400 gallon aquarium

[lionfish85]

I'm working on building a 400 gallon saltwater aquarium. I was wondering what thickness the glass should be? Plus any tips would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Joe Glass Cages]

I'm working on building a 400 gallon saltwater aquarium. I was wondering what thickness the glass should be? Plus any tips would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Welcome to R2R. Great family of support here

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Welcome To The Reef!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[RedReefer]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[FrugalReefer]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[pal98111]

I'm working on building a 400 gallon saltwater aquarium. I was wondering what thickness the glass should be? Plus any tips would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I don’t know about thickness but be absolutely certain the aluminum mold side the glass is on the outside of the tank to prevent permanent alkali glass corrosion. See Tidal Gardens YouTube video.

 

[Rmckoy]

Following along .
This will be a great future size for my next upgrade

 

[jdpiii3]

Welcome! I have a 400 acrylic 6' x 3' x 3' using 1" acrylic no issues tank has been up for 12 years.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

I don’t know about thickness but be absolutely certain the aluminum mold side the glass is on the outside of the tank to prevent permanent alkali glass corrosion. See Tidal Gardens YouTube video.

For float glass it is in an iron base....glass floats in an iron bath to prevent sticking and also aid in a uniform thickness. For the most part glass is typically labled which is the iron side. Work at a glass facility. What I would do is specifically ask them to tape the iron side if possible when making the cuts for you....depending on where you get the glass they will do this for you so you dont have to try and figure it out yourself. This is only if the glass comes from a float plant. Some glass does not and is a melted process with nothing to gauge thickness but a press that it gets ran through. If a tank starts to show this it is a manufactures defect when assembling the tank it is covered under the lifetime warranty for the tank makers to have in place. It can also be sought after for replacement since the tank makers are at fault for not assembling correctly. I have seen the tidal gardens video and am currently battling it myself on a 210 that i am refinishing. I have no idea who made the tank or i would be contacting them to replace. The thing is this hardly ever happens and when it does people dont know who actually manufactured the tank or what to do. Since this can take several years or multiple owners before it happens or appears in your actual tank. I would like to say that mistakes happen but not all the time in this case. Tempered glass is easy to tell iron side as the tempering mark will show what side the iron is on for example. If you can read the tempering mark the iron side is on the side with the etching. So you would assemble with the etching out. There is a lot of fail safes that can be done prior to putting a tank together if doing a diy. As well as when purchasing a tank. I know it can be exciting to buy and to just get it home and the process going but before buying the tank a thorough inspection should be done on any tank to avoid future issues or problems. The tidal gardens video is a good one but also put the fear into a lot of people that this happens a lot when it doesnt. Glass can also etch on the non iron side due to heavy dosing of nutrients and can permanently etch the glass it just is worse and happens faster on the alkali side of the glass.

 

[Rmckoy]

Welcome! I have a 400 acrylic 6' x 3' x 3' using 1" acrylic no issues tank has been up for 12 years.

I’ve always questioned if you were to put a straight edge along the centre of an acrylic tank does it bow at all ?

 

[jdpiii3]

I’ve always questioned if you were to put a straight edge along the centre of an acrylic tank does it bow at all ?

hmm, when I get home I'll pull out my 6-foot level and check.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!

 

[lionfish85]

I don’t know about thickness but be absolutely certain the aluminum mold side the glass is on the outside of the tank to prevent permanent alkali glass corrosion. See Tidal Gardens YouTube video.

Okay thank you for that tip I will do that

 

[dstockwell]

Welcome to the Reef

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome and good luck with the tank

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome, glad you are here!

 

[Dom]

Was going with 8 feet long by 3 feet wide by 2.5 feet tall. Then after I built the take I was going to build an enclosure around it.

Big tank!

My Aqueon 125 uses 3/4 inch glass on the sides and 3/8 inch glass on the front and back.

But Aqueon tanks have an upper and lower rim. If you are planning rimless, you will probably require thicker glass.

I think there is a calculator on glasscages.com. You could go there, plug in your dimensions and see what glass thickness they would use for your build.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Welcome to R2R!