Building a tank

[B3ach]

I am upgrading tanks in a couple of months and I would like to do a rimless tank. I want the tank to be 48" x 24" x 17" aprox. 85g.
I have got a few quotes from different places and they are all $500+
I found a place to buy glass sheets and I think I could build the tank myself for around $300.
I plan to use 1/2" glass
Are there any good guides out there showing how to do this?
Do I need to do a couple braces on the sides?

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks!

 

[Faye]

I am upgrading tanks in a couple of months and I would like to do a rimless tank. I want the tank to be 48" x 24" x 17" aprox. 85g.
I have got a few quotes from different places and they are all $500+
I found a place to buy glass sheets and I think I could build the tank myself for around $300.
I plan to use 1/2" glass
Are there any good guides out there showing how to do this?
Do I need to do a couple braces on the sides?

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks!

I would practice on something significantly smaller first. This way if you mess up, you won't waste all that money on glass.
I have seen a few ways to build a tank, I will do a search for you.

 

[B3ach]

Yeah I was told to do that by a guy who built a 180g. We have a family friend that owns a glass company so I am going to see if they have any spare glass they could give me to practice with.

Thanks! I haven't used RC that much so I am not quite sure where/how to look for threads like that.

 

[B3ach]

anyone else?

 

[dlp211]

Go into the DIY forum and look for the 400g build thread.

Other then that. Use RTV 103(black) or RTV 108(clear) silicone. It is more expensive, but it is better then anything than you are going to get in HomeDepot or Lowes. You can get it at grainger.com for a little over $10 a tube.

Make sure you use spacers when siliconing the tank together. If you don't, you will squeeze most of the silicone out and while it may seem that it has adhere'd, it will be weak.

Other then that, pretape the glass for your silicone seams and as you put the seam in have someone else smoothing it, and if you can, another removing the tape, silicone skins fairly quickly.

 

[B3ach]

I understood all of that except the thing about the spacers haha. What do you mean by that?

 

[dlp211]

When you put two pieces of glass together, they are nearly flat, so if you press them together then all the silicone oozes out leaving a little silicone in the pores of the glass. So it appears that you have a good seal, in fact, it will probably be water tight.

All that said however, the truth is that there is very little silicone, and there will be much stress on this silicone. Over time, the seal will fail. So by using spacers in between the glass you get a good silicone bead that doesn't get pushed out.

The spacers will just stay in between the glass and get siliconed in.

If you go to the DIY forum, on the first page there is a build thread for a 400g tank. Check out this thread as the person doing this build, in my opinion, has set the standard for DIY builds.

He used cut up zip ties for spacers, pretty innovative if you ask me. It gave him a good 1/16" silicone bead in between each piece of glass.

 

[B3ach]

So the spacers will stay in and never come back out? Does this affect the dimensions of the tank?
Sorry if I sound stupid. I just cant picture that is my head haha

Do you use them so you can get a bead of silicone inbetween panes like this?

 

[B3ach]

I have 2 more questions

Do I leave the spacers in and just put silicon all around them?

If I use 1/16" spacers, do I need to expand the length of the tank by 1/8"?

Thanks

 

[dlp211]

Yes, the spacers stay in there, they just get siliconed in. And yes you have to take the silicone bead into account when doing your dimensions.

So for instance for your tank to be 48x24x17 external dimensions you would get these pieces of glass
1 x 48x24x1/2 (bottom)
2 x 48x16 3/8x1/2 (front and rear)
2 x 22 7/8x16 3/8x1/2 (sides)

And that is for exact dimensions.

DLP

 

[B3ach]

I thought that the sides go over the bottom? So the bottom will have to be 1" shorter because of the thickness.
This is a lil thing I drew up for another thread.
Would these dimensions be correct?

Oh and I made a lil mistake. The front, back and sides with be 1/2" taller.

 

[B3ach]

here is an accurate one. I decided to use 1/8" spacers instead of 1/16"

Does that seem right?

 

[B3ach]

Should I put the braces on top of the sides? or in the tank so they top is all level?

 

[B3ach]

Do the sides sit on the bottom pane?

 

[cside]

im going to be building a tank too (hopefully). can i have a link to the spacers? I understand what they do and why you need them i have just never seen them for sale.

 

[dlp211]

Yes, all four pieces of glass sit on the bottom pane.

This is why the bottom is usually tempered and/or thicker. I really wouldn't use a 1/8" spacer, that is huge, 1/16" will give you good integrity and no play. I think if you went to 1/8", you might get some play in the silicone which could cause a failure.

Also, your dimensions are wrong if you planned on sitting the sides to sit on the stand.

Basically you should have the bottom which is total width and length. Then you should have your front and back which are total height minus bottom thickness and silicone bead and total width. Then the side panes should just fit in.

Remember a 17" tank with a 1/2" bottom is only 16 1/2" internal. You'll also need to factor into account room for an overflow weir and what not.

So my dimensions are accurate for the tank I gave you. I will absolutely not tell you that you can't build a tank the way you want to. I know that my way does in fact work, but I also know that people do things differently all the time.

Also, I would put in a 2" brace around the bottom and I would put the braces internal, not sitting on top. I would probably eurobrace the top too, but that is me, while I love the look of rimless tanks, I don't trust them.

 

[dlp211]

im going to be building a tank too (hopefully). can i have a link to the spacers? I understand what they do and why you need them i have just never seen them for sale.

If you buy zip ties you can use them. They come in different dimensions, so get the ones that are 1/16"x1/8", then cut up 2" pieces and place them in. I would do about 1 spacer every 18" and never put them at the very end. You could also use screw spacers or standoffs, but you won't get the length that the zip ties give you.

 

[cside]

oh ok. i thought these spacers were something specifically designed for tanks. this is probably cheaper though

 

[James404]

In the big picture of this hobby $200 is chump change, I would go with a quality builder and be able to sleep at night rather than try to save a few bucks doing it yourself.

 

[Heavy Hittah]

I just watched a video at reefflix.com of a guy giving tips on building glass tanks. It's in the diy section

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