hey, does anyone know what to consider when building a large tank such as the one in the pic i'm going to attach. I'm thinking about building a big tank when i move an this looks a lot easier than building a plywood tank...
Anyone have experience building a steel frame all glass tank
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i preffer to work with metal. its workable where as wood once you cut it its gone, and you cant weld it
but those are big spans so i agree thick (1"+) is in order. i could build the frame in a day but the glass would take a month to pay for. smaller scale would be a cake walk tho, really the glass is the hold back as far as price.
but those are big spans so i agree thick (1"+) is in order. i could build the frame in a day but the glass would take a month to pay for. smaller scale would be a cake walk tho, really the glass is the hold back as far as price.http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139898
That link is the glass thickness chart based on tank dimensions. Glass is not cheap where I live...and I have an uncle that owns a glass shop.
That link is the glass thickness chart based on tank dimensions. Glass is not cheap where I live...and I have an uncle that owns a glass shop.
not sure where that was goin as the tank pictured is quite larger then your examples? any thing under 3/4 or 18mm would be asking for a big flood in my opinion
The thing that bothers me most is the gap between the bottom glass and whatever its on, the gap created by the frame
For that gap cut a peice of wood the same thickness of the gap and set your tank on top of it. I know its overkill in most cases but I do this on all my tanks (I love my fish and dont want their home to have a problem if I can help it)
does anyone know if the glass on the back, sides and bottom could be replaced with a wood and fiberglass sandwich, like in the attached picture???
I´ve overseen the building of several tanks of this size with glass/stainless construction. The front span of this tank needs to be at least 25mm/1inch Hardened glass. You have to use stainless steel because of two reasons; First the rust problem and secondly because of lack of rigidity when using other metal types. you could theoretically use alu but corrosion will still occur. There is also no air under the base. The area has been filled out with something like ply with a plastic sheet or hard styrofoam. Don´t forget Amano likes to create optical illusions like that. I know because i´ve visited him with my old boss in Japan when we were buying koi a couple of years ago. As for replacing some of the panels with wood, etc it won´t work the way you think. The metal frame as pictured is a help support which wouldn´t carry the load of such a tank alone. You would need at least double the thickness stainless to cope with the load. The silicon seals between the glass panels are still responsible for at least 70% of the stability. The metal frame just stops the silicon seals ripping apart if the seals aren´t perfect. Another advantage of the metal frame is that you don´t need to use glass around the top edges for rigidity (note the metal supports above the water level across the middle of the tank). One thing which I don´t like about the tank is that Amano didn´t powder coat the stainless. Powder coating in black looks the best (see below). If you really want to put a glass panel of this size in a pond, the safest way is to use reinforced concrete or concrete/steel reinforced brickwork with a recess for the sheet of glass. Maybe not the answer you were wanting to hear but with a glass sheet (amano tank) of around 5 foot in height, fiberglass and wood constructions start getting to be a little dangerous. Sorry for the dampener. 
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Thank you justin, not so much of a damper, i have a llong term investment which should pay out around when i should get my year end bonus so i'm researching how big of a tank can i put together from that.
Is that a fish store in the photo you attached??? looks very impresive, we don't have anything like that down here in south africa.
I'm actualy thinking of something about 4' high by 15' or 18' as i have an area quite like that in the photo in post #1 which doesn't get used for anything. I want to use it for the tank and all the filters so i may need a walk way next to it(and the filters etc behind) unless i have it on a stand then i can have all the filters etc under it...
Is that a fish store in the photo you attached??? looks very impresive, we don't have anything like that down here in south africa.
I'm actualy thinking of something about 4' high by 15' or 18' as i have an area quite like that in the photo in post #1 which doesn't get used for anything. I want to use it for the tank and all the filters so i may need a walk way next to it(and the filters etc behind) unless i have it on a stand then i can have all the filters etc under it...