Aquarium tank build ideas

Mking36523 · Dec 28, 2019

I am trying to look into building a new aquarium instead of buying one. I have been doing alot of research and reading and figuring out everything to build this to what I want.

This is my idea for a new tank. I want to go 72 inches long 27 inches high and 30 inches wide. This would give me a total of 250 gallons. If the price of glass is extremely different from going to 24 inches high it will be 224 gallons. According to research if I do 27 inches high I would need 16 mm glas and that gives me a safety rating of 4.04 which is above the 3.8 that is called for. If I did 24 inches I could use 12mm glass but only gives me a 3.46 rating which is lower then the rating I should be looking for. So in saying that I plan on euro bracing the tank and also roughly every bracing every 2 ft from the front to back of the tank. I would like to go with 27 inches high but it seems hard to find 16mm glass online in that size. So could I go with 12 mm glass with the bracing that I plan to do and it be safe?
Next I plan on doing plywood bottom of tank with pond armor on the bottom and drill and do 2 1inch overflows or 1 2 inch over flow. Would this give me my water turn over for filtration. I have a pump that can do 3200 gph so putting the water back in wont be an issue.
Lastly instead of using glass would plexiglass at 3/4 inch be cheaper or better. I have your kids that I am worried will scratch the display or possibly damage it if I did plexiglass.
Any help in this matter would be appreciated. This is a project i plan to start in a few months but trying to get planning and figuring out cost and where to buy my material before i start setting up to do this build. Thank you for some advice.

BestCutter · Dec 29, 2019

Mking36523 said:
I am trying to look into building a new aquarium instead of buying one. I have been doing alot of research and reading and figuring out everything to build this to what I want.

This is my idea for a new tank. I want to go 72 inches long 27 inches high and 30 inches wide. This would give me a total of 250 gallons. If the price of glass is extremely different from going to 24 inches high it will be 224 gallons. According to research if I do 27 inches high I would need 16 mm glas and that gives me a safety rating of 4.04 which is above the 3.8 that is called for. If I did 24 inches I could use 12mm glass but only gives me a 3.46 rating which is lower then the rating I should be looking for. So in saying that I plan on euro bracing the tank and also roughly every bracing every 2 ft from the front to back of the tank. I would like to go with 27 inches high but it seems hard to find 16mm glass online in that size. So could I go with 12 mm glass with the bracing that I plan to do and it be safe?
Next I plan on doing plywood bottom of tank with pond armor on the bottom and drill and do 2 1inch overflows or 1 2 inch over flow. Would this give me my water turn over for filtration. I have a pump that can do 3200 gph so putting the water back in wont be an issue.
Lastly instead of using glass would plexiglass at 3/4 inch be cheaper or better. I have your kids that I am worried will scratch the display or possibly damage it if I did plexiglass.
Any help in this matter would be appreciated. This is a project i plan to start in a few months but trying to get planning and figuring out cost and where to buy my material before i start setting up to do this build. Thank you for some advice.

While I cannot answer all of your questions I will tell you that I've never seen 16mm glass. It usually goes (in my experience) from 10mm to 12mm to 15mm and then to 19mm. I would not substitute bracing for the proper thickness glass that you need.

Dennis