Glass As Liner???

[Hartzell]

I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but is it possible to use glass as a sort of liner for a monster plywood tank? Say, I made a plywood tank 8'x4'x4' - braced like crazy with 2"x4"s, then instead of going through the trouble of applying Pond Armor, 2-part epoxy, fiberglass, Drylok, etc., I will use a just-fitting inner tank made of 1/4" glass, and maybe use a 1/2" glass for the front.

What are the chances that this will work? Are there particular techniques to ensure that this will work? Will this be more cost-efficient? Hope the DIY gods here will answer this.

 

[Kent763]

Well first off, 1/2" glass would not be anywhere near enough for the front of the tank. You'd need a minimum of 1". Probably more like 1.5" really.

As to the glass as a liner part, I don't see why not. If you can get it cheap it's actually a better idea imo. If you can't get it really cheap/have it lying around already you're probably better off going with epoxy.

 

[Hartzell]

Maybe I could get away with 1/2" glass if I split the front into 2 panes, divided with a 2"x4" wooden vertical center brace and limited each pane to an effective viewing window of 3.5' width x 3' height, the rest of the plane being taken by wooden side braces.

But that's not my point; my question is: will a glass as a liner (in this set-up) work?

 

[basslover34]

Glass wouldn't be the best idea for that tank IMO... Use Acrylic as it will flex with the box better and you won't have a crazk showing up in the middle of the bottom plate.... The thickness is going to be a point so I wouldn't push it off to quickly Hartzell... with a 958 gallon tank you don't want to skimp on something like the viewing area...you'll need to consider 3/4 arcylic at the least for the front of this and you could get away with 1/4 for the interior.

Do you really want to take a chance at having 900 + Gallons of water on your floor?

 

[Hartzell]

Glass wouldn't be the best idea for that tank IMO... Use Acrylic as it will flex with the box better and you won't have a crazk showing up in the middle of the bottom plate.... The thickness is going to be a point so I wouldn't push it off to quickly Hartzell... with a 958 gallon tank you don't want to skimp on something like the viewing area...you'll need to consider 3/4 arcylic at the least for the front of this and you could get away with 1/4 for the interior.

Do you really want to take a chance at having 900 + Gallons of water on your floor?

That's a good point, although the tank will be in my garage, so spills are more manageable. At any rate, I understand the flexing thing. The material must flex as readily as the plywood.

 

[basslover34]

I was talking about using 1/2 glass... thats prob going to be pushing the limits of your design if I understand correctly what your trying to do ... use 3/4 Plexi and make it and don't have the stress of not knowing if your fish are going to be on the floor next time you go to see them

 

[maxumis]

This question has been around the block a couple of times now.
I myself have asked it. When we discussed it last time round, it was decided that the main problem is that the plywood isn't perfectly flat. It has little bumps and imperfections all over. Thus, Point Pressure on the surface of the glass is you greatest enemy here.

 

[hmt321]

pressure points are the major flaw,

but if you use acrylic how exactly do you seal it? am i right in saying that silicone will not bond to acrylic like it will to glass?

 

[cvermeulen]

You would be WAY further ahead to invest in some epoxy IMO. The glass would be very likely to crack with the imperfect (and flexible) support of the plywood.

Acrylic would work, you could seal it with acrylic cement, silicone, or GOOP. Arl built a tank using 1/16" ABS as a liner and it appears to be working.

I think you would be investing a lot more trouble than it would be worth to try to use glass panes to line a plywood tank, for a number of reasons. If you want to do it on the cheap, get a small pond liner off ebay - even if it costs you $100 (it shouldn't) and you have the glass around already, the trouble and peace of mind it would save you will be worth it.

Another cheap alternative is polyester based coatings. Super high grade tooling gelcoat (tougher than baked on toilet crusties) only runs about $60 for a gallon from UScomposites.com lower grade stuff is even cheaper.

 

[Wolf3101]

Thin plastic sheets would work out better in the long run but as you've read...there are a LOT of options. Auto safety glass is difficult to penetrate however it's easy to crack because it's never any stronger than one of the thicknesses of glass...using it as a liner would be the same...even backed with plywood it would crack just as easilly as ever from a small impact.