DIY 7 FOOTER HELP PLEASE

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DANNYBOY220

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2008
5
0
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ENGLAND
HI ALL
BEEN ON HERE FOR A WHILE NOW WATCHING necrocansis ON HIS BUILD AND IT HAS INSPIRED ME UNFORTUNATELY MY WIFE IS CLEARLY NOT OF THE SAME CALIBRE OF HIS LADY BUT SHE IS ALLOWING ME A 7FT BY 2FT BY 2.5FT HIGH TANK AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO BUILD IT MYSELF
I THINK I UNDERSTAND THE BASICS BUT ANY ADVICE WILL BE APPRECIATED

I'm thinking that the glass will need to be 10mm thick and i will need 4 bracing supports at the top and the same at the bottom of the tank for extra support will i need to brace the corners with anything and if so what obviously it needs to be strong i estimate that it will hold about 992 litres (220 uk gallons) when complete i will fill her up and leave her in my shed for a month to test for leaks ect as eventually this will be for my fish only marine setup
thanks guys
 
See if you can sneak at least a little more width out of the tank. Go for 36". It will give you a LOT more options.
 
I do not think 3/8 glass will cut it. The 220's over hear are 1/2'' or 12.7mm.
 
DANNYBOY220;2801396; said:
HI ALL
BEEN ON HERE FOR A WHILE NOW WATCHING necrocansis ON HIS BUILD AND IT HAS INSPIRED ME UNFORTUNATELY MY WIFE IS CLEARLY NOT OF THE SAME CALIBRE OF HIS LADY BUT SHE IS ALLOWING ME A 7FT BY 2FT BY 2.5FT HIGH TANK AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO BUILD IT MYSELF
I THINK I UNDERSTAND THE BASICS BUT ANY ADVICE WILL BE APPRECIATED

I'm thinking that the glass will need to be 10mm thick and i will need 4 bracing supports at the top and the same at the bottom of the tank for extra support will i need to brace the corners with anything and if so what obviously it needs to be strong i estimate that it will hold about 992 litres (220 uk gallons) when complete i will fill her up and leave her in my shed for a month to test for leaks ect as eventually this will be for my fish only marine setup
thanks guys
Click to expand...

By my guesstimate a tank of those measurements will be closer to 240 US gallons. But what I do know for sure is that my 180gal tank measures 72Lx20Wx30H (inches) and the glass is 5/8 inch thick and it's all non-tempered glass, and heavy as hell too. My stand is built using 6-4x4's as uprights and the rest is 2x4's all bolted together with 1/4 inch threaded bolts.
:popcorn:
 
I would use at least half inch thick glass and as far as bracing goes its definitely going to be necessary on the top but the bottom should be ok. It will depend on the thickness of the plywood you use. To be honest I'm currently in the process of building a tank just a bit bigger than that and I'm going to test fill it tommorow. If you have any questions let me know and maybe I can give you some advice. Unless the test full goes horribly wrong then I would ask someone else. Lol.
 
HI GUYS THAT SOUNDS GREAT HALF INCH GLASS ISNT A PROBLEM
the volume is worked out with uk gallons i dont know the conversion to us gallons but TEQUILA im sure you are right i dont think adding a little more width 36" should be fine what other extra options does it give me PHAROAH
BRIANHELLNO that sounds great i hope it goes well please keep me updated probably a stupid question but why do i need plywood for the tank
thanks again guys
 
Well you don't need to use plywood that's just what I went with. I guess you could use any solid surface as long as it's strong enough to support the weight. Unfortunately for my build I filled it and it sat successfully for about 2 hours and then a pin hole leak started to appear near the bottom of the window. It leaked so slowly that if you wiped away the water you wouldn't notice it for about five more minutes. I let the silicone cure for 48 hours but it looked like it didn't fully cure under the acrylic because it appeared the water was pushing a bit of silicone out. I'm somewhat put off but I'm going to try resealing the edge along the acrylic and see if that fixes it.
 
It will give you more options later on down the road in case you decide to put some monsters in there the 36" width will let you have a larger footprint and increase the territories within the tank for territorial fish. Plus, more gallonage give you more stability.
 
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