DIY, almost monster aquarium.

[A Scott Here]

So I am looking into building or buying a 60x58x42 aqurim. I really enjoy building every thing but my wife is not keen on me flooding the house. You see we do not have the an ark in the living room. I will have to use tempered glass on the sides and bottom. Dose there eed to be a frame on the bottom? Is there a way to not have one? Could a second bottom glass that sits inside the side panels work?

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Search here for plywood aquariums. For very large tanks, they are easier to DIY and much stronger...

 

[Mandelstam]

Bottom bracing looks just like top euro bracing and is glued to the bottom pane and to the sides. It's there to provide a wider silicone joint/seam between the sides and the bottom on very tall tanks.

 

[A Scott Here]

I was hoping something like that would work.

 

[A Scott Here]

I'm very heasatent on plywood. I will have four sides glass so the bottom being glass would save me some work.

 

[Mandelstam]

If you will have the bottom supported use the same thickness as the front/back panel and then add the bracing to help with the pressure at the bottom seams.

 

[A Scott Here]

Needing to use 1/2" tempered all the way around. If I were to put wo pieces on bottom, would that be able to go unsupprted in the middle?

 

[Mandelstam]

Double tempered 1/2" panels on the bottom? Sounds plenty strong but I'm not really sure how much stronger tempered glass is compared to regular glass. I did a calculation for regular glass and got 18mm for fully braced and 28mm (a bit over 1") unbraced. For glass with fully polished edges.

 

[mehaffydr]

1/2” seems thin for a tank of that height. Looking at the thickness that professional tank builders use I would think 3/4 or 1”
That’s a lot of pressure

 

[A Scott Here]

I have some formulas based off of "Roark's formulas for stress and strain, sixth edition" from Pilinkton (their recomindations for constant loads on glass from 2000) that shows the stress to be 300 psi for anneald and 2000 psi for full tempered at a breakage probability of .02%. The psi is not for the depth of water psi but a load. If you understad all that then you are ahead of me. Custom aquiums says that they use 1/2" temp. For up 48" deep at a 60"×60". The formula doesn't agree with that depth at all, to much deflection. At 42" it is just bearly out side of Pilinkton's recommendations. Now I have no experience with any of this so al help is welcomed.