Planing in wall tank help needed

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 11:26 AM

Hey all
I am trying to get ideas for a in wall tank and ran into problems with the glass.
does anybody know what size of glass would be needed for a 7' x 36" x 48" tall
and a place to get it ?? locally here they can only get 3/4" glass and its over $800 for that price I would just buy a large aquirum (maybe from dirk thought he had some larger ones for sale ??) or i heard there are some people up there that make custom tanks ?
it is going to be one of those plywood tanks with just the front glass.

Thanks for any help Scott

manderson0805 · 02-14-2005, 12:03 PM

David G. had a plywood tank. I think he posted here a while back about where he got the front pane. Won't cleaning, aquascaping, and lighting a 48" deep tank be tough? Get the SCUBA gear out..hehe

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 12:12 PM

yes it will but i would love the window to the see look !
and the glass was cheaper because it comes it that size 48" tall
Scott

civil · 02-14-2005, 12:18 PM

How would the glass be cheaper. It may come in that size but it would need to be much thicker, thus more expensive. I agree a 48" tall tank would look great but lower, thus thinner glass, would be cheaper. If your budget for a large tank is only $800, even for something like an all-glass tank, your more in the neighborhood of a 180 or 220.

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 12:35 PM

chaeper because one less cut they have to make.
nobody here can tell what size i should use if 3/4" is not enough i will have to go smaller 36" tall or something ?
$800 is not my budget but I would just buy a tank if thats close to the cost of it.
I talked to glass cages and a 72" x 30" x 30" 300 gal. roughly was around $800.
but locally is always better, i saw somebody on ebay selling acrylic tanks ???
and have heard of others up there also ?

I design houses so i just got left overs from job sites for all the wood and I got the treated plywood already.

keep the ideas coming , I am new to the hobby and any help is needed.
Thanks Scott

David Grigor · 02-14-2005, 01:00 PM

Is this going to be a reef tank. From a maintenance standpoint best to measure you arm to the armpit. Anything deeper than that you'll need a mask. IMO: 30-32" deep for all pratical purposes is as deep as you should go.

Mine was 28" tall used 1/2" Glass from the company mentioned here and ran $250 for the front pane.....

This is the thread.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ighlight=Glass

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 01:29 PM

so what sized tank did you go with ?
how did it turn out ?
I called them both, they didn't know what thickness would work.
thinking now to just go the 30" tall if the 1/2" would work for that ? or just buy a tank but glass cages I would need to go to chicago to get it, not real far.

I got everything else already set up for it "mostly" ,skimmer ,sump, pumps, just never thought the glass would be that much, should have waited and just bought a large tank the first time LOL

I made the same exact thing years ago for some water dragons but just used 3/8" glass for the front because it was filled only like 10" with water

thanks for the info
Scott

JnS · 02-14-2005, 01:42 PM

I hope you put an air exchange on your house.
30" tall is plenty IMO, 1/2" should be fine on that.
www.tcmas.org has info on David's 320gallon plywood tank.

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 02:00 PM

I just tiled our bathroom and was just going to put up the extra durock around it and the ceiling and the room it is going in has the furnace in it, actually the tank will be about a foot away from it and it also has a small window in the room , so I thought about running one of those bathroom vent fans above the tank and lights.
thanks Scott

JnS · 02-14-2005, 02:04 PM

only way that would work is if you made the room air tight, other wise moisture will still get in to the rest of the house.

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 02:19 PM

there would be that much moisture from it ??
I have a 100 sump, a 20 gallon fuge set-up, 50 gal. prop set-up that i used for curing my live rock. and a 55 gal. tank for ro water in the room now. should i be worried about moisture ? the windows don't ice up in our housein the winter, they always did in our apartments when I had tanks ??
Never really thought about this, Thanks

David Grigor · 02-14-2005, 02:45 PM

Mine was 96LX32W28H. Inside demensions was 320g total. Mine evaporated about 6 gallons a day with 2000W ( 5 X 400W MH ). I took it down after 2 years because I didn't want to invest in an air exchanger in a house that I wasn't planning to stay in long term. Basement ( where it was located ) would reach a humidity level of 70% during the summer. During the winter would stay around 40% but ruined all my windows trim and during the coldest months was a solid sheet of ice on the inside of the windows. My house was built in the 50s and just couldn't handle the high humidity. Any tool or electronic equipment basically rusted if left in the basement.

I took the tank down end of summer and now just have a 58g tank with glass tops. Evaporates about 2 liters a day and have no window issues now.

For the Plywood tank. I had no issues and if I were to ever go that big again I wouldn't have concerns of doing it again. After buying the plywood, paint/epoxy, glass etc. for the tank and the stand I estimated the cost was $600. Equivelant tank in acrylic from Tenecor would have been about $3000 for tank and stand.

Also, when looking at epoxy paint some say it will not cure if temps go below 50 degrees during the 48hours time period. This virtually eliminated doing it during the winter or springtime and didn't reach high enough nightly temperature to apply the epoxy until June.

Scott 3560 · 02-14-2005, 03:14 PM

now i think I will just wait till glass cages can get me one and go with the 240 gal. 72" tank unless I find something local ? ? ?

also this is a old link I found for a cool tank http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...00g_tank_3.php
its a 1700 gal. shark tank

Superman · 02-14-2005, 03:38 PM

Hey David, what I never understood was why not just use thin sheets of plexi inside a plywood tank instead of painting on the epoxy? Is there an obvious reason that I am not seeing? Seems that simply bracing the tank from the outside would also negate the need for fiberglassing much as well. Don't mean to hijack the thread, but seems that a DIY plywood tank would be a great option, and WAY cheap.

David Grigor · 02-14-2005, 05:03 PM

Epoxy is probable cheaper, relatively easy to use. Takes no special skills. I think it was about $120 for 2 gallons of epoxy.

I think you would really have to be exact with the acrylic to plywood demensions to get it to work so there is no stress to the acrylic. Not being a master at DIY I don't think I could have gotten exact enough. Since my demension where greater than 24", it would take 3-4 sheets of the acrylic.

Front Glass bonded really really well to the epoxy liner. I don't really know how well the acrylic lining to glass would work.