Acrylic thickness

[Duane Fagan]

Peace and love peace and love peace...... So after a weekend of research I've found lots of information about acrylic panel thinknes....... Buuuuuuuut I would like information about these sizes 144L48W36H and 168L48W30H I want absolutely no bowing down the long panels so what thickness would achieve that at those sizes? Also I know acrylic will absorb some water so is bowing just apart of going acrylic no matter the thickness? Please let's not start ww5 I just want a better understanding of how acrylic works and know lots of people build tanks on here

 

[Gill the 3rd]

I don't have a firm answer, but at that height I would think you are at least in the 1" territory. My 120x24x24 acrylic tank is 3/4" thick and I think I was maxing that out. You are going to have some bowing no matter what you do, especially at the tank lengths you are looking at. Adding thick euro bracing or additional bracing at the top will help alleviate any significant bowing.

 

[Duane Fagan]

dang that sucks so no bowing is just apart of using acrylic and basically the thicker the less bow

 

[RedoubtReef]

I'd guess at that length it's going to be 3/4 minimum and some manufactures may want o use 1" with the bracing as mentioned above.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

dang that sucks so no bowing is just apart of using acrylic and basically the thicker the less bow

I've seen plenty of glass tanks that bow as well, its pretty normal imo. Just curious why you want absolutely no bowing? The tank height plays a bigger factor in the thickness of the material (for both glass and acrylic) than the length. The tank sizes you list in your original post will pretty much require a acrylic, I don't think you could do that out of glass unless you want to pay an obscene amount of money. I couldn't imagine the weight of a glass tank that big either - you would need a crew with machinery to move that tank lol.

 

[Duane Fagan]

Absolutely zero bow because from researching the common theme is thin panels make tank bow at that height and put stress on the seems tick tock tick tock tick tock I'd gladly pay for peace of mind and although less likely to leak than glass I'd rather not worry about the property damage in a nutshell preventing bowing is an insurance policy for the mental and physical (frying pan to the head)

 

[o2manyfish]

Are you planning on building the tank yourself and researching the materials?

If not your tank builder should have extensive experience with these size builds and the technology to stress test the materals using CAD simulation software and show you what the expected deflection is going to be based on the different material dimensions.

In a hobby where the average size tank is under 100g asking on a forum like this about material choices for a monster tank is going to give you alot of opinions but not much experience.

From my experience of visiting aquariums around the world, when you see displays in public zoo or aquaria with viewing panels of that size it is always a minimum of 2" material.

My memory is pretty swiss cheesed, but I was working with the Mirage Hotel in the early 90's when they were setting up the aquariums behind the check in desk. And I believe those were a 3.5" material - but it was a metric size.

Dave B

 

[Duane Fagan]

Great point about builders...... I'm not making it just like to think ahead and have some knowledge of things im doing so I can understand what I'm being told also I was reading a few forums where builders were fighting about thinknes so I guess there is no definitive answer