glass thickness and worth doing?

[Acura_RSX]

alright. well I tried to look up online but every site says different things and i read the sticky for glass thickness but alott of comments in the first few pages made me have ups and down doubts about the thickness guide. I believe he might very well make the tanks work at that size but hes made 36000+ and ive made 0 so don't know construction process as well as he does either.

So i'm planning on building ideally a 180 gallon 6x2x2 .. or maybe even a 200 whatever those dimensions would be (ideally keeping it at 6 feet Long) . so I wanna know what the general concesses is on glass thickness for this size tank .. I have never made one before etc so I deffinatly want a thickness that factors that in however I don't need like an outrageous number for glass thickness. Ill go with the general concesses after I get a few opinions.

Also, I found this guide online as for building. i know there are ones here in the thread but just from that site can anyone see any problemes or anything to add or a link to a build style better and safer for a first timer then that?

Also I would prefer buy the tank rather then build. however a 6x2x2 180 gallon here. cheapest I can ge it for is a grand and thats because i have a connection. not cheap to buy here. that price is CAD by the way. and if i could find one used id take it in a second but very rarely are 180 or 150 for that matter posted here so after waiting a good while for somethung to come up but no luck im debating possibly just building it. this should save me a decent bit of money over spending a grand I am assuming. am i wrong?

 

[superleggera123]

bro buying a 180 might be cheaper than making one
but anywaz
my 180 with no brace has 16 MM glass

 

[kallmond]

Someone said they see 180's for under $300 quite often. I've never seen that, but I just read that comment tonight.

As far as glass thickness, the 6 feet part makes no difference, the only part that matters is the height. (depth of the water). If your tank is going to be 2 feet tall, you could disassemble a smaller tank and use that glass. I have a 55 breeder tank I think is 4 feet long and about 2 feet high that I got free from freecycle.

 

[Acura_RSX]

bro buying a 180 might be cheaper than making one
but anywaz
my 180 with no brace has 16 MM glass

really? i havent quoted anyone to see the price of the glass yet but i didn't think it would be over $1000 for the 5 pieces of glass. :S

 

[superleggera123]

cheaper for sure bro
i just bought my 180 for 550 dollars including metal stand
its a very high quality tank made by miracles

 

[Acura_RSX]

cheaper for sure bro
i just bought my 180 for 550 dollars including metal stand

yah i know that but not here .. you have to understand ive shopped around and buying one new cheapest i can get is $1000 and its been almost a year and maybe once in a full year has something 150+ gallons been put up for sale here. .. very rare to find big tanks here so factoring that in ... my two options are either buying glass .. or buying new tank for 1000 .. tank by its self.

so so far i've got one opinion of 16mm .. can i go smaller and still be pretty safe or?

 

[superleggera123]

yea i think but my tank has no brace thus the 16 MM
Bro honestly just pay the 1k and buy the 180!
easy and way more attractive!

 

[warby]

A quick hunt around on google will reveal that the "general consensus" for a 2' high tank, with braces, is around 12mm thick glass and you should be sweet.

So, start hitting up the local glass companies for quotes for 3 x 6x2' and 2x 2x2' + the other bits and bobs you will need (braces, lids, etc... but im being lazy atm...). If the price works out to be under a grand and you think you have the time & patience to get it done - then go for it

-Dave

 

[warby]

Oh and don't forget.. you will need to take glass thickness into account to ensure that everything fits up properly when (if) you actually place the order for the glass... but just giving them the rough 6x2 and 2x2 measurements should be enough to get a quick quote

 

[sardesign]

you could always just say... heck with it and go bigger when i buy a new place that i plan on staying for quite some time, i'm going to build a few tanks into the home itself... just with front facing glass. WAYYYY cheaper than doing an all glass tank.