DIY sump glass thickness

[fishybizzness]

Hi everyone,
I'm thinking of building a diy glass sump out of some 1/4" plate glass I have. The dimensions will be 31x18x17 or 18. Does anyone have experience building a sump out of 1/4" glass? Do you think that it will be thick enough for a sump? Thanks as usual for all the advice!

 

[oreo54]

Calculators say you are close.
Will need to double up he bottom and should have one cross brace..

A wee bit shorter height wise the better..like 15"..
6mm sides 7.5mm bottom..

Note going off off "the math" and a safety factor of 3.8..so you are on your own..

 

[fishybizzness]

Thanks for the response! Where did you find the calculator for this?

 

[fishybizzness]

Being that it's a sump and will have several baffles siliconed in, does that cancel out the need for a cross brace, or is it still necessary?

 

[oreo54]

Thanks for the response! Where did you find the calculator for this?

confusing one

easy one

Yea any cross brace on the long side should work fine..
Sort of divides your one tank into 2 or more tanks..Closer to the top the better..

Again, just "napkin" calcs based on "best estimate"..

Oh and most recommend "floating" the bottom but in your case and doubling the bottom glass panel you could do a more fancy method.. i.e one bottom pane w/ sides resting on it, next bottom pane smaller w. sides attached to the side of it..

Having the glass bottom as the table contact isn't always the best idea for "larger" tanks..
Better to have the sides do all the surface contact..

See "floating bottom aquarium". Most of what I read is the "cutoff" between floating bottom and sides on bottom is about 50-ish gallons..
It's debatable.. See below thread.

Professional's answers on bottom glass and frame questions

My long awaited questions has been answered by professional factory aquarium builders. Fact. the decorative trim on the aquarium has no benefit whatsoever in strength or structure but invented purely as a manufacturing aid to hold the panels in place during the gluing process. It is the...

www.aquariacentral.com

all sorts of weird variations..

floating base of the tank v. normal base

It seems most european tanks come with floating base, but most (all?) tanks custom made in UK are using normal base. Is there a reason, maybe normal base is better/stronger than floating?

www.ultimatereef.net

I always get a kick out of this vid.. Does show the stepped bottom thing though..

 

[oreo54]

My only worry is that you would need to glue 2 1/4 plates togeter well and uniformly..
It's sort of an ??? for me..

1/4 bottom by itself and no bracing is a wee bit thin..Safety factor of 2.7
But just like the sides if you have a baffle glued to it and the sides it will stiffen it up.. or should so less bottom deflection..

 

[fishybizzness]

Definitely will be looking into doubling up on the bottom! Anything to make it stronger will be less stressful for me!