this just occurred to me, how come no one builds their own tank? like buys glass or plexiglass and the proper silicone and what not and just build their own monster tanks? It doesn't seem that hard to me, but maybe there's some fatal steps I'm not thinking of... It seems that you'd just get 5 pieces and attach them to one another maybe frame it off to make it extra sturdy and voila, it's done...
Building your own tank
- Thread starter bobblehead27
- Start date
There are structural reasons why no one makes large glass tanks exceeding 200 gallons in volume, the glass panels become too heavy to handle. I have a 265 that needs to be ripped apart and reassembled as the joint silicone is totally shot. Issue being the large panels are probably 200 lbs. as the whole tank weighs about 500 lbs.
As for why does no one make monster acrylic tanks... HAVE YOU SEEN THE COST OF ACRYLIC!? Seriously when you are talking spending 3,000 or 4,000 in material you stop and think maybe the extra 500-1,000 for experienced labor is worth it. Plus you don't account for all the little tools and stuff you need to get to handle large sheets of anything, to cut it and how to hold/support it for the welding process. Its pretty involved and you couldn't do it for less money that you could buy it built with overflows and all the custom holes etc that you'd want.
Plywood with fiberglass seems to be the most reliable for tanks between 500 and 5,000 gallons, beyond that you have to go concrete. After finally getting an acrylic tank and seeing how easily it scratches, I'd just do a glass pain in any monster tank... I just would never drain and buff out all the scuffs the large fish would put in it.
As for cost of building smaller custom tanks, if you can find a good supplier or go direct with a fab assuming you can cut it yourself you can save money there, but the returns are definitely diminishing. I was going to build a 300 gallon sump myself out of glass, I had sourced it at about 500 for all the glass and baffles, less that half what I'd pay to have it made. In the end I got a friend at a fab to make me a large chemtainer tub with baffles and a filter sock rack, was allot less money and allot less headaches(Glass sure would have looked nice though!)
If you do your own research you'll find that while there are def finitely applications for what your talking about they are few and far between.
So making say a 150 wouldn't be too bad? See my issue with trying this is I wouldn't know how thick the glass'd have to be in order to be certain it's not going to crack. Other wise I'd have researched it and perhaps done it...
