Acrylic tank build thickness

aqtest · Jan 28, 2021

I m trying to build an Acrylic tank with the following dimension: 48"L 18"H 18"W or maybe have the width would be around 23" . What would be a good thickness ?

xxkenny90xx · Jan 28, 2021

Hey aq, welcome to the club! I'd look at similar sized manufactured tanks and copy their thickness. Obviously the thicker the better. For that size I would guess 3/8" acrylic

jwilliams860 · Jan 28, 2021

My buddy has a 120g 48x24x24 its made out of 1/2" but has a euro braced top. i had a 300 gallon 8x30x2 it eas 5/8 sides and 1/2" top euro brace and bottom

xxkenny90xx · Jan 28, 2021

Mine is 60x18x24 and it's 3/8" I believe

fade2black · Jan 30, 2021

There is an excel file floating around the interwebs that is an acrylic thickness calculator. It’s fairly conservative and works great for what-if scenarios like this.

Reeflux · Jan 30, 2021

aqtest said:
I m trying to build an Acrylic tank with the following dimension: 48"L 18"H 18"W or maybe have the width would be around 23" . What would be a good thickness ?

I would say a half inch... just based on seeing other tanks that size and their thickness. I just bought a brand new 150g acrylic, 6 ft long... its a half inch thick.

1

Courtlife · Mar 28, 2021

I'm going for a very custom look and built a tank that's 64" L x 24" W x 36" tall. I used 1" thick cast acrylic. I'm assuming because of the height I need to use some type of bracing? Will one brace down the middle front to back and one down each side suffice?

JPG@CFI · Mar 29, 2021

1/2” is what I build tanks that size with. Make sure you use a premium brand like Plex-G or Polycast.

JPG@CFI · Mar 29, 2021

Courtlife said:
I'm going for a very custom look and built a tank that's 64" L x 24" W x 36" tall. I used 1" thick cast acrylic. I'm assuming because of the height I need to use some type of bracing? Will one brace down the middle front to back and one down each side suffice?

You need a one piece top, not some scraps cobbled together. Just 29 years of tank building experience talking.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 29, 2021

^heres the man. Right here.
D

fuelman · Mar 29, 2021

I have a 75 gallon made by clarity plus so it's a bit old. it's 3/8" on all panels but the top is 1/2" thick.

Courtlife · Mar 29, 2021

JPG@CFI said:
You need a one piece top, not some scraps cobbled together. Just 29 years of tank building experience talking.

Polycast was insanely cost prohibitive, but I did go with Plexiglas-G. I have a 24x64 piece that I can use for a lid. How large of cutouts can I make? It's already going to be a bear to maintain.

oreo54 · Mar 29, 2021

For reference:

ACRYLITE® - Calculators

www.acrylite.co

Courtlife · Mar 29, 2021

oreo5457 said:
For reference:

ACRYLITE® - Calculators

www.acrylite.co

Thanks for sharing. Definitely a valuable reference! Funny that it's a shared document. I did make a sheet on this the other day and was playing around with it. I was under the assumption that a good rule of thumb was 1/2" for 24" height, 3/4" for 30" height etc. Which would put me at 1" for 36". The calculator was recommending 1.25 even with a top which seemed quite conservative. Was looking for some expert recommendations which is why I came here

I already built the tank with said dimensions out of 1", so just making sure that with a sound top it won't crumble on me.

pdxmonkeyboy · Mar 29, 2021

As someone that has built my fair share of Acrylic tanks I can tell you what myself and the pros would use. And when I say pros I don't mean the cheap butt trueview crap, I mean quality custom aquariums. If you don't want the tank visibly bowing.. and why would you? These are the thicknesses I would suggest (these are for eurobraced tanks with at least 4" wide euro bracing all around and one cross brace per 30".

18-25" tall - 3/4" thick
25-33" tall 1"
33-40" tall 1/1/4

James at envision acrylics convinced me to bump up to 1" acrylic on my 8'x4'x30" tank and I couldn't be happier that i did. Absolutely zero defection. None.

Or you can bump down a whole size and have a tank with a bow in it, structurally it will be fine but have fun scrapping corraline off of a curved surface.

pdxmonkeyboy · Mar 29, 2021

and ABSOLUTELY use a one piece top to make the braces. I would say 3/4" with that tall of a tank. Hopefully you got access to the information to mix your own solvent when you built your tank and didn't just use weldon.

Courtlife · Mar 29, 2021

pdxmonkeyboy said:
As someone that has built my fair share of Acrylic tanks I can tell you what myself and the pros would use. And when I say pros I don't mean the cheap butt trueview crap, I mean quality custom aquariums. If you don't want the tank visibly bowing.. and why would you? These are the thicknesses I would suggest (these are for eurobraced tanks with at least 4" wide euro bracing all around and one cross brace per 30".

18-25" tall - 3/4" thick
25-33" tall 1"
33-40" tall 1/1/4

James at envision acrylics convinced me to bump up to 1" acrylic on my 8'x4'x30" tank and I couldn't be happier that i did. Absolutely zero defection. None.

Or you can bump down a whole size and have a tank with a bow in it, structurally it will be fine but have fun scrapping corraline off of a curved surface.

Thanks for the info! Given that my tank is only 200G but 36" tall would you still expect deflection? Just asking as I'm NOT the pro. I have a 1" thick piece I'll be making the top out of. With dimensions of 64"x24" and a 1" top, would you still recommend 4" perimeter and 2x 4" cross braces? I've got the piece ready to go, just figuring out how to rout it.

Thanks all for the advice!!

Pistondog · Mar 29, 2021

aqtest said:
I m trying to build an Acrylic tank with the following dimension: 48"L 18"H 18"W or maybe have the width would be around 23" . What would be a good thickness ?

3/8 with euro bracing

pdxmonkeyboy · Mar 30, 2021

Yes it will absolutely bow with 3/4. I built a 32 out of 3/4 and it had a bow to it. At that length your right between two 6" wide braces or one i or 9" brace. I would not make the brace less than 6" wide.

The corners of the "opening" are important!! If the radius is too small the stress will be concentrated and it will craze on you.

Here is what i would do. Make a template. Get a sheet of 1/4" thick mdf. Cut it out to the external measurements of your tank. Draw the 4" lines. Then take a 1 gallon paint can and trace the corners in. Cut with jig saw and sand smooth.

Lay that piece on your top and trace the lines. Cut it with a jig saw... fun! Obviously cut it a little smaller than thr lines. Now, get some double sided carpet tape, stick the template to the acrylic. Use a pattern following bit and route it.

Then i would go over it with a round over bit. Sand the underside edge.

Boom done.