Is your chart for glass or acrylic? I was thinking it was for glass and at 30" tall the 1/2 alone wasn't good and relied on the bracing. The acrylic tank I'm now looking to get us 3/4 side and top with 1/2 on the bottom.
Is 1/2" glass enough for 96x24x31 tal???l
- Thread starter NOLAGT
- Start date
It's both, go back and re-look at the calculator. Like I said before the acrylic calculations are from an acrylic manufacturer. I don't have any acrylic experience thus I don't offer any advice for acrylic calculations. Glass on the other hand is something I am familiar with. The calculations can be changed with the safety factor based on bracing and general knowledge.
Shrug, like i said the numbers for the calc come from an acrylic manufacturer. They don't take into account your skill or lack thereof with working acrylic or the overall design thus they fudge for safety sake. But I'd say 3/4" for 30 inches tall is the minimum I would use based on others experiences with acrylic bowing.
From what I've come across, the acrylic calculators always overcompensate. This may be to reduce the bowing that normally occurs. Every calculator that i have seen and dissected did the same exact thing. They are all based off the deflection and strength of the acrylic. Of course, most of the info used is predicated off of the acrylic manufacturers stats on the material. Those numbers could be fudged a bit. If that is the case, all the numbers will be off much like we see in the calculators. I've seen many tanks that are built with thinner acrylic and have been fine for years.
