pricing in Victoria/Vancouver
 

I need to know what kinda deals there are out there on either 1/2" plate glass or 1/2" acrylic sheet. price per sq foot will be fine.

Steve

What are ya thinkin about building steve?

new tank. my front room isn't suited for the tank I have there and I came up with a way that would use existing unusable space so I would get my front room back :mrgreen:

Steve

The price of acyrlic went up 12%, so you may want to look at glass.

I dont know about 1/2" but 3/8" clear is about $380.00 a sheet (4x8) and black is about $550.00

I bet 1/2" clear is gettin up to about $600 a sheet.

Marc.

did you go glass or acrylic? is that retail pricing on Acrylic sheet?

I have to find out if I do go acrylic how thick I need to go, the largest pannel is 53 X 24 and all the rest are under 31 X 24.

you did a wood tank didn't you? any details on the planning for the strenght and thickness of wood?

Steve

Bump
I am following along... plannig a similar wood/ epoxy tank with a 6' front pane and 4' on one of the sides

I went laminated starphire 3/4".

That is retail pricing, with about a 10% discount.

Yes, i went wood, I really have no details for the strength of wood vs glass/plexi.

But what im sure of, is, you would likley use 3/4" in plywood, wich would be stronger than plexi or glass of 1/2" max thickness that you would have used for the same thing.

Marc.

[quote="Fudge"]Ok a couple questions, what did you use to seal the wood and if you were building a tank that was just over 5 foot long on the longest dimention at 24" tall, do you think it would require much bracing?

Steve

Steve,

I used a polyester resin to seal it, while it was tacky i laid a fiberglass cloth on.
Then i applied god knows how many more layers of polyester resin...
then a gelcoat to make a final seal. (polyesters require this)

Then i applied a few additional coats of west systems epoxy, and used a color in the mix.

To be honest Steve i dont know if this would be a worthwhile endevour for you, as it is still expensive...and work intensive.
It is a much more economical option on larger tanks.

I have no doubt that it would be strong enouph at 5', but it will have flex to it.
So i would at least consider an external/internal eurobrace, fiberglassing that along with the box.
That being done,now its the seams that are the most important.
Jamie and i did something a little different for these, we used canstripping for all the seams, wich provided an additional 1.5" of glue joint, aswell as took off any pressure that would be directly on the seams.

Marc.

I I noticed that, good idea. I am building a new stand for either a new tank, or my old one. the stand will be able to do either depending on the cost to build a new tank. I am waiting on a quote to have one built out of acrylic right now then I have a reference to go from to see if it is even worth building it myself or to go to glass.

Steve