Is a tall aquarium dangerous?(pic)

[titansfever83]

Someone is selling this locally and I'm on the fence because I'm unaware of height/pressure. It is definitely priced right which scares me too, lol.

Acrylic. 48x54x24

What say you?? I think it looks cool.

 

[krichardson]

Interesting looking tank,something about it looks custom built,is it acrylic?

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I get the concern. The footprint will be smaller so concentrating weight in pounds per square inch. On first thought does not seem too critical compared to the overall weight. Gonna need some information about the floor the tank will placed upon. On a traditional wood floor with 16 inch floor joist tha 48 inch base will only rest upon two joists when run perpendicular. (Assuming you can set it to be perpendicular with the joists.)
On a poured concrete floor, I do not see an issue.
The weight can be spread out some in a couple of ways i can think of. One is to "box" the floor joists from under the floor and/or sister in a second joist. Another is to place some long true 4x4' side by side under the bottom of the tank which will extend the weight out over some adjoining joists. Reason i got to this is my bigger concern is how close to the floor the bottom of the tank is. To me glass Acrylic that low is a danger zone. ( Guess acrylic is less likely to crack. )

{ EDIT- I say 4x4 but other things might work. Also being true is important. Might check on engineered lumber which by it's nature runs true. . I would likely place a 3/4 section of painted plywood on top of the 4x4's and under the tank. I say painted from experience. Over the decades I use plywood under my smaller all glass tanks. I cut it a little long so to have something to grab. I learned to paint the wood. Best paint so far is a two-part epoxy paint. Have used it in my boat as well as plywood under tanks.)

The other thing that comes to mind is the height of the tank and the possible slope of a floor. According to Mike Holmes yesterday older homes tend to settle more in the center of the house. Also, If there is carpet on the floor there will likely be a tack strip along the outer edge of the wall. Check to see if there is a tilt of the floor. (Is it level from the wall out?) If not level, I would consider some sort of strap or such to attach the tank to the wall so it will not tip over.

 

[LBDave]

I like tall tanks. Looks nice. With acrylic I would not be too concerned about the construction of the tank. Corner seams should be plenty strong.
If anything, depending on the thickness of the acrylic there could be some bowing. That's why I chose 3/4" thick for my 31" tall tank.
My observations of minuses for tall tanks:
1. Difficult to clean. Hard to reach to scrub off algae. Even vacuuming a 4 ft. tall tank would be a bit of a chore.
2. More prone to tipping over. If hit by something or an earthquake happens. If you are on a step stool when cleaning the tank don't grab the tank if you fall off the stool!
3. Really can't have a stand if a sump underneath the tank which is what I prefer.

Just remember, think about how you will reach the bottom of this tank. Cleaning, removing rocks or gravel, even catching a fish.

 

[Something Fishy Here]

It does look cool but I'd hate to do maintenance on that, gravel vac, scrape algae, set stones etc.

 

[titansfever83]

Thanks everyone, I'm not concerned about my floor, I should have specified that... my concern is that front/back panel is 48x54... seems like it would bow a lot putting stress at the joints.

I've just never seen an aquarium with that large of a panel. Sure your typical rectangle shape 10ft long aquarium has multiple braces across the top but I'm afraid this design would bow a lot.

It's a 1.5hr drive and they're asking only $550 for the entire setup. I think I just need to go check it out in person.

 

[skjl47]

Thanks everyone, I'm not concerned about my floor, I should have specified that... my concern is that front/back panel is 48x54... seems like it would bow a lot putting stress at the joints.

I've just never seen an aquarium with that large of a panel. Sure your typical rectangle shape 10ft long aquarium has multiple braces across the top but I'm afraid this design would bow a lot.

It's a 1.5hr drive and they're asking only $550 for the entire setup. I think I just need to go check it out in person.

Hello; Looked at the picture ( made it larger) It is full of water in the picture. I get cannot tell from the picture.

 

[phreeflow]

I know a guy with a thousand gallon about that tall and it sits on the floor of his garage. It’s pretty awesome being able to just stand in front of it and see fish at all levels.

Never saw any issues with algae either. Even with several led lights, the tank is so deep that not enough PAR penetrates the water column to grow much algae. He also has plecos and tropheus so that might help scrape algae from the walls.

Also, it looks like your tank’s sitting on a thin black pedestal so hopefully the acrylic is not directly on the ground. I didn’t notice much bowing at all with my friend’s tank but it’s built with very thick acrylic. Make sure you check how thick the acrylic panels are on the tank

Even if you only filled that tank up halfway and had branches sticking up and orchids growing above with a waterfall trickling down or a fogger, it would be a sweet setup

 

[Backfromthedead]

How thick is the acrylic on each panel and what is the top brace design?

At the very least it would make a great paludarium with 24-30" water level.