30" tall acrylic thickness???

I had a 4'x8'x30" and it did have some bowing with 3/4" thick acrylic. Tank was built by Tenecor before they went out of business. I want to say it had around 3/16" to 1/4" bow from the center of the front panel to the sides.

I've got 3 here at 30".

One 3/4 isn't filled yet, the other is a 10'er and it doesn't look to have much bow at all. It's a Tenecor.

Have a 30" Clarity plus tank that's either 5/8 or 1/2 and it bows quite a bit. 6.5' wide corner tank.

In my experience it seems like 3/4 is enough, inch would be better, but tough to justify given the added cost. The one I have that bows isn't filled up all the way. I wouldn't go less then 3/4......

Anyone else have experience with this? Would the bowing be less on a plywood build of the same size. I'm thinking of a water depth of 28"

softturtle said:

I'm in the market for a new tank somewhere in the range off 500 gallons. I decided on a 96"L x 48"W x 30"T tank. Talking to a few companies, I get different responses on the required thickness. Some say .75" is fine for 30"T, other say 1.0" is needed. I would normally not think twice about the upgrade, but once material/shipping upcharges are included, the price is almost double. Anyone with 30" tall acrylic tanks have any input for me? Is there a noticeable "bow"? Failures?

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I'm wondering the same thing, I just got a quote for a 96x44x30 and was told I had to use 1" for the front and back and 3/4" for the sides. I have seen a few tanks this size and they are all 3/4. Recently I had a 96x28x30 and didn't notice any bowing, from what I've read the height is the only thing that matters. I read somewhere on here that the thickness would be the same for a 96x24x30 as it would be for a lake, no matter how big the lake is as long as it's only 30"deep.

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I'm parroting what a tank builder said on a different forum....something to the effect of, "Height is the primary factor, but length should also be taken into consideration."

This makes sense since the bow on my tank is largest in the very middle on the length of the tank.

The sides of my tank have no noticeable bow (it's 3' wide), but the length (it's 10' long) has over .5" bow. So I would say that using thicker material on the longer distance is not a bad idea. It might not be absolutely necessary, but it's nice to hear that a builder is looking to make the tank stronger as opposed to skimping on material.

I've seen 10'x30"x30"H made out of 3/4" and it looked ok. I've also seen a 10'x2'x30"H made out of 1/2" and it looked like a water balloon, about ready to explode.

Is the builder refusing to make it entirely out of 3/4"?

My Calc

https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid=y0e2966628a3377884c538436cb0952d87ae4

I have a 10' long 30" tall Tenecor built in 2009. 3/4" no bow

johnny potatoes said:

I'm wondering the same thing, I just got a quote for a 96x44x30 and was told I had to use 1" for the front and back and 3/4" for the sides. I have seen a few tanks this size and they are all 3/4. Recently I had a 96x28x30 and didn't notice any bowing, from what I've read the height is the only thing that matters. I read somewhere on here that the thickness would be the same for a 96x24x30 as it would be for a lake, no matter how big the lake is as long as it's only 30"deep.

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Click to expand...

To a point you are correct, However since acrylic behaves differently than glass it doesn't hold entirely true. Acrylic and continue to bow and even stretch whereas glass will simply break when pushed beyond its limits. The length of the panel thus is very important as the longer the panel the more opportunity for flex/stretch. This is somewhat addressed with support bracing such as doing a rim.