LF - Acrylic tank builder

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

When empty, do you know how heavy your tank is?

Part of the reason for acrylic is weight. My current glass tank was way to heavy to get into my place and this tank will be larger.

[Ritteri]

Weight is maybe 30-40% of what it would weigh in glass, guessing off the top of my head. My tank is a two person lift, your tank will be the same.

The biggest gains is:
Clarity
Strength
Can buff out fine scratches.
Cutting holes.

Obviously the downside is:
Cost
Scratches easy
Have to be careful rubbing/scraping algae and choraline algae off the side.

Invest in a Shark Magnet.

I put my overflow on the side of my tank and not through the bottom. I wanted to eliminate any chance of a bottom installed bulkhead from failing and draining my tank.

I built my stand out of 2x6's which cost me $80 and will hold a ridiculous amount of weight, maybe 3-4 times the tank weight.

I went with a fab process that takes much more time but offers almost double the PSI strength.

All this was for my Anularis Angle that I grew from 1" and is now 9"

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Thanks, that is great info.

For me it's all about being able to go larger but be careful with weight. Both for my floor and also to get the thing inside my place.

The builder said that it should be about half the weight of a glass tank depending on what thickness the glass is.

I had a smaller acrylic tank years ago and only scratched it once. It was easy to buff out. I always loved how the fish looked in that tank, there was no distortion and clarity was incredible. I upgraded to a starfire tank but it was not nearly as clear.

I am also a little paranoid about tanks failing because I have had a seam burst once...so acrylic puts my mind at ease.

[Ritteri]

Please take special consideration to the side pane thickness. Once you make the decision, your stuck with it.

I would recommend 3/4" sides.

Best of luck.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Ritteri

Please take special consideration to the side pane thickness. Once you make the decision, your stuck with it.

I would recommend 3/4" sides.

Best of luck.

The tank builder says that 1/2" Acrylite GP (12mm so actually 0.47") will only deflect 0.09 mm on the front pane and 0.03 mm on the sides. Not totally sure how they get the deflection numbers.

I might just ask them to build it with 3/4" acrylic. I like the look too.

[lastlight]

I once really considered Acrylic myself. I seem to recall in all my reading about tanks in that size range, people said to go with quality material (your builder is using it) and to go 3/4" when dealing with panels that long. There will be some bowing no matter what but minimizing that is key plus the tanks end up looking way nicer with the thicker material in my opinion. The beauty of Acrylic is you don't really need to worry about your back too much when weighing 1/2" vs 3/4" options.

[Ritteri]

What makes for a quality acrylic?