Mega clear vinyl prototype tank build (concept building)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
jkayden said:
Theoretically you could gasket the window off--it would have to be thick enough to screw into and there would always be a chance of leaking at the gasket.
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Well if we could do this then we would just us a regular liner and be done with it.

DFishFox said:
Wow, that really is no joke.
Question. Would it be possible to install the acrylic on the inside of the liner? Like place the acrylic piece in the viewing window frame with the liner stretched over the outside. Between the pressure squeezing the acrylic against the liner and frame plus a little silicone at the edges of the acrylic; shouldn't that seal water from getting between acrylic and liner? This way there would be any bubbles between liner and glass.. I'd think.
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I would want the pressure of the water pushing the liner against the glass/acrylic That way it would be possible to squeegee out the bubbles like putting tint on a window. Now if your going to cut away the liner and just have the glass then this would be the best method. Of course we are back to a gasket/sealant material between the vinyl and the glass keeping it from leaking.
 
jkayden said:
Lets just assume right now that the view through the vinyl will be perfect. I still need to work out how that's going to happen, but I would be disappointed if I couldn't. The vinyl is crystal clear in the acrylic will be crystal clear, so I don't see why, combined, we wouldn't be able to get it to be crystal clear.
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How long will the vinyl stay crystal clear? Does it turn white or blue or yellow with age? or is it stable like acrylic? And how does it handle ammonia and other fish poop related chemicals???
 
Egon said:
How long will the vinyl stay crystal clear? Does it turn white or blue or yellow with age? or is it stable like acrylic? And how does it handle ammonia and other fish poop related chemicals???
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He's already answered this question, Basically he doesn't know if I'm correct and needs more testing to find out. But that's a test that would take years. I suppose you could speed it up some using ammonia that we use to do a fish less cycle and doing a small test tank with a really high ammonia content and see if that has any vastly negative effects. However the results from there may not be applicable to fish use seeing as it could only be a reaction to high ammonia levels and not ammonia period.
 
The primary factors that discolor vinyl are chlorine and UV rays. The material we will be using is made with a UV stabilized formula and well you shouldn't have chlorine in your fish tank anyway.

The vinyl is intended to be cleaned (eg. with ammonia based cleaning products), so I doubt ammonia would have any effect. What are you doing with ammonia in your tank anyway!

Like I said before--I think it will last as long as an acrylic tank, but even if it only lasts 5 years or so, isn't that better than the typical plywood tank?
 
VLDesign said:
My plywood tanks should last much longer than 5 years. Where did you get the impression they only lasted a short time?

Hell once they are built and not leaking I don't see why a good plywood tank wouldn't last 15+ years without issues.
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Some thread I was reading on this forum. There was something somewhere where people were saying the tank would need to be recoated every few years to mitigate leaking. I didn't mean to imply that the typical plywood tank would fall apart after a few years, just that the maintenance schedule would be a bit more of a chore.

I obviously have no idea how long the pond coat (or whatever is used) will take to breakdown. Just speculating based off a few threads.
 
jkayden said:
Some thread I was reading on this forum. There was something somewhere where people were saying the tank would need to be recoated every few years to mitigate leaking. I didn't mean to imply that the typical plywood tank would fall apart after a few years, just that the maintenance schedule would be a bit more of a chore.

I obviously have no idea how long the pond coat (or whatever is used) will take to breakdown. Just speculating based off a few threads.
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That's the one thing that worry's me with building a ply tank however I know a good job doesn't need a lot of maintenance down the road tho.
 
Worst case you can always sell. one of a kind Bow front tanks ;)
 
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