Carpenter needs direction on plywood tank please

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

If buildING a 16ft x 3ft x 3ft plywood aquarium how thick should glass or acrylic be ?

  • 2 8ft viewing panels?

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Well I got some 1" acrylic priced, and for 2 4x8 sheets it is 728.00 a piece. That's is expensive to me but really even after I buy them and all the wood I ain't tallied it all up. Honestly tho if I was to have a solid acrylic tank built from a company that was 16' × 3' × 3' don't you think it would be double the expenses vice verse a plywood tank? It would have to be alot more cheaper to take the diy route I would think.

It will be even more expensive, because 1" won't be thick enough if using acrylic. 1" would be glass, which is significantly stronger. You'd be looking at at least 1.5" thick, Some of the calculators that work for acrylic won't go past 30" high.
 
Can you even buy 1" glass? I thought acrylic would be stronger than glass especially 1" so which is more expensive glass or acrylic? And do you think the plywood route is cheaper than purchasing a tank that big out of acrylic?
 
Plywood tank is going to be cheeper. I saw a 8'x30"x30" on line somewhere that was over $2600 in acrylic. Glass should be cheeper for the same lvl or better of safety then acrylic by the piece anyway.
 
I don't know of anywhere around here that sells 1" glass tho. This is the only dilemma I'm having befor I can get started. I'm at a halt. How thick was the 8x30x30s acrylic?
 
I don't know of anywhere around here that sells 1" glass tho. This is the only dilemma I'm having befor I can get started. I'm at a halt. How thick was the 8x30x30s acrylic?

1.074? It's 1.105 for 16 feet, doesn't actually change much with length. And looks like that would mean you'd need 1.25" acrylic.

I don't know what the safety factor used is though.

http://www.sdplastics.com/cyro/aquarium/Aquarium.xls
 
I don't know of anywhere around here that sells 1" glass tho. This is the only dilemma I'm having befor I can get started. I'm at a halt. How thick was the 8x30x30s acrylic?
I don't remember. Not sure it said to be honest. It's why I started looking into plywood tanks though. I just settled for a really good deal on my 180 for the moment.
 
Are you gonna build one? What size you gonna make it. I can't remember if you did you had one or as gonna make one. I actually called atm and they said I needed 2" thick acrylic but damn that would be outrageous
 
Are you gonna build one? What size you gonna make it. I can't remember if you did you had one or as gonna make one. I actually called atm and they said I needed 2" thick acrylic but damn that would be outrageous
I will build one eventually. I just dont know when and since I got this 180 super good deal I figured it'd give me a couple years of satisfaction.
 
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