335Gal Reef Tank concepts

[geraldwhite]

I'm starting a new project currently it is in the conception stages as you will see, however I plan to move pretty quick and keep this current.
This is going to be a Coral Tank as you know, originally it was planed to be 300 gal, but I decided to add a 6 inch bow on the front (see below) adding an additional 35 gal or so, and making things much more interesting.
Because their is going to be alot of live rock and coral in this tank I decided to go with glass... (gasp!) The tank will weight a lot I know. Also it is being custom made due to its size and shape. The Glass is 3/4 inch thick, which may be over kill but in this case better to be safe than sorry. To make things even more sweet this will have a euro brace instead of the molding, this will be a single piece of glass cut to 3/4 inch thick supporting the inner walls.
See concept sketches below.
As you can see its big. 96x30x24 with a 6 inch bow making the widest part 36".

This is showing the inner wall of the brace, the brace is 3/4 inch thick, this also shows the other glass being 3/4"

This shows the tank from the top with the brace on the inside. This says "the brace is made of one solid piece, not seperate pieces glued together.

 

[reefforbrains]

When buying glass and if your going to just bite the bullet and buy large pieces, then why not use the entire sheet.
10'10" is a standard sheet length for a full size sheet.
Eurobraced and at only 24" deep you are within spec. But even your eurobracing for the 8ft length will need to be more than just a small lip as you have in the picture. You will need to have more like a 3-4 inch ring min.
I am no engeneer so I won try to quote spec. Looks like a beautiful project and I wish you luck with it.
Using Starfire Glass?

 

[geraldwhite]

Good Post, Yeah I was wondering about the size, I put it at 2 inch but I'm thinking 2½ or 3 at the most.
When I spec it out i wasn't sure and there is no point in re-drawing the whole thing for .5-1 inch difference. Thanks for the heads up
What is starfire?

 

[geraldwhite]

Here are some more photos of the project. As you can see from the images below This tank is going into a sitting room, it will be cut through the wall behind it which is my living room (actual pictures coming soon).

 

[wangotango]

very cool

. theres a lot of new projects being started around here, its kinda making me jealous. are you building the tank yourself or are you having it built? if so, who did you decide to go with? i cant wait to see this thing get going, its going to be cool! keep us informed.
-Justin

 

[geraldwhite]

Thanks for the comment. Yeah I'm having someone else build it (seeing if they can...) That may be one of the stuggles in getting this going.
I'll keep you posted.