Free piece of glass, what to do?

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Psylant

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 24, 2011
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I have the opportunity to get a 84" x 54" piece of 1/4" glass for free. I fiddled around with it and I think the largest tank I could build is a 66" x 18" x 18" (about 90 gallons) tank with it, with a brace or two. Could this be done safely? I have looked at the thickness calculators but this doesn't really mean anything to me. Does anyone have experience with this that could chime in?

Thanks!
 
In order to cut it or have it cut it would have to be float glass or laminated safety glass. If it's tempered glass you won't be able to cut it.

Do you know what type of glass it is? There are explanations online about how to tell.

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That's awesome. I would be more inclined to make the tank shorter in length and deeper front to back.

So maybe around 54 x 26 x 19. That should be over 100 gallons.

With those dimensions that's zero waste & nothing left over for Euro bracing.

Not at my computer & don't want to comment on glass thickness without checking.

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Whoops. 54 divided by two is 27. But same idea. And you have to account for whether everything will sit on bottom or if bottom will be nested inside of sides & front/back.

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You're right, I didn't think of those dimensions. Thanks. My real question was, will it be thick enough glass to still be safe? Safety numbers don't mean anything to me.
 
Psylant said:
You're right, I didn't think of those dimensions. Thanks. My real question was, will it be thick enough glass to still be safe? Safety numbers don't mean anything to me.
Click to expand...

I would read through some of the threads on this subject. There is some more "real world" discussion that might be helpful.

I know you said the safety numbers don't mean anything to you, but if you wanted to be up around 3 you could maybe build the tank at 15" tall. Then maybe you could get a footprint of 69" x 24" which would still be over 100 gallons. Or stick with the 54" x 27" footprint and maybe have enough left over for bracing.

Do you have some long-term tanks you're happy with? Maybe look at the chart linked below and see what their safety numbers are.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/pl...bles--Diagrams/Glass-Thickness-Calculator.htm
 
A thickness on a functional tank is always fine, until it isn't fine anymore. Of course thicker is always going to be safer. I have a 1/2" (3.46 safety) 180g, seems around 9mm 90g (2.25 safety), and a 45ish gallon that is probably 1/4" (2.92 safety). From these numbers I don't see any real consensus. The largest tank has the biggest safety factor, the smallest tank does not have the lowest safety factor.

My worry in regards to constructing my own tank would be the thickness of the bottom piece of glass, and the bottom seams.
 
I would use thicker glass on the bottom (3/8ths (10 mm) or 1/2" say) and use the 1/4" for your sides, ends and braces. The "L and W" dimensions can certainly be varied according to the dimensions of the bottom that you use. And of course the longer the tank, the more bracing needed. I actually have several 48" x 18" x 18" (70G) with 1/4" float glass on the bottom and have had no problems with them in terms of "catastrophic failure". But, I would give yourself a safety factor. I do have mine on styrofoam.
Jim
 
I hear you. Many years ago I ended up with a very old homemade tank. It was quite tall and the glass was surprisingly thin. Thinner & taller than a 150-ish gallon tank I had. I can only assume it was tempered glass. Oh yeah - it had no bracing.

It was given to me with a leak & I pondered for the longest time what to do with it. I finally decided to go for it & re-sealed it figuring I'd have to do so even if I turned it into a turtle tank with shallow water.

Long story short, I filled it to the top & even had fish in it for a while. But I was never comfortable & finally made it into that turtle tank anyways.

So sometimes peace of mind is worth more than success.

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