Acrylic Thickness help needed

[suresh2989]

HI Everyone,

Happy New year!

I am looking to build my own tank and I want to build 4' (or longer) tank but I am having an hard time understanding the thickness calculators online, right now I am set on the
below two configurations.

60" X 24" X 20" (L X W X H )
or
48" X 24" X 20" (L X W X H )

Basically a 5' or 4' tank with 20" height, based on my internet search and a very good thread on here DIY Projects and Ideas thread link and from one of the replies I found a very good calculator Thickness Calculator

But I still do not understand the Supported and Unsupported values, that is what it means to a DIYer.

For 60" X 24" X 20",

Acrylic Wall Supported	0.577	in		14.67	mm
Acrylic Wall Unsupported	0.866	in		22.00	mm

For 48" X 24" X 20",

Acrylic Wall Supported	0.577	in		14.67	mm
Acrylic Wall Unsupported	0.866	in		22.00	mm

1.I am planning to build a Rimless Acrylic tank with EURO bracing at the Top(No bracing at the bottom), what category is this Supported or Unsupported ?
2.Also I can see from the calculator there are different thicknesses for Sides and base for Glasses, do Acrylic not need a different thickness for Base ?
3.Are the above two rows the only things that matter for an Acrylic build ?



I have attached the drawing of the cuts I am looking to buy please have a look at it if my description above is not making sense.

As you would have guesses by now based on my Noobish questions, this is my first tank build, so please excuse if I had overlooked any basic things.

Regards,
Suresh Kumar

 

[Lepisosteus]

1/2 if you’ve worked with acrylic 3/4 if you have not.

 

[suresh2989]

Thanks for your input, also do you think the unibody euro brace is overkill ? Can I get away with doing the brace in thinner acrylic(1/2) if I am doing the rest of the tank in 3/4?

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Lepisosteus wednesday13

nevermind i see lep already responded hes one of the pros for acrylic builds lol

 

[Lepisosteus]

Thanks for your input, also do you think the unibody euro brace is overkill ? Can I get away with doing the brace in thinner acrylic(1/2) if I am doing the rest of the tank in 3/4?

Sorry I haven’t come back to this. You can do 1/2” top and bottom with the 3/4” sides.

 

[Fish rescue]

U need a pro to build this aquarium sir , tell them u want the whole tank made from 1/2inch ,

 

[suresh2989]

Matt and another expert from reef2reef helped me finish the project myself, the tank is now up and running for about a year now and I used 1/2" CNC cut panels for all sides.

 

[LukeOscar]

Matt and another expert from reef2reef helped me finish the project myself, the tank is now up and running for about a year now and I used 1/2" CNC cut panels for all sides.

good to hear. i built my own tank aswell. 96x31x25. went with 12mm / 1/2" all around. barely any bowing. front pannel bows around 1/8"th of an inch using a 4ft machinists straight edge. many people made me believe it would bow alot more using 12mm.

 

[suresh2989]

good to hear. i built my own tank aswell. 96x31x25. went with 12mm / 1/2" all around. barely any bowing. front pannel bows around 1/8"th of an inch using a 4ft machinists straight edge. many people made me believe it would bow alot more using 12mm.

Wow you used a full sheet a size ? Did you euro brace at the top as well ? Awesome job I want to one day build a 8’ tank as well let’s see.

 

[Fish rescue]

omg lol , you will always need a full top when using 1/2" on a tank this size ,look at the millions of acrylic aquariums out there lol