Plywood Corner Tank..Help needed

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J

jflener

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 31, 2011
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Georgia
OK so after looking at all of the plywood tank, I have decided to attempt one. I need a little from all of you. Has anyone built one of these before? Also I am having trouble trying to figure out how many gallons this would be. The tank will be 5' tall with both sides against the wall being 36" which make the front of the tank 36". I used a calculator program I found online and says it would only be 29 gallons. I believe this to be wrong. Anyone know how many gallons it would actually be?

Still in the planning stages so any help or input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
It'd be like 264 gallons or so. That will be a really tall tank!!
 
Someone else correct me if I am wrong but wouldn't a 5' tank height require a really thick piece of acrylic or glass?

Just something to consider..
 
I am building a tank that almost has the same dimensions. The face is 5ft x 3ft. It calls for 1/2 glass or 1/2 acrylic (3/4 is preferred). I couldn't imagine that a "vertical" design would be any different than a "horizontal" design.

The challenge that I can foresee is working on the bottom (cleaning, arranging decor and aqua-scape, etc.).

Please post pictures of your project. We love pictures.
 
the height of the tank is the biggest determining factor for the thickness of glass needed, the taller the tank - the thicker the glass
 
jflener said:
OK so after looking at all of the plywood tank, I have decided to attempt one. I need a little from all of you. Has anyone built one of these before? Also I am having trouble trying to figure out how many gallons this would be. The tank will be 5' tall with both sides against the wall being 36" which make the front of the tank 36". I used a calculator program I found online and says it would only be 29 gallons. I believe this to be wrong. Anyone know how many gallons it would actually be?

Still in the planning stages so any help or input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I have never built a corner tank of any type. Well I've built corner reptile cages but they didn't need to hold water so that doesn't count. I have built rectangular plywood tanks.

I'm a bit confused by the shape of the tank you're proposing. Will it be a triangle from above? If so the front of the tank would be more like 51" across, not 36".

Assuming it would be a perfect triangle then it would be around 168 gallons.

But since you said the front would be 36" I assume you plan to come 90* off the walls and then have a window in between. Is so this would increase your volume somewhat.

Like someone said earlier, this would require a very thick glass or acrylic viewing window. It would also require a lot of framing that would subtract from your volume if the dimensions you listed are exterior.

I would recommend doing a cost comparison of one 60" tall tank and compare it to two, 30" tall tanks that could be stacked in the same corner. The latter option would require a stand but that would probably be a wash since the former would require beefy framing to support the depth of a 5' tall tank.
 
iDRINKbLEACH said:
I am building a tank that almost has the same dimensions. The face is 5ft x 3ft. It calls for 1/2 glass or 1/2 acrylic (3/4 is preferred). I couldn't imagine that a "vertical" design would be any different than a "horizontal" design.

The challenge that I can foresee is working on the bottom (cleaning, arranging decor and aqua-scape, etc.).

Please post pictures of your project. We love pictures.
Click to expand...

couldn't be more wrong. The pressure on the bottom will be under 5ft of water, versus pressure of 2, or even 3 feet.
For all the physics geeks, lets look at the math:
Head Pressure
at 2' is .87psi
at 3' is 1.30psi
at 5' is 2.17psi
almost twice as much load at 5' than at 3'. It's your floor, but I would get the thicker piece of acrylic.

Also you have quite a load on a relatively small footprint. You would want to consider bracing the floor if this isn't going on concrete.


Edit: Dang it, I just got trolled. Well done sir.
 
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