be. im guessing in the field of $400+

 

[jgray152]

Well I have decided to go with an all glass setup. There are a few companys around that will build and ship you an aquarium but for my size it would cost over $1000 with shipping. That tank would be about $600 built but shipping is over $500. No thanks.

So going with a rimmed all glass aquarium with a double up at the bottom of the tank around the edges for more support.

Going to research silicone more but is there a type that holds better than the other?

 

[CFC]

What you are looking for is a High Modulus silicone with no added fungicides, i dont know about in the US but here in the UK there are several manufacturers which make one specificly for the aquarium trade.

You will need a LOT of it, when they built my 96x72x30" tank they went through around 20 tubes.

 

[jgray152]

You will need a LOT of it, when they built my 96x72x30" tank they went through around 20 tubes.

20 tubes? Holy crap. I think the tubes are about $10 each over here. I have to look at home depot and lowes (two home improvment stores here in the US) to see what they got and how much it is. Luckly mine will bit about half the size of your tank.

Im going to design a little rig to help keep the glass supported and press fitted. I will see how that goes.

Thanks for the info.

 

[jgray152]

for some reason, its seems High Modulus silicone is only available outside of the US. I can't find anywhere that has it.

 

[CFC]

Maybe they call it something else there?

I dont know how helpfull they would be but if you phoned one of the custom tank builders and asked them what they use they might tell you?

 

[jgray152]

I have read some where that you should not support the entire surface of the bottom glass and only support the edges? I read that if you support the entire piece of glass that it could break? Is this true?

 

[CFC]

Nope not true, all my bigger tanks including a 180 sit flat on their base with polystyrene sheet underneath.

 

[jgray152]

THats what I thought. I couldn't understand how that would be true.

So I called the glass company and all the pieces and it will be $595 US plus sealant which the guy at the store uses something called AquaSeal. He says its the stuff I need for large tanks and I wont find it in stores. $15 per bottle. He think I will need atleast 3 bottles. They must be HUGE bottles haha.

So these plans look promising so far. I will have to hood support the glass from any flexing front to back instead of upping the price for more custom cut glass.

 

[jgray152]

WEll i found a great deal on ebay for a 180 gallon aquarium only a couple hours away from me, maybe even closer. $800 you get the tank, custom stand, 3 fluval power heads, 2 300 watt heaters with external thermostat, Fx5 ( which I already have), 60lbs of crushed coral and a 4' 2 tube light.

Sounds like a steal to me what do you think?

I guess there are light scratchs on the glass some where but thats no biggy.

 

[CFC]

I dont know what the price of hardware is in the US but by UK standards that would be a bit pricey for second hand in my humble opinion, usually around a quarter of the price of new is as much as you would pay for second hand.