DIY Tank Build

[R_Bass96]

Has anyone ever attempted building their own tank? I have obviously heard it's not the best idea. However, I can't pass up on the fact that it's about a third of the cost of buying a new tank. I'm looking at building a 90 gallon with the following specs:
48" x 18" x 24" using 3/8" thick acrylic

I have sourced some acrylic from a buddy who works at A&C Plastics here in Houston. Pre-cut sheets would only cost me ~$400 after delivery. I also intend to build my own stand... but for now just trying to see if anyone has built their own tank and had success with it.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Has anyone ever attempted building their own tank? I have obviously heard it's not the best idea. However, I can't pass up on the fact that it's about a third of the cost of buying a new tank. I'm looking at building a 90 gallon with the following specs:
48" x 18" x 24" using 3/8" thick acrylic

I have sourced some acrylic from a buddy who works at A&C Plastics here in Houston. Pre-cut sheets would only cost me ~$400 after delivery. I also intend to build my own stand... but for now just trying to see if anyone has built their own tank and had success with it.

Make sure to only use cell cast acrylic and I would use 1/2" but that is just me. 3/8" will work but bow the front panel some. Built lots of tanks for customers and myself. Check out @Turbo's Aquatics diy thread for tips and tricks.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

If you're pretty handy, there's really nothing holding you back from building your own tank. But there are some specific nuances to learning the technique.

#1 3/8" is too thin if we're talking 24" tall. Even if it was 18" I would recommend 1/2" and a one-piece euro (always) just because the extra thickness gives you more joint strength, and considering you're DIYing it, and I'm guessing that you've never built a tank before, that's a cushion factor.

But first get scrap and practice squaring ends (making the bonding edge square/straight/flat, not making a square panel...but that too) and practice the pin/shim method, mess around with solvent welding in general, etc.

Link in sig to the acrylics thread

All cast acrylic is not the same. At the moment, Chemcast is the only material I would build a display tank out of. That's only because the Plex-G factories in North America (MX) got shut down by Trinseo and sold off to Plaskolite, and Plex-G or the equivalent from Plaskolite won't be back on the market for 6 months or more

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Link was not in sig

Acrylic Fabrication Q & A

I am very active on a similar mega-thread elsewhere but I couldn't find an active one here on R2R. @Troylee started the Acrylic 101!!!!! thread a while back, but it doesn't look like he's very active here anymore. Maybe this thread will suck him back in, he has great advice. SHORT CUT LIST...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[BeanAnimal]

Has anyone ever attempted building their own tank? I have obviously heard it's not the best idea. However, I can't pass up on the fact that it's about a third of the cost of buying a new tank. I'm looking at building a 90 gallon with the following specs:
48" x 18" x 24" using 3/8" thick acrylic

I have sourced some acrylic from a buddy who works at A&C Plastics here in Houston. Pre-cut sheets would only cost me ~$400 after delivery. I also intend to build my own stand... but for now just trying to see if anyone has built their own tank and had success with it.

As mentioned above
1/2" not 3/8"
Must be cell cast.
Must have eurobrace.
Cuts and edges must be 100% perfect.
Technique must be perfect.

That is a big project for a first acrylic attempt.

There are no redos and errors (bubbles, gaps, misalignment) are extremely hard or impossible to fix. You can use capillary method (weld-on #4 or other water thin), but #40 or #42 is more applicable and much harder to use and even less forgiving.

Save your sanity and your floors. Buy a tank.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I would second the Chemcast recommendation if you do decide to go through with this.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

but #40 or #42 is more applicable

Agree with everything, but I would differ with this, there's no need for WO 40/42 with material less that 2" thick, you can solvent weld up to 2.5". 40 for actual joints required experience. 40 for strengthening a solvent joint (i.e. running a bead on the inside), that's much simpler and anyone can do that, but that's more of a repair use.

 

[Koleswrath]

and sold off to Plaskolite, and Plex-G or the equivalent from Plaskolite won't be back on the market for 6 months or more

Would you use Plaskolite cell cast? Plaskolite Optix L (continuous cast) is available to me locally and I'm doing a sump and roller mat. It's fairly small at 24" x 16" x 16" so I might be able to get away with less that stellar quality acrylic eh? I'm checking if The Plazcast (cell cast) is available as well.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

you can use continuous cast for sumps and other small stuff. Technically you can use extruded but I wouldn't.

Extruded will absorb water more readily so it has a tendency to expand a bit more. That's generally why you don't want to use that for pressure vessels, but if you do, definitely don't mix materials and brands - would would want to make sure that the expansion happens the same all around (and still I would not use for the main body of a sump).

Continuous cast is very close in properties to cell cast. If you drew a line between extruded and cast and called that "difference in properties", continuous cast would be about 90% of the way to Cell Cast.

This is one of the reasons that Trinseo (the parent company that makes Plexiglas-G) shuttered the MX plants, they are spinning up continuous cast in the US because it's cheaper and mostly the same. The problem is that you can't generally get continuous cast over 0.25" so that means all the big tank builds have to shift to Chemcast or wait until Trinseo starts shipping thick stuff from Italy (that's where all Plex-G will be made from now on). Or wait for Plaskolite Cell Cast. Either way there is a 6 month disruption in the market essentially while everyone figures out what the heck to do