Plywood build glass thickness

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flossyfloofloo

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 19, 2008
128
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nottingham england
Well with a baby on the way I have been ordered to move the tank out of the spare bedroom that's soon gonna be a nursery. The only place for the tank to go is under my discus tank in the living room, so this means building a new stand to accommodate it.

Little does the other half know I plan on vastly upsizing the size of the tank to be moved by building a plywood tank instead of just moving th original one.

I plan on using 6 or 8mm ply and building a structure out of 2x4'' timber and 2x2'' to reinforce the tank walls so it's gonna be a pretty sturdy structure. But having never built a plywood tank before I have a couple of question.

1 how thick do I need the glass? The tank will be 42x22x22'' and the glass will be framed with 2x4 on the ends and top and bottom.with a brace running front to back and strengthening the corners.

2 how would be best to seal it? I was thinking fiber glass is I can get hold of some.

Any and all help will be great thanks guys


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3/8 will work for glass up to24" if your window only has 18" of water you can use 1/4
 
imusuallyuseless said:
3/8 will work for glass up to24" if your window only has 18" of water you can use 1/4
Click to expand...

I'm using 3/8 tempered glass on mine, but my aquarium is 96x34.50x30 inches high. Front glass measures out @ 90x24 inches. I've gotten mixed reviews about the size of my glass, some say no, others say cause its tempered it's ok. Seems like 3/8 is minimum. I'd like to have gone 1/2 but price was more than double than 3/8.

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Having the frame around all sides of the glass helps with supporting it so it won't bow. I think that will make it a bit safer than a pure glass aquarium with similar dimensions, but how much safer is a grey area.
 
808, I'd be nervous w those dimensions, but grey indeed. I've always gone by height of water at the lowest point of the glass. For example i made a 6X2X2 with glass from a 55. It was only 1/4" but i had the glass toward the top of the tank so the bottom few inches were wood only. Would've been very sketchy having the glass on the bottom w that water height
 
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