acrylic sheets (for viewing window)

[USMCtanker]

ok so im working on my plan to build a indoor pond. ill be using wood. its going to be 8'x5' an 2' tall. now i was going to just do the sides with 1" thick boards. is this thick enuff?
also my wife is now saying she wants a viewing window. so before i start to figure out how i would do that. what type of acrylic sheets should i use, i was looking at some online an there is diffrent types. what should i get or what have u used? also for a window thats 4'x2' how thick would it need to be. from what i looked at 1/2" is as thick as most places sell. thanks for any help

oh an im planing to have an overflow to run under tank for a wet dry. the tank will be 597.6 gallons if done this size. so what size pump an what size box should i build to give it a well over the amount of filtration. or any other ideas on what i should do for a filter would be great. like i said im just in planning an research part so open to all ideas. im planing to build this for my rays.

 

[nes999]

make sure you get cast cell acrylic

 

[USMCtanker]

make sure you get cast cell acrylic

ok thanks, will look that up

 

[pupumole]

1/2" should be fine with a 2' tall tank i think. dont totally trust me on that though xD

but for like 600 gallon tank, depends on what kinda fish u gonna get, i would have at least 3kgph wetdry for it ....

im deciding to build a big tank too, but 1. new plexiglass is freakin $$$$ 2. my mom doesn't trust my craftsmanship ( which is probably true xD i'm not that neat xD)

otherwise, good luck!

 

[USMCtanker]

1/2" should be fine with a 2' tall tank i think. dont totally trust me on that though xD

but for like 600 gallon tank, depends on what kinda fish u gonna get, i would have at least 3kgph wetdry for it ....

im deciding to build a big tank too, but 1. new plexiglass is freakin $$$$ 2. my mom doesn't trust my craftsmanship ( which is probably true xD i'm not that neat xD)

otherwise, good luck!

lol ya wife feels same about mine. but she wants to build it to so i told her to help.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

I did talk to several of the clear sheet companies that sell fish tank sheets

And the cheapest I got for a 4 foot high eight foot wide sheet was $1300 for a two inch thick sheet of the clear acrylic sheets.

I went on to ask several others and got $20,000 for a six foot high ten foot wide sheet that three and half inches thick and for a 14 foot long eight foot high four inch thick sheet I got $40,000.

So currently with this I think what might be posible would be to buy two or three of the eight foot wide four foot high sheets and have a fish tank with two or three viewing windows instead of one that is one sold clear wall of acrylic.

 

[USMCtanker]

ya its alot of money, thats why i plan to just do a view window, maybe 2 foot by 2 foot

 

[Pharaoh]

1/2 would work, 3/4 would be rock solid. I have a 300G that is 30" high and it is 1/2".

Of course, this comment was made assuming you would have adequate bracing on top.

 

[USMCtanker]

ok thanks, now just gotta find the best deals on acrylic sheets

 

[Ocean Railroader]

A&P plastics was the ones who quted me on the $1300 sheet of four by eight but there was another company that quted me $2300 for the same type of sheet out there. I do think though that the two by two foot sheets in one inch thick and half a inch would be fairly common