Oh I plan on doing the work myself..... There's no other way. If I can learn Plumbing, Electrical, Rough and Finish carpetry, PC hardware and Software Troubleshooting as well as learning the basic ins and outs of Genetics on my own, I should be able to handle a little plastic welding.... No?
Look at like this. If water pressure is solely based off of "depth of the water"... And that pressure will have more leverage on longer run of acrylic (i.e. 8ft x 30" high) to put enough stress to cause crazing, then the sides will be fine being that they are only 24" wide as opposed to 96". The area of leaverage that the water pressure has to create crazing is irrelevent. And the back of the tank which, although is 96" long, should be fine as well being that there is a 15" wide overflow tower fused to the inside of the tank that creates ample support and divids the 96" long run of .5" acrylic into two 40.5" runs of .5" acrylic that are 30" high... That should be fine. Maybe a little bowing but not like a 96" run of .5". So increasing the front replacement panes thickness by .25" will increase the force of water pressure needed to create crazing or future failure. Therefore lowering the amount of outward bowing and stress on the acrylic. It all comes down to joint quality at that point. There are still 300g tanks being made of .5" acrylic that are garanteed to be structurally sound for years! I have plans to reenforce the top and bottom corners of that new pane as well as the top and bottom seams...
Technically I probably could go with .5" acrylic again being that most crazing of this manner is cause from poor manufacturing of the aacrylic from the beginning... As long as I get some from a reputable Manufacturer. But, I'd wrather not have the amount of bowing that .5" would cause....
I think that a little extra time spent removing the old and installing the new pane will be well worth the savings of $1500+ on a new tank...
