Making own aquariums

[rubinsteinnyc]

where have you been man?!
Thanks for the post!
I have done a lot of research on european forums and everone of them stated that for a tank of 45cm tall (18inch) 6mm glass is enough (.25 ich=6.35mm) so I am safe, I measured the tank before and after filling it up and the wall moved/gave only 1mm...
lemme tell you, this thing is a BEAUTY, still kinda messy, I didnt remove (for some reason) the masking tape asap while the silicone was very fresh but when it started drying... BUT I plan on making a starphire cube soon with a clear silicone for a pair of discus and we will see how that goes.
Thanks for all the tips

[Apistomaster]

I've been mostly watching and not posting much lately.
You quickly pick up ways to improve your all glass tank building techniques from the experiences with the first few attempts. They start to become very easy to build after that.
The mistake with the inside seal masking tape is something you may not realize at first that must be removed as soon as you finish smearing the bead.
Plan ahead next time and make a few angled cuts through the tape with a razor blade.
This will make it easier to lift a tab that you can grab to help peel off the masking tape.
The tape with the still sticky sealant on it will curl and brush the sides making it necessary to do more clean up after the sealant has cured. By cutting the tape into halves or thirds the lengths you remove will be of a more manageable lengths. It will help keep the final clean up easier.

[Discus-n00b]

Just a handy tip I've found. Some cheap guitar picks make perfect silicone spreaders. Gives a nice seal along the inside joints like commercial tanks.

[rubinsteinnyc]

Plan ahead next time and make a few angled cuts through the tape with a razor blade- what do you mean?
So I should peel the tape right after applying the sealant, what did you use to make the shape of the inner bead nice and clean and uniform? What do you think of those PRO CAULK tools?
do you have any pix of your tanks?

[Apistomaster]

I do not have any photos of my tanks. I realized after I posted this would come up. I may take a couple photos of a finished 4.5 gal tank as it would show up well and they were the last all glass tanks I made so the incorporate the experience I have gained from over 100 tanks I have made.

When you finish applying all the masking tape that will determine the size of the inside seal, you make a couple of diagonal cuts in the tape with a razor blade. This will not effect the looks at all but since you need to remove the tape before the sealant begins to set these cuts make it easier to use the razor blade to peel back the tip of the angled slit in the tape. This makes it easier to lift the tape of carefully. It is hard to describe something that is best illustrated in a step by step photos but I do not have the need nor time to build a tank for the purposes of creating a how to manual. Best not to wait.

I always used my fingers to smear the seal because only a finger can create smooth transitions at corner intersections. Even using a tool like a guitar pick will not prevent your fingers coming in contact with the sealant. It is a bit messy and you need a roll of paper towels at hand so you can wipe of the excess as you work. One could wear latex gloves but I never have.

Final clean up is best done with acetone. Including final cleaning of the inevitable blobs that the curling tape will leave on the glass; the very thing that using the diagonal slit to keep the lengths of tape you are removing to something manageable. The structural seals are only held together by the wrap around strips of tape at all corners and from under the bottom pane to the sides until the sealant cures so you do not want to be having to use much force to peel off very long strips of tape that mask off the inner seals.

I highly recommend building a few smaller sized tanks for perfecting your techniques because so much of what makes an all glass tank look nice are small tricks which are rather intuitive after you build a couple practice tanks.

I only built my 4.5 gallon tanks for this incarnation of my fish room. I bought factory made 20 longs, 29 talls and 40 gallon breeders this time. I was able to negotiate a cost plus 10% deal on the bulk purchase of all my new tanks. I can't build them any cheaper at glass shop rates for 3/16" and 1/4" glass. I had the free shelves so I only needed to buy ends and bottom panes to build the 4.5 gal tanks. I use small tanks for spawning or quarantining small fish.
I built the majority of my all glass tanks decades ago when I needed tanks for my fish shop's back quarantine and breeding room.
I needed about 100 tanks and had access to cheap used glass.

[rubinsteinnyc]

how much is the glass at the glass hop?

[rubinsteinnyc]

do you put the side panels on the bottom piece or the side surround the bottom piece?

[Apistomaster]

I always have built my all glass tanks with the outside panels glued around the bottom piece.
I cut the bottom such that the ends and bottom panels are the same width and the front and backs are full length of the tank. The bottom is almost a floating bottom and not intended to be the primary load bearing area. The surface of the stand must be level, smooth and rigid so there are no point loads.

[rubinsteinnyc]

i built mine with walls on top of the bottom. will be making another one same size 18x18x18 except with bottom surrounded by 4 walls. Front wall will be starphire and bottom tempered. Also, I ordered from amazon the CaulkPro from DAP for nice finish beads... we will see how that goes.

[rubinsteinnyc]

hey Apistomaster, what's the biggest tank that you made?

[Apistomaster]

Hi Rubin,
I do not think it is a good idea to place the side panels on the bottom. The bottom should not have to bear any concentrated loads. That is why I always place the side panels around the bottom. The bottom doesn't have to bear any loads concentrated along the edges this way. The side panels bear directly on the flat smooth plywood stand. This is also a much easier way to build the tanks because the bottom acts as a template, aids in the ease of construction and relies on the tensile strength of the silicone. If you put the sides on the bottom the sealant is subjected to shearing forces. Maybe this won't be a problem with your 18 inch cubes but that design is not taking maximum advantage of the best properties of the silicone bond.

The largest tank I ever built was a 90 gallon tank.
I had a 170 gal, angle iron frame I bought that needed repairing but just as it was nearly full in the test filling the front glass burst and as it happened I was coming up the basement stairs in front of the tank and the deluge washed me all the way down the stairs. The glass was 3/8 inch.
This happened when I had a fish shop. The funny thing about it was that my mother owned a pet Stump Tailed Macaque, a small, baboon type of monkey. It was a little attraction as well as her pet. I hated it and it hated me. He was chained to a floor to ceiling pole to his collar so he had lots of range of freedom. The floor had plenty of straw bedding. The monkey was mad as hell and since there was 5 or 6 inches of water on the floor he tried to climb above it on his pole but couldn't hold on because his hands and feet were wet. So he jumped on my shoulder shrieking and baring his long canines at me.

Later on I used the 3/8 inch plate glass to build a tank 48 X 20 X 24 H inches.
It's bottom pane cracked during the test filling. I had added two layers of strips of 1/4 inch plate about two inches wide along every edge to give me nearly one inch wide structural bonding area. I glued a quarter inch thick piece of glass over the entire bottom over the long crack. That tank functioned perfectly for at least 4 years until we closed the store and I had moved out. It was a very heavy tank but it made a fine Discus tank during the last four years I still lived at home. My mom sold the tank so I do not know what ever became of it.
I kept the 75 gal, five foot tank I described in a previous post so I got at least 9 years of service out of it until I sold it. That tank was built out of 1/4 inch plate but it was only 16 inches high which is well within the safety range of that thickness of glass.

[rubinsteinnyc]

monkey eh? don't they stink?? Building another cube next week this time with sides around the bottom, we shall see
thx for your lengthy responses

[rubinsteinnyc]

so I am now wondering how/what i should cover the tank with so the discus(when i get them) don't jump out... i would like a glass cover but the thing is the tank doesn't have the frame so the glass has nothing to rest on... unless i get a piece to just lay on the top of the walls, but i would like to have some space between the two. does anyone know of any corners that would elevate the cover over the walls?

[Apistomaster]

so I am now wondering how/what i should cover the tank with so the discus(when i get them) don't jump out... i would like a glass cover but the thing is the tank doesn't have the frame so the glass has nothing to rest on... unless i get a piece to just lay on the top of the walls, but i would like to have some space between the two. does anyone know of any corners that would elevate the cover over the walls?

It is easy to add some glass tabs to support a glass cover.

[rubinsteinnyc]

what do u mean by glass tabs? I am looking for plastic profiles that you push in glass between two pieces of plastic (its hard to explain) i have seen them SOMEWHERE ONEDAY and cant remember WHERE! they have little plastic rods on the top that surround corners of the glass