Acrylic frag tank question

josuer302 · Apr 17, 2016

Hello all, I have a question for those that know all about acrylic. So i have a 48"x23"x8" tall acrylic tank it is 1/2 thick acrylic, do I need any type of bracing being that the tank will only have 7.5 inches of water?
Thanks in advance

dbl · Apr 17, 2016

I wouldn't think so if it's 1/2" acrylic, but let's see if we can grab some help here from @Floyd R Turbo. He's helped me plenty with acrylic work.

Turbo's Aquatics · Apr 17, 2016

I've made several 36 x 24 x 8" frag tanks and those are pretty solid. 48" might be OK, but you could start seeing some bowing over time. You may not need a full perimeter euro, at least a strip along the front/back edge. Though a perimeter euro does look better, if you make it one piece. But that takes up 1/4 sheet of material. So if you are not going for looks, just functionality, a 1.5" to 2" strip would help. It may not be completely necessary.

Let's put it this way: if the tank is well built, if you do have a failure, it's probably not going to be a catastrophic seam failure. You will *probably* see the signs well ahead of time...