help with 900gal glass\wood design

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H

hotdog69

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2006
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cali
the dimensions: 120x48x36
frame is made out of 4x4's
more details in the picture

i just want to know if this design will be safe? i'm mainly just wondering if the glass can hold up in this situation. even my glass thickness calculator is saying that the safety factor would be 0.712 and people use 3.8 as their safety factor.

120x48x36 prototype large.JPG
 
that seems like a lot of glass and not enough support around the edges

i would try to support at least three inches on something that tall and long
 
Is your glass tempered? If not, I wouldn't trust it at that height. I would also recomend 3-4" frame along all edges of the glass and a center support.
Guinness
 
frist .712 is almost 3/4 of an inch, not 3/8. you could use 3/8 if it was tempered. I see that you are going to go 10 feet long, why not make the front out of 2 pieces of glass, this way it will be alot stronger, and less strain on the glass that long. get 2 pieces of glass 5 feet long, and put a frame in the center, it will look alight, I've seen a 2000 gal. made with 4 pieces of glass for the front and it looked great. so you might want to give it another look. or call a glass manufactor, they should know everything about the glass they sell.
andy
 
1/2 an inch is way to thin. I would go with at least 3/4. I agree with andy that making the tank with a split is a good option at that size.
 
thanks for your thoughts guys. right now i'm too to busy with work. i currently have several plans on my mind such as, making the inside of the tank smaller dimensions so the inside dimensions are 112x36x32 with a 4" frame all around. i can plan to have many many many top and bottom braces, even 1 at every foot or 6 inches if it has to come to that. i still need to test if it's tempered. i hope it is tempered. what if i were to put a brace on the center of the front glass. one on the front and one behind the glass panel, bolt those two tightly together, then connect that brace to the top and bottom frame of the tank?

tank prototype.JPG
 
Pacu-A.jpg

Your 1/2" aquarium glass window should not exceed 30" high by 7 feet horizontal.

This relationship will provide a safety factor of 2x, the absolute minimum. Most DIY aquariums should have at least a 2.5x safety factor and most public aquariums go 4x. There is very little change in the glass safety margin between 5 feet and 10 feet horizontal as the main factor is the height of water against the glass. All calculations assume that the water will never be allowed to rise over the top of the glass. Therefore the glass could be 10 feet long and 30" high with a safety margin of perhaps 1.95X.

Further the frame must be very substantial and not allow any bowing. In a wood frame aquarium a 2" by 6" timber with the 6" section taking the pressure and the 4" side butting up against the glass is recommended. In this configuration a 4" by 4" timber may work but it will often allow the glass to bow too much and cause it to fracture.

I have built a lot of these. This is a picture of my 2400 gallon aquarium with a 1/2" thick 30" by 7 foot window. I used 4" by 4" timbers around the window; the glass and timber bowing exceeds the 1/4" limit I like to maintain.
 
Anything fish, are you refering to tempered or untempered glass? I'v seen charts for saftey factors, but not for tempered glass. If you could point me in the direction of one, that would be great.
 
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