how hard?

[Simona586]

how hard would it been to build your own acrylic aquarium??

my dad was wondering how hard it is and i did some research and it doesn't look to difficult???

[adalius]

It's been done before. But, to preface my answer, how big is he thinking of going? The larger the tank the more difficult it becomes, and thus my answer changes ;-)

[Simona586]

well huge lol i was hopeing 96 x 48 x 24 (l x w x h) because the sheets of acrylic can come 8 foot by 4 foot so it minimizes my cutting i need to do...

[adalius]

I think it's do-able. I'd remind you that you're S.O.L. if a joint isn't done right and fails when it's full of water, where-as store bought tanks usually have quality control checks so that doesn't happen, but if you're still willing to give it a go, come up with a design for how you're going to do your bracing and what thickness and yadda yadda yadda, post them on a few reef forums like this one and you'll get some good feedback as far as if your bracing is strong enough and whatnot.

Edit: Also, daaaaaayyyyum, that's almost 480 gallons.

[Simona586]

yea i was reading this page and prolly doing exactly how this guy did it



http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiytank/bndiytank.htm

and use 1/2


EDIT: yea i no my dad wants to make a sweet as tank in the basement he worse than me!

[card16969]

yea i was reading this page and prolly doing exactly how this guy did it



http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiytank/bndiytank.htm

and use 1/2


EDIT: yea i no my dad wants to make a sweet as tank in the basement he worse than me!

1/2" at that water volume is not thick enough acrylic, your looking at massive amount of welding and your going to have to do a brace ring around the top, im getting ready to build a 300 and in all honest.... your looking at something you need to be VERY experienced in acrylic to build and your looking at very expensive aka probably 2k in materials to build and thats being conservative

[adalius]

I think it's a very realistic goal, and that guy covers exactly what I was suggesting, which is making sure your bracing is big enough, if you make a solid top with the access holes cut out like he suggests there should be plenty of meat to hold it together (as long as you don't go crazy with your access holes).

I would certainly practice your acrylic joining with some scrap pieces of 1/2" so you can make sure that you can glue long corner joints and such without bubbles or other imperfections that could cause it to fail.

[Simona586]

im glad i asked!! lol prolly better off bying one!!

[adalius]

It all boils down to how confident you are and how much time you're willing to spend. I think if you get some scraps and practice for a couple hours, you could probably have it down pat and throw together a good aquarium.

[Simona586]

yeaa im gonna have to do some research:silly:

[card16969]

go here they are basically the bible when it comes to designing tanks lol, the calculator will give you our cut sheets..... http://www.garf.org/tank/buildtank.asp

[Simona586]

i did the garf thing and it says i could use 1/2 thickness and i was reading because its 24 inchs 1/2 would work if i do top with cut out holes... idk tho because ive never done this before

[adalius]

His calculator is wonky. If you tell it you want to build a tank that's 24 x 48 x 120, it says it doesn't recommend building a tank over 96 inches long, but if you tell it you want to build one thats 24 x 120 x 48, then it's fine with it. It also seems 1/2" is the thickest that it'll recommend.

[card16969]

i did the garf thing and it says i could use 1/2 thickness and i was reading because its 24 inchs 1/2 would work if i do top with cut out holes... idk tho because ive never done this before

it says you can use 1/2 but thats bare minimum, when i went to a tank designer for building my new tank with the volume of water 5/8 is what they said is safer

[adalius]

I'd still do what I suggested before and get a drawing together of what you're thinking of doing, toss it online on a couple different forums, and let the masses do the thinking for you. They'll find problems/solutions before you even think of them.

[Simona586]

yea im deff gonna do that!!

[tazzy695]

heck man if you are building it in place why not do glass it is much easier then acrilic and being built in place you don't have to worry about weight or moving it

[jimsflies]

It might be worth pointing out that the cost of the tank is the one of least expensive parts of this hobby IMO. 400+ gallons of reef will require some substantial pumps and lighting depending on what you are going to keep. Not to mention, the cost of livestock to fill it up.

Not to talk you out of a 400 gallon tank, cause I'd love to see you build it and post it up on our site. However, if cost is an issue at this point in the game, you may want to price out everything and make sure you know where your going.

[Myteemouse]

All more important than the seems . is the preparation of the edges.. and then the welding of the seems with NO air bubbles..

I bought my 125 acrylic and is was 1000$$ I would do it again for the insurance of knowing if it pops it's got a company backing it..

[Myteemouse]

yea i was reading this page and prolly doing exactly how this guy did it



http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiytank/bndiytank.htm

and use 1/2


EDIT: yea i no my dad wants to make a sweet as tank in the basement he worse than me!one problem with this dudes tank is, the brace on top,.. those corners are gonna crack. he needs to do big rounded corners..
Heres the top of my 125. ,,.60 " long 24" wide check out the corners of the braceing
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o128/acungaro/saltwater/march13012-1.jpg