Stainless steel rim

[Night Ranger]

I'm in the middle of making my 600 gallon plywood aquarium the plywood is two 1" sheets of plywood glued and screwed together
for a total of 2" thick. The dimensions are 96x48x37.5. I don't want to use cross bracing if I can get away from it so my plan is to us
1/4x2x2 stainless steel glued and screwed around the top perimeter with epoxy the epoxy is incredible strong and will adhere to the stainless
very well trust me on this as I have tried it. I will be using 3/4" low iron glass but my question is does anyone feel that I'm pushing
my luck or would this be strong enough so I don't need cross braces?

 

[Sassafras]

Can't tell you authoritatively if the steel you are proposing would prevent bowing, although I suspect probably not since steel angle isn't meant to be load bearing. Channel would be better if properly oriented. What came to mind, however, was how easy and clean it would be to bolt stainless steel cross braces to the SS perimeter rim. They wouldn't need to be very wide and would be removable.

 

[Night Ranger]

Can't tell you authoritatively if the steel you are proposing would prevent bowing, although I suspect probably not since steel angle isn't meant to be load bearing. Channel would be better if properly oriented. What came to mind, however, was how easy and clean it would be to bolt stainless steel cross braces to the SS perimeter rim. They wouldn't need to be very wide and would be removable.

After posting this I was pondering that but I keep coming back to the same thing, that is the fish I'm planning on putting in the tank can be jumpers and I wanted to build up in height about 6" a enclosed hood which would allow them about 8-1/2" of jumping room before they hit the top. I guess I could install the stainless angle and monitor the aquarium for excessive bowing when first filling. I figure 1/4" of total deflection front to back at the top when filled would be acceptable. If the deflection goes beyond that I guess I could build a stainless square tube frame then epoxy and screw the square tube on top of the stainless angle. I'll have to check on stainless channel to see if it is listed as 1/4"-2"x2"x2" ID.

 

[Trouser Cough]

Whomever you're buying that SS square tubing from should have deflection calcs for it. In my mind this would be easier and far less expensive to build like a stick frame house as deflection would be minimized and not only on the top rim; it would be uniformly held to a minimum everywhere. Ballpark cost on 1/4x2x2 Type 304SS will be around $150 a foot and you'll need an easy 24'. $3600 for a rim seems a tad spendy for something that might be ok until it's not. I'm not a structural engineer but your design asks a lot of the unsupported joints. At roughly 658 US gallons you're relying on a handful of screws, glue and surface treatment to contain 5264# of water. The day that bad boy cuts loose the carnage and property damage would ruin the next two days easy in the best case scenario.

To get an accurate picture of what's at risk imagine 12 ea, 55g drums full of water in your fish room.

Now imagine tipping them over.

Stick framed construction would allow someone like me to sleep better. I'm a belt and suspenders man though when it comes to unnecessary risk so I might be the wrong guy to weigh in on something like this. Be that as it may I've also had an 800g tank lose its seal in my office and it's a couple days of towels, wet dry vacs, quick sorb, and profanity. You'll hear the sound of fans howling at full tilt in your dreams long after the mess and smell is gone and if you live in a place that already has 50% humidity or more, you're looking at far more risk over time.

I suspect you'd have a much better chance of it holding if you didn't use it as a rim but rather as a belt at roughly 24-26" up from the floor (assuming no viewing window).

Good luck.

 

[fishdance]

You could extend the tank sides up another 8 inches and put the cross braces up there out of sight and out of the way So no stainless steel rim required.

Another suggestion is it will be much cheaper and structurally stronger to use epoxy coated steel over stainless. Also easier to weld for most people.

I would extend 18 inches (not just 8 inchea) with an above water viewing window if you want to see the fish jumping.

However if your set on using stainless steel then go for it, regardless of the cost. You are the only person who can decide what looks good and what it's worth to achieve.