big tank build need advice
- Thread starter beau1990
- Start date
yeah, the two panels from a 120 long, so it should be about 6'x6' and the height would be the same as a 120 long, but the last 2 sides would be wood or concrete
Details matter, boss
With posts every 2' it might be doable. The width of the tank is immaterial to the water-caused stress on the viewing glass, the width can be 2 feet or 2 miles or infinity - the ONLY two parameters that affect the stress are:-- the depth of water = the height of the glass and
-- the unsupported length of the glass post-to-post, or in a fish tank sidewall-to-sidewall, taking into account whether there is bracing in between the sidewalls, that is bracing attached to the front and the back walls.
The front and back glass panels of a standard 55 gal tank of 4'x1'x1.5' have the dimensions of 4' long by 1.5' high and could be used for a tank that is 4'x20'x1.5' and the waterborne stress on the front and back 4'x1.5' glass panels would be the same.
The safety factor wouldn't be!
If you notice, in all glass thickness calculators a safety factor plays an important role, because when a 4'x1'x1.5' tanks breaks, it's a small chance of serious injury and one soggy room cleanup, but when a 4'x20'x1.5' breaks, there a LOT more rushing water and it will make any sharp piece of glass rushing in your direction a far more serious menace, plus the whole house will get flooded.
That's why I proposed extra bracing and extra-posts with only 2' unsupported glass length, not 4'.
Surely glass breaks not only due to water pressure. As I stated, poor leveling can add lots of stress, especially for such long front viewing wall. Plus a fully grown RTC will break such glass like it's a potato chip. Any furniture thrown by a fish against it is also a danger. Any nick or a deep scratch or a manufacturing imperfection is too correspondingly more, much more of a danger in a 4x20x1.5 versus 4x1x1.5.
.............................
I am currently designing my next tank - a 5500 gal 40' x 4'-6' x 4' full acrylic but the bottom, sidewalls, and the backwall will be of 1/3" acrylic and the water pressure will be taken by plywood and posts. You can think of it as a plywood / wood plank tank with an acrylic box-welded liner. The front viewing wall will be ten 4'x4'x3/4" acrylic panels with posts every 4'...
... Similar to my 45'x4' window in the 25,000 gal koi pond glued out of five 9'x4'x3/4" acrylic panels. The latter is not filled to the top but about 10" below the top, bottom 6" is buried. Anyhow, lots of details there matter - how I glued the window together - with 1' overlaps left and right, on both sides - front and back, plus 6" reinforcement along the perimeter of each of the 5 panels, etc.
Surely, acrylic is much safer vs glass. Plus it is on the floor of my fish pavilion, not anywhere near the living quarters.
The acrylic was $2000 off CL and the glue was $2000. $4000 for a huge (ugly admittedly) acrylic window with fully acrylic posts 4' in the ground, self made and installed by hand with no heavy machinery. Versus ~$50,000 manufactured and delivered 1.5"-2" acrylic window that would be extremely pretty, one piece, much safer, etc. You pick and choose.
wednesday13
what do you think, my Sensei?Safety factor must be considered, per above going. Yes, the water pressure on the glass will be same. The consequence of the breakage will be much, much different.
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Details matter, boss
-- the depth of water = the height of the glass and
-- the unsupported length of the glass post-to-post, or in a fish tank sidewall-to-sidewall, taking into account whether there is bracing in between the sidewalls, that is bracing attached to the front and the back walls.
The front and back glass panels of a standard 55 gal tank of 4'x1'x1.5' have the dimensions of 4' long by 1.5' high and could be used for a tank that is 4'x20'x1.5' and the waterborne stress on the front and back 4'x1.5' glass panels would be the same.
The safety factor wouldn't be!
If you notice, in all glass thickness calculators a safety factor plays an important role, because when a 4'x1'x1.5' tanks breaks, it's a small chance of serious injury and one soggy room cleanup, but when a 4'x20'x1.5' breaks, there a LOT more rushing water and it will make any sharp piece of glass rushing in your direction a far more serious menace, plus the whole house will get flooded.
That's why I proposed extra bracing and extra-posts with only 2' unsupported glass length, not 4'.
Surely glass breaks not only due to water pressure. As I stated, poor leveling can add lots of stress, especially for such long front viewing wall. Plus a fully grown RTC will break such glass like it's a potato chip. Any furniture thrown by a fish against it is also a danger. Any nick or a deep scratch or a manufacturing imperfection is too correspondingly more, much more of a danger in a 4x20x1.5 versus 4x1x1.5.
.............................
I am currently designing my next tank - a 5500 gal 40' x 4'-6' x 4' full acrylic but the bottom, sidewalls, and the backwall will be of 1/3" acrylic and the water pressure will be taken by plywood and posts. You can think of it as a plywood / wood plank tank with an acrylic box-welded liner. The front viewing wall will be ten 4'x4'x3/4" acrylic panels with posts every 4'...
... Similar to my 45'x4' window in the 25,000 gal koi pond glued out of five 9'x4'x3/4" acrylic panels. The latter is not filled to the top but about 10" below the top, bottom 6" is buried. Anyhow, lots of details there matter - how I glued the window together - with 1' overlaps left and right, on both sides - front and back, plus 6" reinforcement along the perimeter of each of the 5 panels, etc.
Surely, acrylic is much safer vs glass. Plus it is on the floor of my fish pavilion, not anywhere near the living quarters.
The acrylic was $2000 off CL and the glue was $2000. $4000 for a huge (ugly admittedly) acrylic window with fully acrylic posts 4' in the ground, self made and installed by hand with no heavy machinery. Versus ~$50,000 manufactured and delivered 1.5"-2" acrylic window that would be extremely pretty, one piece, much safer, etc. You pick and choose.
Safety factor must be considered, per above going. Yes, the water pressure on the glass will be same. The consequence of the breakage will be much, much different.
Ok thanks, so it'll be no different as far as pressure goes, I was going to add in bits of wood to hold in the glass panel more securely, but it would still work, despite being 3 times larger than the original tank?
I'm largely basing it off of one of Joey Mullen's videos but bigger and bracing the **** out of it
The answer to this question would make me largely reiterate my prior post.
Let me put it this way. If you suspend a tennis ball on a thin thread off the ceiling above your desk where you sit and work, you'd probably eventually forget about it as you will be comfortable, not worried.
If you suspend an iron, even on a thick rope, you won't be comfortable. You'll be checking it often for how well it holds and still won't be comfortable working at your desk. Perhaps unless you also hook a 5000 lbs towing chain to the iron and 100% secure the chain to a 2x10 floor board of the stair above. Then you might be able to find peace.
In my prior post, I was trying to get across the thought that for it, as you put it, to "still work", would take getting a lot of details right, to which details (what if's) you normally wouldn't even think of if it was a smaller tank ... or a tennis ball on a thread.
hmmmmm, ok, I just can't find any place that sells a single large sheet of glass at the right size and the right thickness and right type, also, where'd you get your panel from? you said CL, but what is that
Finding glass is the easiest part bout building tanks with huge dimensions. You can order glass through your local glasscompany with ease. It will cost you a bit but they will get you the glass.
oh, I wasn't aware they'd do that just for you specifically, the problem then however is getting it to where you need it to be.
