planning on building a big tank, need help pls

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GarNiac

GarNiac

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 21, 2009
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SE Asia
hi all, I am planning to build a big tank using a 12mm thick glass, with dimension 3 meter (L) x 1 meter (W) x 60 cm (H)
the question is, do you guys think that it will be safe enough?
the bottom will have internal bracing like drawn in below pic,
pl.jpg
pls help, thanks

pl.jpg
 
forgot to mention that the tank will be all glass tank.
 
When using the calculator, the safety factor can be changed. The higher the safety factor, the thicker the glass will have to be. 3.8 is recommended as a good safety factor.
 
joe jaskot said:
When using the calculator, the safety factor can be changed. The higher the safety factor, the thicker the glass will have to be. 3.8 is recommended as a good safety factor.
Click to expand...

I know that link already, but thats not the reason why I posted the question! I am concerning about the lenght of the tank, which would be 3meter long and 1 meter wide, which making me wonder if the tank is still buildable using a 12mm thick of glass. The calculator on that link or whatever link that are avalable on the web are just not making any sense because it only measure the glass thickness based on the height of the tank. But it does not calculate the limit of lenght or wide, which are allowed for the tank on certain glass thickness, that of you can type any lenght or width, but the glass thickness number stays the same.
Thus, on this case I am keeping the height (60cm), which still on standard safety factor of 3,8.
 
The bigger the tank, the more damage it can cause, the higher the safety factor should be. Public aquariums will have a safety factor of at least 10. Massive DIY tanks, especially ones that will be around unsupervised children, should have a safety factor of at least 5.

For an all plate glass tank, with the dimensions 3m x 1m x 60 cm and 12 mm plate glass the safety factor would be 3.5 for the front, 1.8 on the bottom, and 4.9 on the sides. So you'd need to use stronger or thicker glass for the bottom. Most professional tanks use tempered glass on the bottom.
 
joe jaskot said:
In most tank builds, the height of the tank is the major determining factor in the thichness of the glass.
Click to expand...

Man! I know that already, I hope u understand the entire question from the begining. I could get away with 60cm of height by using 12mm glass, but my question was whether I still can get away with 3 meters long and 1 meters wide by using 12mm thick glass.

coolkeith said:
The bigger the tank, the more damage it can cause, the higher the safety factor should be. Public aquariums will have a safety factor of at least 10. Massive DIY tanks, especially ones that will be around unsupervised children, should have a safety factor of at least 5.

For an all plate glass tank, with the dimensions 3m x 1m x 60 cm and 12 mm plate glass the safety factor would be 3.5 for the front, 1.8 on the bottom, and 4.9 on the sides. So you'd need to use stronger or thicker glass for the bottom. Most professional tanks use tempered glass on the bottom.
Click to expand...

yup, I think there should not be any problem with 60cm height using 12mm glass, I've contacted local tank builder and they said they could build the tank using the dimension that I mentioned, but yet again I need to re assure about the safety of the tank. I supposed I could use tempered glass like you mentioned above, but do you think that I can use the same thickness, say 12mm tempered glass on the bottom?
 
"Man! I know that already, I hope u understand the entire question from the begining. I could get away with 60cm of height by using 12mm glass, but my question was whether I still can get away with 3 meters long and 1 meters wide by using 12mm thick glass."

Its a bit complicated, as I understand, but basically the height of the water determines the pressure at the base. This is the same regardless of the width and length.

However the greater the width of the tank the greater the force, which should amount to the same pressure per area...


Unfortunately the longer length of the face of the glass the more it will bend and funnily enough the words bend and glass shouldn’t be used in the same sentence...

Other than that with bracing the 12mm will be fine until it is met with a force outside its safety factor.

Hope that clears it all up. :p
 
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