Construction Underway

[Somonas]

1/2" glass is not cheap over here in Ontario. I have yet to find a place to get free glass. I suppose I could drive around construction sites and around the neighborhood on garbage day and look for windows.

I got some 3mm glass for 2 tanks (24x18 lids). It was around $40. before tax. *ouch* I forget what 13mm glass was per square foot. probably around $20 a s/f. Unless I can get used or free glass I ain't building any tanks.

 

[Antwan]

Damn!! Glass is expensive in Ontario, or Canada for that matter. A glass shop at the end of town can give me, I think, a 48 x 18 quarter inch sheet of glass for $24!!!! I would build me a bigger tank, but I'm gonna stay to a 90 gal. for now, anything more for now and I would have to be sleeping with my fish! The cost of just buying tank in the U.S.A. and getting it shipped to Canada would be way cheaper than making one in Canada. I guess thats why some of you all suggest that I just buy one. Ok, thats it, taking my dimensions to the shop and gonna get started....

 

[RedTurquoise]

Yes, buying glass is expensive and not worth. I try to frequent window companies for free glass because when they replace windows, guess where the old window goes. Sometimes these windows are huge. Also look in the bargain finder. Sometimes people are selling their old windows for not a bad price. Sometimes they are even giving them away just to get rid of. When I first started building my own fish tanks, my dad had a 8' x 4' window in his shop that my grandpa give to him when he upgraded his windows.

There's lot of used glass around. You just have to look for it!

 

[Antwan]

Thanks a lot for your help RT..

 

[Backdraft Bagel]

Be careful, man. People have injured themselves dealing with large, sharp sheets of very thick and heavy glass ...

Also be sure your glass is thick enough. Thickness depends on volume and proportion ... there are charts floating around the web that will help you figure out how thick your glass needs to be.

I agree with the suggestion that you should start small, with a 10 gallon aquarium.

 

[RedTurquoise]

Yes Bagel! When cutting glass be VERY VERY careful with the edges. Extremely, extremely sharp! BE CARE!

As a matter of fact Bagel, glass thickness is dependant on the height, not volume! Reason is because the deeper the water is, the more weight on the vertical glass pieces. If the tank is longer and wider, the water weight remains the same at the vertical glass pieces, its just spread out over a larger area.

the glass chart just to re-cap:
http://www.garf.org/Tank/BuildTank.asp

 

[FrankDMann]

Antwan,

One last piece of advice man. I think that it's paramount to have perfect 90 degree angles on all sides. If you have a tank that ends up looking like this (from the top):

_______
/______/

you will end up with a lot more pressure on the glass/silicon on the top left and bottom right corners (which are actually the back left and front right corners.

The tank could become unsafe. I'd get a carpenter's square or something.

Good luck with it!

 

[RedTurquoise]

It shouldnt be too difficult to make sure the tank is square as the bottom wil be square. So, by starting with the bottom and siliconing the back first, then side, front, side, the tank will be square, especially if you line up the edges of the glass.

 

[Antwan]

Yeah, sounds good. I got a lot of useful tools at my finger tips like that. What silicone do ya'lls recommend?

 

[lightning]

i think it would be rather difficult, one of those things you think will be a snap but once you get involved you realize theres more to it that gut cutting and pasting, your going to need clamps and braces to hold the glass together for 48 hrs or more for the silicon to cure, your going to need theose suction cups to handle the glass and then theres the weight of handleing the glass and its all got to be square , you might try just building a small tank out of plexigalss to get a little idea what your up against

 

[Antwan]

What kind of clamps and braces.....I probably have some of those, and the suction cups too. And don't worry, I'll have help. I've been contemplating this for a while too. And if it don't hold up, I'll just have to try again, huh? *thumbsups

 

[RedTurquoise]

About the assembling! The hardest part about the assembling is fitting the first two pieces together. Once these pieces are together, the others more or less are quite easy. I didnt use any clamps or braces actually.

It was mentioned that you could start with a 10G perhaps. A good idea just so you can go thru the motions of siliconing it together and seeing what works best. Its not the difficult to do.

Once the tank is build, test it for a month. Set it in the garage or basement and fill it with water.

Silicon sets in 1 hour (not tacky or sticky) and is cured in 24 hours. I usually siliconed the first two pieces together and let cure until the next day. Then I siliconed all the other pieces an hour or 2 apart then let it cure for 24 hours again.

I use DOW CORNING RTV MULTI-PURPOSE SEALANT. Do not use the silicon for bathrooms. They have copper and arenic in them.