if anyone can help walk me through how to build an all acrylic tank around 500 gallons please pm me.
how to build an acrylic tank?
- Thread starter shark_curious
- Start date
I'm sure if you buy all the acrylic and post pics of it someone will take the time to walk you through it...... LOL
How bout starting small. Learn how to do it with a few smaller tanks then slowly graduate to thicker, larger materials.
Once you price the materials you'll find it is cheaper to just buy one form a manufacturer.
How bout starting small. Learn how to do it with a few smaller tanks then slowly graduate to thicker, larger materials.
Once you price the materials you'll find it is cheaper to just buy one form a manufacturer.
shark_curious;2770901; said:
Not likley. Cost depends ALOT on who supplies the Acrylic. Most places that sell will even cut them for you for free or really cheap so, have all of your diminsions ready.
Google this subject there is alot of info out there on this subject.
I will give you 2 good pieces of advice.
1. Keep the paper backing on the panels when you work just peel off the exposed area that you are working on.
2. ALWAYS cement your joins in a horizonal fashion, not vertical. ALWAYS!
shark_curious;2771057; said:
The one I made years ago was 96x30x24. I used 1/2 cast, if you get extruded acrylic it is not uniform in thickness but it is cheaper and some say it is not as strong.
IMO it was not hard. I you need is a large flat workspace, a square and some long clamps. I have 4 Vice Grip brand clamps that are 3ft long and they are rubber coated on the ends and are trigger activated they worked great.
The tank top I made was a single piece for bracing. It looked 10x better but cost more and took more work. That was the hardest piece to do. Mainly because I cut out routing for filters, hoses, heaters etc. The router I was using sucked and the carbide bit I used had seen better days, which made it even harder. After it was done I used a torch on the seams which made them look better.
This was approx. 6 years ago and the tank is still holding water w/ no leaks. I wish I had pictures but I no longer own the tank and it is in Houston now, about 800 miles from me.
I MAY be buidling one of similiar dimensions soon and I will post pictures of the full build process if I do.
For the record, I pefer glass but a DIY method I think acrylic looks nicer than plywood. I would NOT want to attempt building a glass tank.
If anyone has any questions on the helping you build one please feel free to PM me. I am no acrylic tank building expert but I will share the knowledge I do have.
p.s. a 36 inch deep tank will be $$ because you will need some thick acrylic, the thicker the sheets the faster the price climbs also once you get past 25 inches it get hard to reach the bottom for arranging stuff, cleaning etc. Just some food for thought.
ive heard that but im really looking for step by step instructions in lamens terms from someone who has done this before