So I'm looking to finally build my indoor pond out of wood and I'm wanting to do viewing panels preferably otherwise atleast one big. The pond itself will be 8ftx6ftx 5ft deep roughly 1500ish gallons. I was thinking atleast 60in long x 3ft wide panel in the front and then 2 smaller on each end. My question is how thick of a sheet of glass am I looking at for the main viewing panel the side panels I'll ge the same thickness just cut smaller to keep things simple and safe lol. A few people have told me about 4inchs but that seems pretty extreme to me
Glass thickness???
- Thread starter Josh Corbeil
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4 inch glass huh...well it would definitely do the job. And the panel would weigh over a ton and probably be a light shade of olive green unless it was low iron which would make it possibly the most expensive sheet of glass ever produced.
Thats silliness man. For a 6x3 window i would use 3/4" plate glass which is still pretty expensive stuff imo. If you cut down to 30" height, you could go with 5/8". Take the height down to 24" and you can settle for 1/2" plate which is where the project will start becoming more budget friendly.
Well I've been looking at market place and found 1" tempered laminate. Would that work it's exactly 6ft×3ft. They sent me pictures and it looks crystal clear and I can get it for $50. I also found a big sheet of bullet proof glass which I'm assuming since it stops bullets it should hold water cost a little more but still $200 for a big sheet seems reasonable
Sounds like youre talking about insulated window panels which would not be a good idea. A 1" laminated window panel is two layers of thinner glass with an insulating air layer between them. To be fair, ive never seen anybody use this on a tank but i dont think it would work. The thin glass panels, probably 3/16", are nowhere near strong enough for the depth youre talking.
And no i would not recommend the "bulletproof" glass either. 36" of water depth/pressure is much more force than a typical bullet will carry. I dont know what exact type of polymer youre referring to or the thickness so i cant really say for sure if it would work.
You should familarize yourself with plate glass and cell cast acrylic---the only two materials recommended for building aquariums. I dont mean to be coarse but youre way out in left field talking about 4" thick glass, bulletproof glass, etc...it sounds like youre on a budget which i get but i would do a lot more research unless you want to waste a lot of time and effort on this with repurposed, ineffective materials.