Pond with glass-sided "Lift"

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Andyroo

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Apr 17, 2011
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MoBay, Jamaica
www.seascapecarib.com
Aquari-Sages (and particularly FishDance)
tell me about putting a glass rim around a pond to give a through-water view - plus upping the depth/volume, of course.

Pictures? Links? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but not much coming up on Google. This is a long-term client's update gig but might need a little "pitching" to get past the bean-counters.

I'm not talking about the inverted aquarium, though we may also do. I'm simply/specifically thinking about a glass(?) edge of maybe 8~14" around an 18" deep concrete tank. To this, if the tank's about 18' x 10', how tall might we go with 1/2" float glass in 8' sections? Top-braced and doubled/buttressed at the seams, of course, and can do shorter sections, but anything thicker/nicer will have to be imported ($$$). It's exterior so I'm not terribly worried about breakage, but not reckless either.

Stock will likely circle aound rift lake cichlids, so no tank-busters. However, as soon as I leave property clients start ignoring the brief...

Attaching snaps. Long-term-MFK'ers may recognize from the initial refit circa '07. It's not been maintained since... but the Sacramento Koi pump & filter are apparently still Ok - impressive.
We'll be stripping it all back to bare tank & re-setting everything, plants to hardwood pots on bare concrete substrate (maybe a few mm veneer of beach sand) as the reeds & filamentous plants take over wherever there's substrate - too much like work.

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Traditional limit with 1/2" non-tempered float glass, euro-braced or similar, is about 24" of water. The calculations get more complex once you go beyond a single panel in length so hard to say what the limit is without more firm plans. You could almost do rimless if you limited the glass to 12-14" tall sections but the joints make that more complicated.
 
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