Planning a 200g plywood tank

Alright so I think I can officially say I've caught the monster fish sickness and have decided to build a monster tank.

After looking at my options I've decided to plywood is probably going to be the most cost effective.
I've already read a ton of threads on the topic but still had some concerns so I'm gonna lay out what I was thinking of doing and see what all your thoughts on the tank are.

So to save money on glass I wanted to repurpose the glass from my 55 gallon tank. From what I've read it seems to me that as long as I don't change the height of the aquarium then using the glass from the old tank should be fine. however a sanity check on this since I would be quadrupling the volume would be nice.

I was also planning on making this a square corner tank with the two plywood walls facing the corner and the two glass panes facing the room. I wanted to also plumb it to a sump underneath.

Over all the purpose of this build is to allow me to expand my aquarium hobby onto a larger scale while also learning technologies for much larger builds without getting to crazy.

So Something else I wanted to know is if any of you feel like I biting off more than I can chew. I do have some moderate handyman and remodeling experience so im not a total GreenHorn but I've never built a tank before.

anywho, any advice is welcome and i look forward to hearing from you all.

coolkeith said:

Many 55 gallon tanks have minimal safety factors and may only use 1/4" plate glass. You might be able to get away with 1/4" glass if you keep small docile community fish. But if you plan on keeping large tank busting fish, then you need to prepare for the worst. If a big fish gets spooked they may run into the glass head first, or they may whip their tail around, and fling rocks up at the glass. So you'll probably need to go thicker than what the 55g tank has. I'd say you'd need at least 1/2" glass to be on the safe side.

I'd just save that 55 for something else.

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muttley000 said:

I agree on thicker glass.

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I'm glad you guys said that because the dream was to eventually get a red tail catfish and I know most large catfish have tank busting reputations.
now, given the dimensions I had in mind were roughly 48x48x24. I plugged those into this http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium
and it said I should have at least 10mm-12mm. would you recommendation of 1/2 inch(12mm) still apply or would I need to go even thicker?

muttley000 said:

What method of sealing the plywood are you looking at?

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I was planning on fiber glassing the seams and then I was debating finishing the whole thing in fiber glass or using pond sealer.
from what I've read, aside from the sleep easy factor most people doing under 400g that did fiber glass the whole thing felt it wasn't worth the hassle.

also, I was going to silicone the edges to the front panels. How much lip is recommended when doing this method?

Also should I pay extra for the tempered glass or is standard fine?