Building an acrylic aquarium...how to?

This is starting to sound complicated...haha. Surely a glass tank so small as this would not need any extra bracing, right? And I may try to switch my building material from acrylic to glass. Instead of 1/4" acrylic (i've seen a full grow peacock smack that stuff no problem), maybe 3/8" glass? I'd feel like super overkill going with 1/2" glass...

Glass sounds like it'd be cheaper, and MUCH easier to work with. I can use silicone and glue glass inseam and out of the seam with a nice fillet deal. I don't like this whole acrylic being supported from the bottom to prevent bowing business...

 

If your going to build, I would honestly say acrylic would be cheaper. Getting nice glass cut professionally to your specs is by no means cheap.
The stand supporting the bottom is easy. instead of using a frame top (like I did on mine), you would just use a solid sheet of ply.

 

Oh that's easy enough. I'd probably run a 2x4 brace underneath the ply as well to make me feel better.

And for a cleaner look...how about an external overflow? This would make the inside of the tank look alot cleaner.

Mantis tank - External overflow by =Jwin= - Google 3D Warehouse

I reeeeaaaaally like that Google Sketchup thing

 

Yeah that would work. I would also drill a hole or two in the back for the returns, instead of going over the top as in original design.

 

to weld acrylics (the term "glue" doesn't apply, it's called solvent welding) you brace the pieces in position, clamp them together, and set it up so the seam to weld is vertical. Then you put some solvent (weld-on) in a syringe with a fine needle, or an applicator bottle with a needle (what I use) and run the seam from bottom to top. the solvent is thinner than water and will wick into the seam via capillary action. You'll see if it gets all the way through. If it doesn't you went too fast.Go back and spot treat areas from the opposite side to make sure you get 100% penetration, or as close as possible. A few air bubbles wont hurt as long as there's solvent all the way around, you just don't want air lines from inside to outside.

Any spillage will result in marring of the plastic sheet, so leave as much contact paper on as you can, wipe up any over spray quickly, and be prepared to spend a few hours on clean up with Novus 3 part polish.

The weld is almost instant, you can unclamp in 15 minutes to be on the safe side (when I make acrylic art I let it cure for about 30 seconds)

welding acrylic is an art form, and neatness counts, so practice on scrap for a while till you're comfortable with the applicator and the process. The needle applicators are great, you can bend the needle and get a good flow with the right angle, just make sure you have a steady hand and plenty of room to work and move around. You have to dance with the stuff for a clean job.

As far as cost of material....Thin glass is much cheaper than thick FF. I can get a sheet of 5/16" annealed display case glass for $140 for a 4x8 sheet, and a 4x8 sheet of 5/16 acrylite FF for about $300, but go to 3/4" glass for a big tank, and it's like $800 or more a sheet, whee the 5/16 or 3/8 FF would still be plenty strong. 1" glass is about $1000 a sheet, but the same size 1" FF is around $5000... so really acrylic is more expensive, but you can do with 1/2" FF what would require 1" glass... so you have to consider the application.

-Doug

 

I'll shop around with glass and acrylic and see what it comes down to. I really think 1/2 inch glass is WAAAAY overkill, even for a mantis. So i'd look for 3/8 glass, and 1/4 acrylic (more than enough on thickness). I could possibly even make two of these tanks with a 4x8 sheet of material. One sheet would be much more than enough for such a small tank. I'm really like 20x20x14 as my dimmensions, but this build is a long way aways so anything is up to change.

Also, I've never built a stand before. So I whipped this up tonight (really loving that Sketchup ) Mantis 20x20x14 with stand and 10 gallon sump by =Jwin= - Google 3D Warehouse I'd probably have a 3/4" to 1" ply sandwiched separating the tank from the actual frame, and the frame would be composed of 2x4's. How does that look as far as a frame for a stand goes? I don't really know how I'd attach the pieces together...I don't know how long framing nails are. But it sure looks good "on paper". Feel free to correct the snot out of that approach.

 

3/8" is plenty thick

 

I've had many O.s. (peacock) mantis over the years. Unless you're purposely annoying them, they rarely strike the side glass. I had a custom acrylic that 3 different peacocks lived in and there were few scratches. Trust me, my yellow lab annoyed 2 of them. (Annoyed me too). It went something like this.....

Step 1: Put nose on the tank
Step 2: Wait for the mantis to smack the tank
Step 3: Bark
Step 4: Return to step 1

 

and then some

 

I'm seriously going to have to weigh my options here when it comes to glass or acrylic. It seems like a sheet of glass might cost more? But it'd be much easier to work with for someone who's never built a tank before. Acrylic might be cheaper...but this steady hand, potential leaks at the seams thing is kind of getting to me.