why is the bottom of aquariums glass?

[bobc4d]

why is the bottom of an aquarium glass? why isn't it metal or something unbreakable? along the same vein, how much weight will the bottom glass take?

 

[Rutrag]

Metal can corrode, leach the corrosion into the water, and can be dented. There's also the problem of bonding it to something clear. For home aquariums, I imagine the weight plus the prep to make it fish and invert safe could be cost prohibitive.

Long ago glass tanks had slate bottoms and were inside a metal frame. I had a 15 gallon slate bottom I found at a LFS I used to work at. I bet it weighed 40 pounds empty.

The way your basic all glass aquarium is made, the weight of the water pressing on the bottom glass actually transfers through to the outside edges of the tank. (The bottom glass is recessed.). It's cheap to manufacture and pretty durable.

The bottom glass is pretty strong and can accept a lot of weight so long as it's not shock loaded or point loaded.

 

[Regz8000]

Glass=watertight
Wood=leaks
Metal=rust
Plastic=watertight

It will hold a lot of weight and also if you have egg crate on the bottom of your aquarium it spreads the impact
Hope i helped

 

[Regz8000]

Metal can corrode, leach the corrosion into the water, and can be dented. There's also the problem of bonding it to something clear. For home aquariums, I imagine the weight plus the prep to make it fish and invert safe could be cost prohibitive.

Long ago glass tanks had slate bottoms and were inside a metal frame. I had a 15 gallon slate bottom I found at a LFS I used to work at. I bet it weighed 40 pounds empty.

The way your basic all glass aquarium is made, the weight of the water pressing on the bottom glass actually transfers through to the outside edges of the tank. (The bottom glass is recessed.). It's cheap to manufacture and pretty durable.

The bottom glass is pretty strong and can accept a lot of weight so long as it's not shock loaded or point loaded.

Ive. Never seen a slate bottom !!!! How cool is that! Don't make em now which is a shame

 

[Scott F]

why is the bottom of an aquarium glass? why isn't it metal or something unbreakable? along the same vein, how much weight will the bottom glass take?

The thing to remember is that you have the water dispersed over the entire bottom of the tank and it's not just in one spot.

You could do the math to figure out how much a gallon of water weighs, figure out the square inches for the bottom of your tank to determine the actual weight per square inch.

My tank is 48 x 13 or 624 square inches ( 40gal ) I have substrate at 70lbs, and lets say that it displaced 5 gallons of water.

A gl of water is 8.34 lbs so 35x8.34 = 291.90 +70 lbs = 361.9

That's my total weight with water and substrate. So 361.9 / 624 sq inches is 0.58 lbs per square inch.

When you take into effect that the glass is usually tempered, and depending on it's thickness, it's a very good choice as well as economical for the manufacturer.