Trying to decide on shark tank

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H

Hoop

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 14, 2009
99
89
51
Washington, D.C.
Hi Everyone,

I am putting together a shark aquarium in my basement that will be an in wall installation with a roughly 10'x10' room behind it to support the tank and accompanying filtration, etc. Because of the construction of the house (support beams) I will be able to have a tank that is 8 feet long x 4 feet wide x 3 feet tall. I already have a 300 gallon sump that I will be using with this setup.

So I am trying to decide whether to build the aquarium from wood with a plate glass front viewing pane or going with an acrylic aquarium.

Does anyone know the approximate weight of a 8x4x3 acrylic aquarium?

Any other thoughts, suggestions, personal experience that anyone could throw my way would be very much appreciated.

My big concern with the acrylic aquarium is the weight and moving down into the location. If I build the tank myself, I will be building it in the room, so weight / moving will not be an issue.

Overall though appreciate any advice from others that have undertook a similar project.

Thanks,
-Hoop
 
^^^^good question^^^^

If you can afford a ready made acrylic at that size then that will provide you with biggest viewing window. Will be crazy heavy though and all depends on what access you have to your basement how easy it will be to get down there.

If you've got the head of an engineer then you might find building the tank yourself more satisfying.

Get it up and running then decide what will fit in it.
 
Because of the relatively small size of the aquarium (in shark terms) I am looking at Cat Shark, Bamboo Shark, Coral Cat Shark or possibly Horn Shark, but have not narrowed it down yet. Ideally would like to have 2 from the list above.

Being that the tank is 8' x 4' footprint and 900 gallons total water volume including sump, I want to keep species that can live in this setup for their entire lives as I don't foresee upgrading the overall size of the setup.
 
Hoop;3534360; said:
Does anyone know the approximate weight of a 8x4x3 acrylic aquarium?
Click to expand...



I have an 8X3X3 acrylic tank. Acrylic is one inch thick on the sides and top. Bottom is 3/4 of an inch thick. I was told by the manufacturer that it weights 670 LBS empty. Obviously yours will be a little heavier because it is wider but I hope that gives you a good idea of what you will be dealing with.

Good luck moving it into place.
 
Satan's Goldfish;3534417; said:
^^^^good question^^^^

If you can afford a ready made acrylic at that size then that will provide you with biggest viewing window. Will be crazy heavy though and all depends on what access you have to your basement how easy it will be to get down there.

If you've got the head of an engineer then you might find building the tank yourself more satisfying.

Get it up and running then decide what will fit in it.
Click to expand...

Satan's Goldfish, thanks for your feedback

Access to the basement is not that great as it is an english style basement...so no direct exterior access...would have to carry aquarium in on 2nd level and carry down a flight of stairs. This is why I am so concerned about the weight. While money matters, I have put aside plenty for this project and can afford to purchase a tank of this size, but as I have a 300 gallon glass tank already..I know how heavy large tanks can be.

To your second point, I am an engineer and do have the tools and workspace to build my own. Also I would get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it myself, but I have never built an aquarium before and do have concerns about building something that would one day have a leak or failure.
 
Chromobotia;3534433; said:
I have an 8X3X3 acrylic tank. Acrylic is one inch thick on the sides and top. Bottom is 3/4 of an inch thick. I was told by the manufacturer that it weights 670 LBS empty. Obviously yours will be a little heavier because it is wider but I hope that gives you a good idea of what you will be dealing with.

Good luck moving it into place.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply, this is exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. I have a 300 gallon glass tank that I have moved multiple times and that I estimate its weight at around 500 lbs. However, I have never had an acrylic aquarium, so I had no idea how much lighter they are than glass.

Based on my experience moving a 500lb glass tank..I don't think a 600 gallon acrylic will be fun to move :-)
 
Having recently moved an ~1800 gallon acrylic tank, it wasn't as bad as you might think. But I only had to go through a garage door, and lift it into place. Going down stairs would have sucked. A lot. I have a similar glass tank to yours as well, and I know the ***** of moving them around a room.

If you can do it yourself, and sort the materials for a good price (acrylic in non-bulk quantities is EXPENSIVE - I couldn't source high quality acrylic for less than I paid for my finished tank), then it would be a good build.
 
Jabba954;3534453; said:
Having recently moved an ~1800 gallon acrylic tank, it wasn't as bad as you might think. But I only had to go through a garage door, and lift it into place. Going down stairs would have sucked. A lot. I have a similar glass tank to yours as well, and I know the ***** of moving them around a room.

If you can do it yourself, and sort the materials for a good price (acrylic in non-bulk quantities is EXPENSIVE - I couldn't source high quality acrylic for less than I paid for my finished tank), then it would be a good build.
Click to expand...


Jabba954 post has me thinking....originally I was considering either a pre-built acrylic tank or building one myself from wood/plate glass...but now I am thinking about possibly building it on-site from all acrylic.

Anyone have experience with building acrylic aquariums? Is this something that can be feasibly done assuming that I am able to purchase the raw materials at a suitable cost?

I may have to do a search in the DIY section and see if there is any info over there on building acrylic tanks.

Also thanks again everyone for the great replies...it really helps a lot to have other hobbyists to bounce ideas off.
 
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