My 185 acrylic (48x30x30) build

[troylee]

i would sheet the whole top of stand for a acrylic tank..especially that one with such thin material that bottom is gonna have alot of pressure on it when it's full of water.....like i mentioned before acrylic will absorb water so it might have a slight bow between each cross brace and cause you some head aches down the road it's better to be safe than sorry......i know alot of people even put foam under them to distrubute the wieght more evenly because the tanks sometimes are'nt perfectly flat on the bottom or the stand is'nt perfectly flat.hth

 

[Boostin S14]

Thanks troy, Good thing I didnt completely fill it yet then. I will take it down tonight and get a sheet under there with foam right away. I will post up some more progress pics tonight.

Later

 

[Boostin S14]

so I didnt post pics because as I was figuring out my drain plumbing I didnt like what I had so I am going to change it. I did take pics of what I was gonna do but I am gonna wait until tonight to take pics of my new idea and post them together. That way I can get some feedback as to which would probably work better. Other than that there has been no real progress last night. Gonna go get wood and foam tonight, also some trim to finish the stand. Stay tuned, this weekend is gonna be a action packed with progress

 

[sunsetSPS]

Very clean start. Is the tank built wit 0.5" acrylic?

 

[Pike614]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15133684#post15133684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Boostin S14
Thanks for all the input. I initially drilled the bulkhead holes at 1" for 1" bulkheads (not realizing that I would need 1 3/4 holes) so I re-drilled the holes the other night and got my slip/slip bulkheads last night so I will be putting those in tonight along with some of the other plumbing. I will post pics after I get those in. with the Euro brace being 3" all the way around, I am not too worried about the bowing. My next question though: I built the stand with 4x4 braces to hold the tank up, but did not put plywood over top of the braces, will that pose a potential problem in between the supports on the bottom of the tank? the supports are about 13" on center so there is only 9" of open space in between each brace. Does that make sense?

Thanks

Your Euro bracing will do little to prevent bowing, again the largest "hole" in an acrylic top that I cold get a quote on was 17" square. No one would do a euro braced acrylic tank, especially at only 1/2 inchg. I am sorry to be so negative, but I am just trying to make sure you are aware of the designe requirements for acrylic tanks.
With that said, you need to construct a stand that has a solid plywood top, there cannot be any "unsupported" parts or again it will bow and fail. Most people add a 1/2 or 3/4" foam base on top of that to help level it out.
Good luck!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

any updates?