Plans for a large DIY fishtank

[joez]

I wrote these up based on http://www.athiel.com/lib6/tank.htm for reference. Could anyone tell me how many gallons this would yield? It's basically 19" tall, 96" long, and 24" wide.
I'm thinking of building this myself using wood boards and acrylic. Looks like I could do it for less than $150 + my time.
Front.

 

[joez]

side

 

[joez]

top

 

[melbournefl]

(Length inches x Width inches x Height inches ) / 231 = gallons
I couldn't understand your pictures but there's the formula for converting cubic inches to gallons.
Hope this helps,
Paul

 

[joez]

anyway I could explain to clarify? Looks to be right near 190 gallons...not bad.

 

[melbournefl]

Some other notes after re-reading your post ...
1) the acrylic will probably cost more than 150 bucks
2) the epoxy paint for the ******** will cost about 50 bucks if you can find it locally otherwise add about $30 for shipping (HAZMAT)
3) it's great fun, just finished my 220
Hope this helps,
Paul

 

[joez]

Thanks for the encouragement. The acrylic is at homedepot and is a 8ft by 4 ft sheet which is .234 thick (or something along those lines). I'll prob need two sheets of these and they are $50 each.

 

[melbournefl]

Joe, how tall is the tank?

 

[joez]

20" over all height, but the glass is only 18.5" tall. I plan on having 18" worth of water in it. The first picture is looking at it straight on. Black = wood, blue = glass/acrylic.
The gray in the top view is the bottom of it...if I made it black (it's still wood) it'd just blend in.

 

[melbournefl]

LOL I'm so sorry, I can't believe I missed the dimensions in your post (or were they edited later?) anyway ... I'm certainly not trying to discourage you from building your own tank and I hope I didn't give you that impression. I really loved building mine and can't wait to get something live in the son-of-a-gun! I was just trying to forewarn you, the price is more than you think. Now regarding the acrylic. With a tank that long you're going to need at *least* 1/2" and there's no way you can bond 2 1/4" pieces together that will not be ugly as heck, and I don't think it would be structurally sound anyway. I'd suggest looking into glass if you're out to save some money and you might want to wait till you've made the "box" before you order the glass so you can get precise measurements (this is experience speaking LOL). You should be able to find 1/2" glass that size for between 200 and 250 bucks from someone locally. When you start looking for the 2 part epoxy paint be sure to put Aquatic Eco-Systems on your list, they offer it in several colors. I mention this because I had no luck finding it locally in less than 5 gallon buckets @ $250, you'll need about a gallon. Anything else I might be able to help you with please post and I'll give it a shot.
Hope this helps and enjoy!
Later,
Paul

 

[joez]

no worries on the confusion. I'm thinking of making it 72" instead of 96"....that would certainly cut down on costs for me. I went back and rethought it and the sheets of acrylic at HD were 8'x4', so getting a 96" would have to be special ordered.
Do you really think that 1/2" is necessairy for acrylic? For glass, sure, but acrylic I figured it would be fine...

 

[melbournefl]

Nope, sorry, even if you go down to 72" you'd still have to go half inch, just too much bowing otherwise I'm pretty sure you'll find that glass will be less expensive than acrylic.
Here's my tank before it was "finished" but almost done LOL I'm in the process of getting better pictures of the final product.
Later,
Paul

 

[joez]

Looks like it'll be cool when done. I'd like to do an inwall here, but I move out and go to college in 6 months...
I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I do have two 10" braces to support the bowing...still think it would bow too much with two center braces?

 

[melbournefl]

Joe, that's not an inwall tank LOL ... I still think that you would still get the bowing, not in the tank itself with the braces but the acrylic itself would bow or, perhaps better put, bulge from the water pressure. That's just my opinion and maybe someone else has personal experience that would refute this? Anybody else out there?
Good luck whatever way you go
Later,
Paul

 

[broncofish]

There is a formula on the gar.org page for thickness. You give type in the size of tank your looking at, and they give you thickness. Melbourne how hard was it to assemble the glass, Did you just set it into the frame, and then glue it, or did it take a bunch of people, I would love to start planning building my own tank

 

[broncofish]

Just checked out that garf thing, and they came up with 3/8 thickness, I have no idea what their formula is based on though.

 

[melbournefl]

Bronco, I laid down several 3/4" beads of silicon (8 tubes) and set the glass in place. That being said, if I decide to do this again I would "trowel" the silicon using a trowel made for laying tile morter. I'd still use the massive amount of silicon but I'd spread it out better. After I did mine, I spent a couple of weeks re-sealing the glass at the bottom edge. My fault for trying to do the glass alone and not spreading out the silicon better All is well now and it's holding water like a champ
Regarding 3/8" glass, LOL I'd still use 1/2" not that much more money in the overall scheme of things!
Later,
Paul

 

[broncofish]

Oh sorry about that the thickness was for acryl, not glass. I would really like to try doin a small acrylic tank to see how it turns out.

 

[jester]

MelbourneFL,
I'm doing a little free hosting. I might be able to help while you find a permanent host.
tkandsm@attbi.com
this is how it works:
email me, I give you acess rights to my FTP, upload site, email me when your done, site is up. You don't get a fancy dot com address, but hell, it's free. Oh yeah, 10 mb limit.

 

[joez]

I think I'm going to try a small acrylic tank first as well. Talk to a guy at the lfs and he said building an aquarium is a hard task. I think I'll try either a 37 like I have right now, a small <20 gal, or who knows what else. Probably a 37 with nothing but inverts! Shrimp, crabs and lobsters galor! lol...