acrylic or glass...that is the question...

[Azurel]

By the way that is a hellava good price.......I would paint the back you might be surprised at the cost of getting such a small piece of black acrylic will cost you.....I built the canopy for my corner out of 1/8'' acrylic and it cost me almost $100 for the 4'x8' sheet. I can't imagine what 3/8'' would cost even for that small a piece.

 

[surfn]

I have curved corners on my 50G inwall. because I went in wall, I actually have the tank backwards in the wall. I painted the back with Rust-oleum black paint for plastic. No problems there. the curved corners will only craze if the tank is made from extruded acrylic, and even then, it may take many years. If he is using good cell cast acrylic it should be fine. If your doing acrylic, why not go with an external overflow? I have pics of mine, but their arent loaded online yet.
Basically just route a slot at the top of the tank, and build the box on the outside and attach it with weldon. I will upload some pics if ya want..

absolutely, lets see pics!

 

[dickie52]

Is there anything but glass???

 

[minibowmatt]

ok.. I will post them tonight after work.

 

[minibowmatt]

The first pic is of the slot I cut into the tank for the overflow. You can also see the comb I attached to it to keep the fish and snails in the tank. The slot is 1.25" tall and 11" long.

Just a view of the tank with the overflow in the rear. The external box is laying inside the tank.I think the box is 15" deep and 3" wide.

Here is a pic of the overflow in action.

 

[Azurel]

Yup everything they said is true about crazing......I tell you what when I'm ready to build my dream Cube I will have to have you ship me 3 sheets of 1/2 acrylic at that price. I'm sure it would be much cheaper the pay you and have you ship it to me then pay $700-$900 for one sheet locally. I could even slip you a couple bucks for the hard work.

 

[surfn]

Yup everything they said is true about crazing......I tell you what when I'm ready to build my dream Cube I will have to have you ship me 3 sheets of 1/2 acrylic at that price. I'm sure it would be much cheaper the pay you and have you ship it to me then pay $700-$900 for one sheet locally. I could even slip you a couple bucks for the hard work.

geez, those are some pretty drastic price differences. theres gota be a difference in the type of material. or do you think its the people building them inflating the cost of the materials so they can make more money off of buildilng them?

 

[Azurel]

I think you hit the nail on the head.....One of the places I called GE plastics and manufacturing when I was talking to the lady said" Well what is this going to be used for?" I didn't want to answer but I told her an aquarium and then she gave me a price. The referred me to the same place that I used for my corner tank....Wouldn't you know it he gave me the same quote on the per sheet price......I think there was a little kick back going on so I will not do business with either place. I think he did or has told them to refer any business for tanks to him and inflate there price to protect his business. He is the only one in town that I could fine that does custom acrylic aquariums. I do and plan on eventually doing some side work for building tanks and sumps once I get my truck paid off.....Kinda funny I found a place on-line that gave me a cheaper price by 2/3s of what they both quoted me.

 

[surfn]

by 2/3rds? are you sure it was exactly the same material?

 

[surfn]

well, he said it was about $200 for the materials, and $200 for the labor. he said it would take around 8-9hrs of labor.

i'm guessing this sounds like a pretty good deal.

i was thinking about the external overflow again, and i'd rather have it stick out like you have yours matt.

i wonder if he was thinking of building it like a false wall, kinda like a nanocube etc. i dont like that idea b/c it would make it very difficult to mount my nanostream magnets on the back of the tank.

 

[Azurel]

Yea it was about 2/3rds of the price transparent/clear cast acrylic, the thing they do is charge you for the whole sheet even if you don't use the whole sheet. So lets say I can build it out of 75% of a sheet, he will charge me for the total materials and keep the scraps......Not cool with me, the on-line place only charges you for the piece they cut......Not sure if other places do the same thing as these shysters here or not.....So when I had mine built I tried to figure out the measurements that would take up almost all of the sheet or sheets.

Personally I would go with the external over flow simply because that will make it a true cube, when you have the internal over flow that leaves you with measuerments that are not a true cube because internal space is being taken up although you would have the same volume. I think the external overflow would be a great idea and still give the true cube look.

 

[minibowmatt]

don't forget, Acrylic prices (at the manufacturer level) are set by oil prices. I have a plastics dealer here in Philly that I deal with, and he gave me this long drawn out explanation of cost, essentially it boiled down to oil prices. I trust him as I bulk buy for my school, I will call him next week and get a price and see what the difference is.

On the overflow, I absolutely love the external. I left a viewing window on the OF so I can see snails or hermits when the climb in and get them out easy. I also made a lid for it to reduce evaporation from the tumbling water. Just make sure you make the OF wide enough to put the bulkhead (of your choice) in the bottom. I used 1" and I wish I upsized it. I mean, It works fine, but I could have used bigger because I split my drain to my fuge and sump.

 

[TyreeUM]

I have had a euro braced acrylic 75 for 7 year now with no crazing. I love acrylic now and I would have a hard time going back to glass. My tank has a built in overflow and a sump-its sexy haha

 

[surfn]

I think it sounds like a pretty decent price. Is this guy local and you won't have to ship? I wouldn't want the false wall thing either. It's cool if your going to have a little nano, but not so much on a tank big enough to fit a sump below it. I'm going to start gluing frags to my false back on the biocube today

coralnutz, i think you need to try this out. they're awesome!!

http://www.aqua-mags.com/

i have 5 right now, twon8 has a dozen probably.

 

[surfn]

how wide should the euro bracing be with 3/8" acrylic on the walls?

he was suggesting a 3" eurobrace all around

 

[Azurel]

I wouldn't think it had to be that much, I would say personally 1 1/2'' inches would be perfect. Anything more then that is going to be prohibitive with such a small whole in the top. I found that with mine I had a hard time getting some pieces of rocks in there because the hole wasn't big enough, so I made a few small changes. IT don't have to be real huge bracing especially with yours it's not that tall and its not that wide so your not trying to over come serious water pressures. I would even say on your tank Surf a brace of 1 1/2'' would be fine.

 

[minibowmatt]

Al- Those mags are cool. Is the magnet encased in epoxy or something?

 

[twon8]

Al- Those mags are cool. Is the magnet encased in epoxy or something?

either epoxy or plastic; i really like them and imo they really speed up growth of corals, as they remain in the same place but also get great flow and light.

 

[minibowmatt]

think these would work? http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Neodymium-Pl...goryZ413QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Maybe dip the surface in super glue then dip in sand?

 

[surfn]

think these would work? http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Neodymium-Pl...goryZ413QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Maybe dip the surface in super glue then dip in sand?

i wouldn't even bother. those aquamags i linked to are TOP quality. amazing that its just a one-man operation who makes them. the guy who makes them is from richmond, and local to twon8.

they are made out of some of those rare-earth magnets, which do contain copper. but they look like they have been dipped in liquid hot rubber/epoxy and then allowed to cool. so no chance of water getting to the magnet unless you physically abuse them. trust me, if you buy a 3-pack of them (the large version), you will not be dissapointed.