500 Gallon all glass DIY

[slimstickman]

The calculator I used that gave safety factors gave me a 1.06 or something close for my dimensions. In my mind with tempering it would give me a safety factor over 6. If that holds true it would seem I'd have less of a chance for something to break than most. I was thinking of euro bracing the top and bottom so that I would have more silicone surface area.

The tank would most likely be set up for a month or more before I put anything in it besides water and the thought of glass bits mixed in with water vs huge shards with water sounds more safe to me.

 

[slimstickman]

Guess I'm going to just go with 32" tall 36d x 88" long, I thought about it and measured how long my arm is and that'll allow me to almost reach the bottom of the tank. Now for the second question. Should I do a floating bottom or just build the sides on top of the bottom? I can't find conclusive reports as to which would work better with such a heavy tank.

 

[auratum]

I picked up a used 8' x 3' x 3' 540 gallon that had been disassembled. The glass was 3/4" plate, not tempered. The tank was originally built with full Euro bracing top and bottom. With the Euro bracing on bottom it forces you into a floating bottom, unless you do the Euro bracing inside?

I know there are many people freaked out by tempered glass, but it is amazingly tough if you can keep your edges protected. I made the mistake of trying to cut a 4' x 8' panel of 3/8" tempered glass before I knew any better (from an old solar panel). I scored the glass and put a board under it to give relief and was able to stand on one side with all my weight and it did not break. I had then tried tapping with a hammer on the score line to get it to break - again all this when I was a teen and had no clue. Eventually the pane of glass exploded, but only after some amazing abuse and several very hard strikes from a hammer. The biggest concern I would have is not the glass breaking, but the glass bowing.

I also had a 150 Xtall that was 30" deep (4' long x 2' wide x 30"tall). This was constructed of 1/2 standard plate glass with the standard plastic trim and floating bottom. I think the bottom was tempered but not the sides. No Euro bracing, just a center plastic brace. I purchased this tank new and had it for over 5 years before trading it and never had any issues with the tank.

Good luck with your build and keep us posted on what you decide.

 

[slimstickman]

Leaning more towards still tempering whole tank, 32" side panels with a floating bottom. Target water depth of around 30". Has anyone ever done a bottom euro brace both inside and outside of the tank? I'm thinking assembly would be as such for my idea;

Silicone the very bottom Euro braces to the bottom panel flush with outside edge and let cure.

Assemble tank with a full 1" bead of silicone around bottom perimeter.

Install inside eurobraces after main tank is cured and silicone is cleaned up from inside edge.

Install top eurobraces and center braces by sinking the long pieces 1/2" into tank and mounting the shorter ones level with top edge.

Would this make me insane? I'm thinking along the same lines as Auratum, flexing will be my biggest issue with so much pressure. That'd give me a full 1.5 inches of silicone adhesion around the bottom perimeter and put me closer to the 400 gallon range. Glass cost is of no issue, it's all free as long as it's 1/2" (12mm) the boss is just giving it to me because we haven't sold any in almost 2 years since we opened.

 

[auratum]

Leaning more towards still tempering whole tank, 32" side panels with a floating bottom. Target water depth of around 30". Has anyone ever done a bottom euro brace both inside and outside of the tank? I'm thinking assembly would be as such for my idea;

Silicone the very bottom Euro braces to the bottom panel flush with outside edge and let cure.

Assemble tank with a full 1" bead of silicone around bottom perimeter.

Install inside eurobraces after main tank is cured and silicone is cleaned up from inside edge.

Install top eurobraces and center braces by sinking the long pieces 1/2" into tank and mounting the shorter ones level with top edge.

Would this make me insane? I'm thinking along the same lines as Auratum, flexing will be my biggest issue with so much pressure. That'd give me a full 1.5 inches of silicone adhesion around the bottom perimeter and put me closer to the 400 gallon range. Glass cost is of no issue, it's all free as long as it's 1/2" (12mm) the boss is just giving it to me because we haven't sold any in almost 2 years since we opened.

If you stick to 30" max depth and brace as you saying, I don't think you are going to have an issue with bowing. My 4' long 30" tall tank only had plastic trim and a cross brace at the 2' mark and you couldn't see much bowing with the 1/2" standard glass. Sounds like you are building this like a tank (which I like) and I would be very confident in the design. One thing to be careful is that new silicone does not adhere to cured silicone, so as you built it, it is better to try to do it all at one time if possible. You could possible use the silicone to glue the euro bracing to the top and bottom of the bottom plate first and just keep the silicone back some from the edge - this would allow you to glue them together and cure ahead of time (just a thought).

Based on what you are talking about, tempering seems overkill, but if you have access to it for free then I would do it. One thing to think about is how to protect all the glass edges. Can you glue something over the outside edges to protect them from mechanical damage during moving or maintenance?

This is just my opinion based on a few tanks I have seen/owned and limited experience in working with glass.

 

[slimstickman]

I run just about any of the equipment in here so I will be the one doing all the edge polishing and also the tempering. I'm really wishing we had a glass drill around here but I'm already pretty lucky on this project. I figured it out and at retail costs with all the extra pieces and everything I'm being given over $1.5k worth of glass and processing.

I will be building the tank on the stand as it will not fit down the stairs into the basement after assembly. I am planning on covering the back side corners with some type of plastic to protect them from getting dinged and the other two corners will be flush against the wall. Final water dimensions will be 30" tall 36" deep and 88" in length for a total capacity of 411 gallons plus I'll be using an existing 55 gallon tank for a sump.

I'm going to try and get some videos of some of the crazy things we do with tempered glass around here, maybe change some peoples opinions about it because that alone seems to be a major hang up for my idea with some of the forum members.

Lastly, I do very much appreciate everyone for their input and helping me bounce some ideas around. Might have been headed for a disaster otherwise because I want to go as big as possible. Thanks again everyone, and I will take tons of pictures as the work goes along.

 

[auratum]

You have more experience working with glass than most of the people you are asking for advice. From what you have described, you should have no issues with the strength of the build you are planning. $1.5K worth of materials & processing is awesome - glad you can take advantage of that opportunity!

Where I work they have a glass lab where we employ skilled glass blowers and craftsmen. They make larger scale lab glassware for chemical manufacturing research. I talked with those guys a couple of times to get their feel for glass use in aquariums and they had no experience with glass aquariums and were quite discouraging. The coolest thing they had though was a 12" glass pipe they made into an aquarium. There was a staight section about 6' long and a screen on each end to contain a few fish (zebra danio & sword tail). They necked it down to 2" on each end and then a long/wide U pointing up and over and then a 2" pipe that connects each end so it a full loop. Then they had a small in line pump to circulate the water. Can't remember what they did for filtration - it was many years ago.

Not sure if videos of tempered glass abuse will change everyone's mind but I would be interested to see them!

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

 

[slimstickman]

<a href=http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/slimstickman/?action=view&current=IMG_20130505_095745.jpg target=_blank><img src=http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/slimstickman/IMG_20130505_095745.jpg border=0 alt=></a>

This is 1/8" glass in our tempered recycling dumpster.

Sent from my Triumph using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[slimstickman]

Ok, second try. I was on my phone trying to figure out the app before.

This piece is 1/8" tempered that's approximately 22"x64"

With both hands I was able to make it deflect about 9 inches and in this picture I'm holding the end with one hand and it has about 3 or 4 other pieces with lots of broken stuff sitting on it.

My thinking is that with tempered glass aquariums your only two issues would be protecting the edges and your seams holding together.

 

[slimstickman]

I can also take a piece of big tempered glass, say around 74" long and set it down gently on the edge right on the concrete floor so that it's standing vertically and then push it right over on the floor. It won't break. Lots of times I'll throw the stuff a good 10 feet and if it lands right it'll just bounce and skid across the floor.

Videos don't work out so well because of all the noise in the shop. I'd be afraid of damaging someones speakers. Might try and edit them so that the sound is taken off of them and then post.