If I only have 24-30" exposed to water, I think I should be fine. I have looked online at pictures of all acrylic rimless tanks that are 24-36" high with 1" acrylic and do not bow. with 1/2 or 3/4 it would probably bow. I am actually considering a brace that will not interfere with the viewing window but I will probably go with out one...I could always add a brace if I got a little bowing...at least with the acrylic it would bow it there was too much pressure and not break, like glass would and I would have to buy a brand new piece.
10 x 5.5 x 3.5 build progress.
- Thread starter MDFishTanks
- Start date
I will give the name and contact once I pick it up. I don't want him jacking up the price after he gets all these inquiries about acrylic out of the blue and realized a 96x48 sheet could go easily more than double his price lol.
Don't worry, I will see if I can get a discount of some type for members here since it will be bringing him business and the shop seems to have very low overhead.
Yeah, good info. I was looking at a 4X8 sheet of acrylic and the calculator required a 2" thickness and almost 4" if it wasn't supported at the top. You will be at half that so it should be fine at 1 inch.
So I have been reading about adhesives for the acrylic window to attach to the pond liner...it seems like there is not much out there to do this. I read that Gold Label should work but that stuff will cost me the price of the window to get enough to seal it to the liner.
Is there any other method?
Is there any other method?
One other option I thought about....use the whole 8x4 sheet of acrylic as one big window. The tank is 44" tall now, so I could add another 4 inches to make it 48". I would already have 16" of bracing at the bottom. Using 1" acrylic I can do a 36" water depth and have 12" above the water which I could add some type of falling thick timber or something, green plants, etc.
I am picturing something similar to this:
I am picturing something similar to this:
I love these example pictures you are using. Totally motivating me to get my project started.
How much trouble do you think it would be to keep the acrylic clean when you have the water level right in the center of the viewing window?
I love the look but it's gota be a lot of work to keep clean.
Another advantage of the half full tank is it gives jumping fish room to jump. It would be cool to feed an aro in that tank!
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I was thinking about keeping the window clean also. It would probably be some work, considering that I am going to have a small waterfall coming from the left rear corner so the water will be flowing towards the glass...it will look nice though, but definitely going to be wiping it down quite a bit...I don't mind.
I guess I could do something like one of the car window cleaner things. Sponge on one side and the rubber water scraper on the other side. Sorry, I have one sitting right here, but I dont know what it's called lol.
I guess I could do something like one of the car window cleaner things. Sponge on one side and the rubber water scraper on the other side. Sorry, I have one sitting right here, but I dont know what it's called lol.
As far as the acrylic window. I think I am going to sand 4 inches on each side and the bottom to rough it up and use 3M Marine Fast Cure 5200 to stick to the epdm and leave some room to adhere it to the wood also. It fully cures in 24 hours.
This is what I am thinking:
This will all be done outside of the tank and then once it is dry, I will place it along with the rest of the liner inside of the tank since the frame will match identical with the cut out etc and make it fit snug, but leaving room for expansion. I could screw & glue it but i think the pressure from the water along with it fitting snug will keep it from moving at all.
This is what I am thinking:
This will all be done outside of the tank and then once it is dry, I will place it along with the rest of the liner inside of the tank since the frame will match identical with the cut out etc and make it fit snug, but leaving room for expansion. I could screw & glue it but i think the pressure from the water along with it fitting snug will keep it from moving at all.
