Building my own aquarium!!!

[Wmusic0w87]

Ok so i had an idea that if it works it will look awesome and i'll have a much larger aquarium. I have a 75gal salt water in my living room... Instead of buyin a bigger tank i was thinkin about just adding some glass to it.... This is how i see it in my head.... My tank is near by the tv as u can see on the picture... This summer i wanna finish building cabinets on the tv stand and i was wondering if i take the plastic piece off of the top of my tank close the top halfway with glass from right to left so the only opening on the tank will be on the left side. Then i would add the glass goin upwards a foot either in a 45• angle or straight up then go left again all the way to the wall so my tank now will be completely closed and the opening of the tank will be on the addition on top of the tv.... Let me know if its possible.... Or if theres a chance that it will work.... Cuz if it does im gonna go from 75gal to at least 200... Not sure yet.... Tks

 

[Sonomakid]

Did you take into account the thickness of the glass ? the more gallons you have the thicker the glass as to be. i believe at 125 gallons the glass should be 1/2 in thick. And at 75 gallon i believe the glass is 3/8th in thick. Here is a useful tool. Calculate Aquarium Glass Thickness | Aquarium Tools

 

[Wmusic0w87]

Yeah... Im doing a lot of research on glass and how to bond them but i wanna know if i can make this addition.... Like bonding glass goin upwards then left again

 

[Sonomakid]

The thickness of the glass you have for your 75 will not allow you to increase it to 200g, IMO. i did the same research when the bottom of my 90g leaked and was thinking of turning it into a 150g and all signs points to no.

 

[Wmusic0w87]

So because of the glass on my tank now i cant make the addition ... But not because of the new glass but because of the glass from this tank

 

[Sonomakid]

Because of glass thickness. The Larger the aquarium the thicker the glass needs to be. as i said the glass of your 75g is probaly 3/8 in thick, and even at 150g the thickness of the glass should be a minimum of 1/2 an inch.

 

[Wmusic0w87]

well i guess im just gonna have to buy extra glass and just replace my tank if i want this idea to come to life

 

[Sonomakid]

Cheaper to buy a tank than build a new 1

 

[Wmusic0w87]

i never thought of it that way because i thought that since the tank i have can only hold 75gal even if i added the other piece it wouldnt make a diff cuz there wont be more than 75 gals of water in the old thank!!!

 

[Wmusic0w87]

you really think it's cheaper??? even a custon made one?? like the one i described ??

 

[Sonomakid]

Have you ever priced glass ? i dont know about there. but all the glass places here have to special order anything 1/2 in and over

 

[Deep Seven]

Just to clarify, the volume of the tank doesn't really matter. The height of the tank is what really matters. The deeper the water, more pressure under it. Saltwater 33 feet deep creates 14.7 psi. (34 feet for freshwater).

 

[Sonomakid]

So your saying that the wieght of the extra water isnt going to factor into the stress put on the glass ?

 

[Wmusic0w87]

ok.... i'm not sayin you guys are wrong... just trying to clear up all questions in my mind... when you said the weight.... wont the weight be spread ou throu out the tank since the addition will be at least 9ft long?

 

[Wmusic0w87]

i'm gonna try to draw my idea and post it here so you see!!

 

[Sonomakid]

That would be best. Might be misunderstanding what you are trying to do.

 

[pat8you]

Deep Seven was saying that the size isn't as important for the thickness of the side pieces of glass. If you have a 500 gallon tank that is 2' tall and a 75gallon tank that is 2' tall the pressure the water puts on the side pannels of glass is the same because pressure is only dependant on the depth of the water.

There would be significantly different requirements for the bottom glass and the support structure for those two different made up tank sizes though.

In your idea because you would be adding additional depth (if i am understanding what you want to do) the thickness of glass in your existing tank would not be sufficient.

 

[Wmusic0w87]

either the one in black shooting straight up or the white one in an angle!!!

 

[pat8you]

The only way to make that work is if you sealed the top of the current 75 completly. That would also be adding a lot of depth to the tank and i don't think the current 75 glass would be thick enough to hold it. I'm afraid that project should be left unattempted.

 

[Wmusic0w87]

yea i kno i would have to seal the top till the piece that would connect both parts