First Tank Build - 400 Gallon
- Thread starter Grant427
- Start date
your tank stand sketchs me out, all the weight is supported by screws; suprised more people dont say anything. but very nice build. i have 190 ply in progress
Someone else had commented saying that and I explained to them it wasn't a few pages back even with a picture. Thanks though. Good luck with your build.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, something went wrong with the 400...
Not sure if I didn't coat the tank with the LR evenly or what exactly the problem was there, but anyways I will explain the story.
Had a few people over to see the tank a couple days ago, was all fine and dandy and I noticed condensation underneath the vapor barrier (had the 2" foam board and vapor barrier covering the tank), so I figured I had got a little water in behind there somehow. So, cut a little piece of the plastic off and felt the foam, the foam is wet, so this is where things got sad... Ripped off the foam covering the tank to find....the whole tank is rotten!!!! I was a little sketched out because of the extent of the rot near the bottom seam, could have let go anytime and sent my 400 gallon all over the floor... anyways I drained the tank and put all my fish in the 80 gallon (good thing they aren't too big yet, but they sure have grown).
So needless to say... when your first plywood tank fails, BUILD A BIGGER ONE!
Picked up the wood today and got the majority of the tank built, doing things completely different this time, will post pictures later. This tank is going to be about 650 gallon (will double check that later), I am framing the tank with 2x4s and screwing down 1/2" plywood for the bottom, sides and back. Doing the front the same way as the previous build, with 3/4" plywood. I'm not screwing around with LR, epoxies or fiberglass, I'm going to use pond liner. Haven't decided for sure how I'll seal in my glass, but the guy I sold my old Lungfish and FSG to did his tank that way so it can be done, then the only thing I need to worry about is the window leaking and not to whole damn tank. I'll salvage the glass out of the old tank and try to make this build quick and painless... Hoping to do this build for under $300 (not including the glass cost from before).
Not sure if I didn't coat the tank with the LR evenly or what exactly the problem was there, but anyways I will explain the story.
Had a few people over to see the tank a couple days ago, was all fine and dandy and I noticed condensation underneath the vapor barrier (had the 2" foam board and vapor barrier covering the tank), so I figured I had got a little water in behind there somehow. So, cut a little piece of the plastic off and felt the foam, the foam is wet, so this is where things got sad... Ripped off the foam covering the tank to find....the whole tank is rotten!!!! I was a little sketched out because of the extent of the rot near the bottom seam, could have let go anytime and sent my 400 gallon all over the floor... anyways I drained the tank and put all my fish in the 80 gallon (good thing they aren't too big yet, but they sure have grown).
So needless to say... when your first plywood tank fails, BUILD A BIGGER ONE!
Picked up the wood today and got the majority of the tank built, doing things completely different this time, will post pictures later. This tank is going to be about 650 gallon (will double check that later), I am framing the tank with 2x4s and screwing down 1/2" plywood for the bottom, sides and back. Doing the front the same way as the previous build, with 3/4" plywood. I'm not screwing around with LR, epoxies or fiberglass, I'm going to use pond liner. Haven't decided for sure how I'll seal in my glass, but the guy I sold my old Lungfish and FSG to did his tank that way so it can be done, then the only thing I need to worry about is the window leaking and not to whole damn tank. I'll salvage the glass out of the old tank and try to make this build quick and painless... Hoping to do this build for under $300 (not including the glass cost from before).
wow that sucks good think you caught it when you did tho. well let me know how you do this one im planning on building something between a 400 and 540 over this year so we will see. there's a lot of people that say just build a glass tank and use 1/2 inch glass but that doesnt seem like it could hold all of that water and 3/4 glass is so much more
Yah, I wouldn't trust myself to build a tank out of glass, even a small tank like 80 gallons...
As far as glass thickness goes, no one has any real numbers, I was told that 28" is max for 1/2" glass, but I've seen a 36" in person, you'd pretty much have to test it out.
yea i dont know what really to do i just know i need a larger tank i have way to many fish and to many tanks i have 9 running right now
I've wrote about and done a lot of work with glass thickness as well as acrylic thickness. The industry set the standard safety factor at 3.8. If you put a lot of the aquariums made commercially up to the calculator i built you can reverse engineer the safety factor.
20g High = 20 1/4 x 10 1/2 x 23 3/4 = SF (1/4 glass) 2.2 recommended glass thickness for 3.8 SF is .33
55g Standard = 48 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 21 = SF (1/4 as per Aqueon) 1.5 recommended thickness is .40
So, we know that the 55g tank bows like mad without it's center brace thus we can assume that they are fudging their own safety factor due to bracing. This means the SF rating of 3.8 is meant for unsupported all glass panes. As you probably have noticed, a LOT of aquariums are built with center braces. The standard 90 gallon is a 48" long tank by 25 inches high. Most of the time it is built using 3/8's or 10mm glass giving it a SF of 2.1 or 2.34 while the recommended thickness is .5. There are tanks that are built that do actually match or exceed SF ratings but they are few and far between.
My personal DIY is filled to 22 inches of depth with 1/4" glass giving me a SF of 1.3. It's survived for 3 years; multiple fish hits, driftwood hits, moving, etc.. It's fully framed with plywood and has a center brace. The pressure on the tank isn't going to make the glass flex due to the bracing thus the major reason for the SF rating of 3.8 is out of the window. To be honest, when compared to a 55g I feel a whole lot safer with my tank than i ever will with a 55
At any rate, it's up to each person to decide the level of risk they wish to take. The calculator I designed can reverse engineer numbers for you based on the dimensions given for both glass and acrylic. Feel free to use it and play around.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?448782-Rivermuds-Glass-and-Acrylic-Calculator-(it-lives)
20g High = 20 1/4 x 10 1/2 x 23 3/4 = SF (1/4 glass) 2.2 recommended glass thickness for 3.8 SF is .33
55g Standard = 48 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 21 = SF (1/4 as per Aqueon) 1.5 recommended thickness is .40
So, we know that the 55g tank bows like mad without it's center brace thus we can assume that they are fudging their own safety factor due to bracing. This means the SF rating of 3.8 is meant for unsupported all glass panes. As you probably have noticed, a LOT of aquariums are built with center braces. The standard 90 gallon is a 48" long tank by 25 inches high. Most of the time it is built using 3/8's or 10mm glass giving it a SF of 2.1 or 2.34 while the recommended thickness is .5. There are tanks that are built that do actually match or exceed SF ratings but they are few and far between.
My personal DIY is filled to 22 inches of depth with 1/4" glass giving me a SF of 1.3. It's survived for 3 years; multiple fish hits, driftwood hits, moving, etc.. It's fully framed with plywood and has a center brace. The pressure on the tank isn't going to make the glass flex due to the bracing thus the major reason for the SF rating of 3.8 is out of the window. To be honest, when compared to a 55g I feel a whole lot safer with my tank than i ever will with a 55
At any rate, it's up to each person to decide the level of risk they wish to take. The calculator I designed can reverse engineer numbers for you based on the dimensions given for both glass and acrylic. Feel free to use it and play around.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?448782-Rivermuds-Glass-and-Acrylic-Calculator-(it-lives)
lol thanks for the info its telling me i need .87 for sides and 1.01 for bottom that sounds like that will cost a tun and weigh the same. i knew the guy was a little crazy saying .5 for the tank i wanted
