Re: NANFA-- aquarium

Travis Haas (madtom15_at_hotmail.com)
Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:18:38 PST

>I plan to build an aquarium that will be 72" long by 36" wide by 30" high.
>When I contacted a glass dealer to find out what thickness of glass it'd
>take
>to make it, he said I'd have to contact an aquarium maker as they have some
>sort of chart that determines the thickness. I don't know an aquarium
>maker,
>so, is there anyone out there who has this information. Thanks in advance
>for any help.

Bruce-
Here's my two cents on tank building:
The Krib article that was mentioned can be found at
<http://www.thekrib.com/TankHardware/glass-thickness.html>
Although, I believe the suggested thincknesses in that chart to be HIGHLY
conservative. If you compare the recommendations on that page to most
factory tanks, the factory tanks are very likely to have thinner glass than
recommended.

"For What It's Worth," Vol. 1 (published by FAMA) has some very useful tank
building articles. The article by Mortensen recommends 1/2 in. glass for
any front panel larger than 64" x 20". I'm pretty sure that the articles in
that book deals with only plywood construction. As someone else mentioned,
plywood tanks are lighter (and usually cheaper) than all glass. I've
checked into fiberglass before- you're better off buying factory-made all
glass tank.

I recently built a plywood tank and sealed it with 4 coats of bathtub paint,
although I have vowed to never use it again. Not that it doesn't work- it's
just so irritating to the lungs. The 75 gallon tank that's in the planning
stages right not will probably be waterproofed by attaching fluorescent
light diffusing panels to the inside of the tank. Sort of a tank inside of
a tank.

You might want to further explore some of the other email disscusions
digested on the krib. There are several more pertaining to tank building,
although most accounts are by people who had no idea what they were doing
(Like using 3/4 in. glass on a 20" high tank!).

You might also want to check out <http://www.garf.org/140.gallon.html>,
which is where I got all the info. for my first plywood tank.

Good luck. How many people on this list have built home made tanks?

Travis
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