Glass and plywood have different deflection rates. Once that plywood bends just enough, you're going to have a big mess.
why not seal the wood with glass????
- Thread starter pshtex
- Start date
their would be no point in using cheap 4mm glass as it is true that the ply bends when first filled and any 4mm cheap glass would smash/snap the kind of thickness that would be needed to safely line the inside of the box would be so thick that the costs would be tremendouse in the end it would be cheaper buying an all glass aquarium
any maker of ply aquariums comercialy or privatly would either use epoxy pond paint or fibre glass and resin
if the aquariums lined properly and the coats are spreaded evenly the finished aquarium wouldnt leack or brack the problems normaly come when people get cheap rubbish epoxys and dont apply the recommended coats
any maker of ply aquariums comercialy or privatly would either use epoxy pond paint or fibre glass and resin
if the aquariums lined properly and the coats are spreaded evenly the finished aquarium wouldnt leack or brack the problems normaly come when people get cheap rubbish epoxys and dont apply the recommended coats
i used 1 inch thick plywood on my 320 and it didnt bend at all when i filled it so i wouldnt worry about the glass breaking if the plywood was braced properly.... however not including the glass, my 320 only cost me about $1.75 per gallon to build. 1/8 glass around here is about $6 per square foot so after you bought all the plywood and bracing plus all the glass it wouldnt save in cost at all (might as well build the entire tank in thick glass and leave out the plywood). also, if you go it right with rubber, epoxy, fiberglass, or a mixture of any of them then you wont have a fail and once again if it is built right it would outlast a all glass tank. if you look into the rubber products (zavlar) this product can stretch to 1500% so in that cast it should be able to withstand pretty much anything and as long as the plywood holds the tank will still hold water
i was thinkin bout that, but wouldnt super thin plexi make more sense? more flexible.... and.... at the seams, you can just get some acrylic square rods or something to reinforce it.... and also , you wouldn't have to worry about how to seal the front thick plexiglass since it readily bonds to the rest of the acrylic walls .. i dunno...
but just saying, glass is too brittle to my taste.... plywood + glass... hard on hard, sounds risky, unless u put styrofoam in between , but that will not help with bending.... and once glass bend it cracks....
but just saying, glass is too brittle to my taste.... plywood + glass... hard on hard, sounds risky, unless u put styrofoam in between , but that will not help with bending.... and once glass bend it cracks....
If you want to line it with something, use polycarbonate. Its sold as lexan sometimes, you can buy it at most plastics shops. Its more commonly called bullet proof glass. Its one for the few plastics that machines very well, similar to Derlin. Try it out, use some sort of solvent weld though to glue the actual plastic.
wheatgerm;4807473; said:
I find it hard to believe that your tank did not bend at all when u filled it up. Im not sure how close you measured to see if it bent at all but it could have only been a small fraction of an inch, and this small fraction could in the end cause the glass to crack.
Good idea, wrong material. Glass is too brittle to use like that with plywood. Plywood expands and contracts with air humidity. Much too risky to use as support for thin glass sheets. Change it to PVC sheets and you are there. The famous upmarket german equipment and custom tank manufacturer Royal exclusiv uses 30 mm plywood and 6 mm PVC when they make huge custom tanks for their billionaire customers. There is a great pictures series of it on the net somewhere if you can find it.
