I've been pretty excited about this for a while. I started a new job a couple of months ago at a place building fibreglass sailboats. I mean 40' long, half million dollar sailboats and any skill I thought I had before has improved 10 fold.
I worked long and hard on my previous tank but it never got finished due to money issues and I have to admit I've lost interest in it now. I may finish it eventually if I find a great deal on the glass but for right now I'm just not prepared to throw another 400.00 dollars at something I feel is less than perfect.
I do have to do something soon tho my 50 gallon is overstocked and the fish aren't getting any smaller.
My little brother came across this 1/2 in thick octangonal glass table a while back and managed to have it given to him for free, it's been sitting in my garage ever since and I've been enamored with the idea of building an all glass tank out it. This piece of smoke colored glass is 48" across from flat edge to flat edge and the flats are 19 1/2".
My new job has given me access to all of the materials I need to build the entire tank basically for free. We have barrels of resin, epoxies and paints. My boss is pretty easy going and after talking to him about my ideas. He told me I could even do all the woodwork right at the factory after hours using their planers and saws.
What I'm planning on starting in the next week or two is to build an octagonal wooden frame 30" tall, fiberglass laminate the inside with a couple layers of glass matting for strength and a coat or two of gel coat for water proofing. Then when I install the glass the bottom will of course be the recycled table top and the 8 sides 19 1/2" x 24" 6mm glass I can get at the refit store for about 25 cents a square foot.
According to the calculator I have I can get away with 6mm at 24" tall if less than 24" of width. When I build the wooden frame I am going to oversize the top and bottom rails giving me a final viewing area of 20"t and 18"w for each of the eight viewing windows. So basically I'm talking about 24" of water depth inside the tank with a 20" viewing area. I'm guessing this will give me in the area of 200 or so gallons.
The calculater tells me that 6mm glass 24" x 24" has a safety of 2.0. This is pretty low but I feel that since my flat sides are only 19 1/2" and my frame will reduce the exposed glass to 18"w by 20"t I can get away with the using the 6mm glass and increase that safety factor by a healthy margin.
When the glass is installed it will all but together. I am going to adhere it to the wooden frame using this stuff called 5200. It is this amazing, completely waterproof, marine caulking that when it dries remains flexible but u need an angle grinder to remove it and it sticks to anything. Then I'll smear a bead a bead of the clear silicone around all the inside seams to insure there is nothing toxic that can leach into the tank.
As far as filtration goes it's still up in the air. I really like the idea of having some kind of gravity filter above the tank. Where the water is pumped up into the filter and flows out the bottom. Similar to what a lot of guys do with there ponds. To me that seems easiest and the most hassle free but making it big enough and still look nice on top of an inside aquarium escapes me at the moment.
Hopefully by next weekend I'll be organized enough to get started.
I worked long and hard on my previous tank but it never got finished due to money issues and I have to admit I've lost interest in it now. I may finish it eventually if I find a great deal on the glass but for right now I'm just not prepared to throw another 400.00 dollars at something I feel is less than perfect.
I do have to do something soon tho my 50 gallon is overstocked and the fish aren't getting any smaller.
My little brother came across this 1/2 in thick octangonal glass table a while back and managed to have it given to him for free, it's been sitting in my garage ever since and I've been enamored with the idea of building an all glass tank out it. This piece of smoke colored glass is 48" across from flat edge to flat edge and the flats are 19 1/2".
My new job has given me access to all of the materials I need to build the entire tank basically for free. We have barrels of resin, epoxies and paints. My boss is pretty easy going and after talking to him about my ideas. He told me I could even do all the woodwork right at the factory after hours using their planers and saws.
What I'm planning on starting in the next week or two is to build an octagonal wooden frame 30" tall, fiberglass laminate the inside with a couple layers of glass matting for strength and a coat or two of gel coat for water proofing. Then when I install the glass the bottom will of course be the recycled table top and the 8 sides 19 1/2" x 24" 6mm glass I can get at the refit store for about 25 cents a square foot.
According to the calculator I have I can get away with 6mm at 24" tall if less than 24" of width. When I build the wooden frame I am going to oversize the top and bottom rails giving me a final viewing area of 20"t and 18"w for each of the eight viewing windows. So basically I'm talking about 24" of water depth inside the tank with a 20" viewing area. I'm guessing this will give me in the area of 200 or so gallons.
The calculater tells me that 6mm glass 24" x 24" has a safety of 2.0. This is pretty low but I feel that since my flat sides are only 19 1/2" and my frame will reduce the exposed glass to 18"w by 20"t I can get away with the using the 6mm glass and increase that safety factor by a healthy margin.
When the glass is installed it will all but together. I am going to adhere it to the wooden frame using this stuff called 5200. It is this amazing, completely waterproof, marine caulking that when it dries remains flexible but u need an angle grinder to remove it and it sticks to anything. Then I'll smear a bead a bead of the clear silicone around all the inside seams to insure there is nothing toxic that can leach into the tank.
As far as filtration goes it's still up in the air. I really like the idea of having some kind of gravity filter above the tank. Where the water is pumped up into the filter and flows out the bottom. Similar to what a lot of guys do with there ponds. To me that seems easiest and the most hassle free but making it big enough and still look nice on top of an inside aquarium escapes me at the moment.
Hopefully by next weekend I'll be organized enough to get started.
