# Glass for Aquarium.



## Niki2105

I am gonna make a 90 gallon tank if i think it will be cheap enough. I was wondering if anyone has done it before and what thickness of glass to use. I resealed an old 15 gallon tank and that worked out fine but building my own would probally be a bit more difficult. Thanks for any info you can give me and if you have a site that i can read up on it please post.


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## maxpayne_lhp

For that, thickness of 5 cm is cool, the bottom glass may be 7cm for security...


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## blixem

Try to get a piece of tempered glass for the bottom if you can. That way if it does break the contents of your entire tank don't just drop to the floor.


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## Damon

Unless you happen to have the glass laying around, its never cheaper to build a tank than to buy one (made of glass that is).


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## shev

you could make a plywood/glass tank. one side glass, all the rest wood.


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## fishyshawn

that sounds hick


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## blixem

fishyshawn said:


> that sounds hick


It's one of the best ways to build larger tanks.


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## AshleytheGreat

wouldnt the wood rot?


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## TheOldSalt

Only if it got wet, but it won't. You see, the wood is painted with 4 coats of food/aquaculture-grade epoxy. The best brand is called "Sweetwater" and it can be bought from Aquarium Ecosystems of Orlando. they have a website & big catalog.

Make a big plywod box, and make it very strong. Cut a big hole in the face. Paint it a few times. Install the front glass. Fill 'er up. Ta-DA! It's a fishtank.

www.garf.org is a pretty jumbled up mess of a website, but it has a nice bit on making plywood tanks. Input the planned dimensions on the calculator, and it'll spit out the full set of plans in exact detail, including glass thickness and how to join the wood parts together for correct fit & strength.

I've made small ones and they worked great, but they weren't cheap enough to be worth the bother. BIG tanks, though, are much cheaper to make in wood than in glass.

How do they look? Well, that 300 gallon tank currently for sale in the for sale section of this forum is such a tank, made from garf plans. Looks pretty nice, eh? They can of course be finished to look like any other piece of fine furniture.


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## euRasian32

There's a point when building is cheaper than buying, when you reach the 150 gallon range. Even then, it's hard to beat prices by glasscages.com, when you weigh out the time, attention, and dedication that's necessary in constructing something to HOPEFULLY hold lots o' water.

C


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## Damon

Building glass tanks isn't for saving money. People usually do it for one or more of the following reasons.

They want to try their hand at building a tank
They want a tank with dimensions that are not usually available
They have the glass or know of a cheap source for it.

Other than that its hard to save money when they buy materials in bulk and you're buying 2-4 pieces of glass and having them cut.


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