Acrylic Tank Design Question

[wednesday13]

There the pair of Coral Cat sharks in my avatar. Hoping they eventually breed for me. Female is 20" male is 18". The tank im trying to get for them is a 8x3 rounded end 500 gal. If i cant get that i already have an 8x3 450 gal they can go in. They are currently in a 197gal 2'x7' footprint. There doing good in there but id like to upgrade them once my 3k is done i can move alot of my other tanks around. They eat shrimp,krill,squid, and clams soaked in vitachem supplement. Live chromis and damsels off tongs and soon to be shrimp with mazuri tabs. These are my first sharks, I knew enough not to get bamboos as they get alot larger than the catsharks. Im glad i made the choice i did there amazing specimen, hope to have them for years to come.

 

[Phixer]

Cool build thread you got going over there!

Any recommendations on how to lift really thick sheets 1-3" in thick? I picked up a granite slab lifter the other day with rubber jaws that looks like it will work. Have to find a way to glue up the bottom section of the tank around the perimeter without using shims. Reason being, I want to prevent a dry joint so was thinking about suspending it about 1/8" from the bottom using 4 of these slab lifters.

 

[wednesday13]

Sounds like the granite slab lifters will work....ive always used suction handels but never had to suspend a tank like u plan on doing. I think u can get away with shims to shoot in the glue then just take them out to let it drop right on ur bottom sheet for adhesion. As long as ur surface is level it should b ok, but if i had the means to suspend the pieces i would.

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[Phixer]

Went by the mall yesterday and took these pictures of the seams. Threw in a few shark photos for you as well Wednesday. This is the tank at the Dubai mall, the thickness is measured in millimeters but from what I could tell it looked to be about 2 ft thick laminated acrylic. Interestingly the butt joints on all of these tanks are 90 degree flat edges bonded end to end with 2 part cement. Hope you guys like the pics.

 

[wednesday13]

wow nice pics! surprised to see they look like there just butted up side by side and glued. Those are some of the worst ive seen for clarity aswell lol...The tank in my mall is clear but waves like bondo would on a car repair. The seams you have pictured have a definite "line" down the middle but i wouldnt mind it so much really. I ended up buying that 500 gal double bullnose so i'll be able to get some good pics up soon of the oldschool way as this tank is over 15 years old and still show quality in my eyes lol. You can clearly see the "lap joint" far worse than what youve shown pictured so its a toss up on which way to go. Basically have to choose more strength or more clarity. Havent picked the bullnose up yet so i only have some crude pics of it in the store it came from.

 

[wednesday13]

Dont know y the second pic wont go straight lol but ill get some better pics soon when i bring it home. The store is keeping the fish so i gotta wait until they tear it all down.

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[wednesday13]

The seams on this tank are the "lap joint" style with an additional piece of square stock behind it on the inside wall of the tank so its sealed twice really. They do not clean it as you can see hah so its hard to tell

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[Phixer]

Thats a good looking tank, so the seams in the picture are the sides then? Are these the lap/notched seams you were talking about before?

The seams on the Dubai tank create a little distortion when looking at them from the side, mostly because of the thickness of the acrylic. Check out the picture of the eel, I took these from an angle. You can see a little bit of haze, thats from looking thru the acrylic at an angle. When looking at them straight on they are pretty clear but the line is still visible, I suppose it's because of the thickness.

What Im trying to figure out is if there was a gap that the cement was poured into or if the panels were pressed together. This would squeeze out the cement though I would think?

Im going back up there soon and will study these joints some more in detail.

 

[Phixer]

Moving forward as the LA fish guy would say LOL...



Going to attempt a V butt joint on some thicker stuff now. If I bevel each edge of two 4x8 sheets of 2.125" thick material and butt them together to make a V and fill the V in with #42 do you forsee a problem with bubbles or air entrapment? What degree bevel would you use for each edge? Have any of you used wax paper to keep it from sticking?

I like the other joint styles but am concerned about trapping air bubbles.

My plan is to bevel between 5-10 degrees on each edge, butt each together end to end with about 1/8 gap between the panels at the bottom. A sheet of plate glass clamped along the bottom with wax paper on it to keep the cement from running out of the 1/8 gap on the bottom. Then dispense into cup and pour slowly or dispense directly into void with slight overfill and then sand and polish flush.

Going to make several trial runs on some scrap I picked up locally with different bevels and gaps to see what works best.

Sound like a logical, rational process for this thickness? What do you think?

 

[wednesday13]

New idea lol....how about a straight 45degree angle joint. I'd imagine you can achieve this on the two pieces with a router bit. Watched tanked very closely and this is the joint they use for joining. I also have a new confidence in just straight butting the pieces together as the new 500 i picked up has alot of "butt joints". The bottom piece is actually 4 pieces butted together due to its rounded ends. For the front and back pieces they use the "lap joint" with an additional piece of 1" square stock on the inside for support. This tank is 20 years old so this is solid proof both methods of butt joining stand up to the tests of time.

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