DIY acrylic frag tank?

[xfragmanx]

hows everyone doing? i was wundering if anyone has built and acrylic frag tank or have any info for me. i am planning a 4' by 4' tank. LMK thanks.

[TIMMYE]

For something that size you will be looking at 1/2" or thicker acrylic. For the bottom you might want to go a little thickerf depending on how the holes are drilled. For the plexi work make sure you have clean cuts, and the right type of weld on (Glue). Also do a search for plexi/acrylic work there are some great threads and info. HTH Tim

[xfragmanx]

alright thanks tim. do i need to do my corners that meet up on an angle or do i keep them flat and put ontop of the other?

[woz9683]

The thickness of the acrylic has little to nothing to do with the length and width of the tank. If you made a frag tank 4'Lx4'Wx1'H and it wasn't rimless, you could make it from 1/4" material. Also, acrylic bottoms have to be supported underneath, so thicker is unnecessary, and some people even go thinner (although I really wouldn't recommend it since savings are minimal).

Xfragmanx, how tall do you want the tank (determines material thickness)? What type of frags (determines lighting and can therefore effect the size of openings in the top of the tank)?

[woz9683]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=390652

Here's a good (EDIT: oddly enough I typed god thread at first which might be more accurate than good, but someone would probably get mad at me, it was a typo, albeit a funny typo) thread to help give you an idea of what is required to build your own acrylic tank.

This thread will explain the process, but to answer your question, keep all the corners square, and the sides will rest on top of the bottom sheet of acrylic.

[xfragmanx]

awsome thanks alot woz. i have 575 watts MH. 1+175 and 1+400 MH's.

[woz9683]

Hmm, with only two bulbs it's going to be tough to light a 4'x4' footprint. Even the best reflectors (like a lumenarc) will only get about a 3'x3' square of coverage from a halide. This still depends a little on height and material thickness (and of course the type of corals you want to keep) but my first suggestion would be get a couple more halides and make the top of the tank a 4" eurobrace with a 6" cross through the middle. That would give you 4 - 17" holes in the top and a halide could go directly over each hole.

Another way you could go without buying any more halides would be to get a good reflector for the 400 watt bulb so it gets maximum spread, just do a very thick eurobrace, and center the 400 watter over the tank. Or you could overbuild the thickness of the tank to keep the eurobrace smaller. I've been toying with this part of this idea for my tank, but with the 175W halide you could mount it at a tilt to one side of the 400W fixture giving you some light hitting the front (or side) of the corals more directly and hopefully better color from the side (instead of just top - down views always being the most colorful). This is similar to what Invincible and others are doing with spotlights, just utilizing a standard (stronger but less directional bulb and fixture).

[Acrylics]

Originally posted by woz9683
The thickness of the acrylic has little to nothing to do with the length and width of the tank.

This one I'd have to debate with ya, though in a good natured kinda way (I'm in a good mood)

Imagine you make the tank 1" x 1" x 12" high, this could be made from 1/4" (or even 1/8" or 1/16") material and rimless and remain strong enough to do the job, heck you could make the tank 48" tall and no worries. Now expand it out to 48" x 48" x 12" high and keep it rimless, you simply couldn't do it with 1/4" material and expect it to hold for long or without a great deal of deflection, so span does make a difference - sometimes a big difference.

IME, 1/2" will bow too much without bracing on top, 3/4" (for the 36 x 36") or 1" (for either) is groovy for this and can be rimless. Needless to say, I don't like deflection

You can always check with your local acrylic fabricator to see if they have any 12" (or so) strips of heavy gauge acrylic, they'll often sell it at cost just to recoup their investment on it. I know I love it when someone walks in looking for such pieces. There are times when I'll have a ton of these strips layin' around. Worth too much to throw out but...

HTH,
James

[davy182]

go to garf.org they have a great calculator there. I did a frag tank from 3/8 for a 24"x48"12 and there was no deflection at all. Oh and rimless with the back routered so the overflow box was built in on the back of the tank.

[xfragmanx]

wow thanks guys for all your info. i have buckets from tuffstuff set up right now. i was going to do 6 or 9 of them with diff kind of coral in each one sps in one lps in another zoo in another so on and so on. i need something to fit my taste though. and acrylics is deff fiting my taste haha. this guy does crazy work. and he is a very intelligent guy when it comes to acrylic tanks.

thanks again everyone please keep letting the info roll in. the more info the smarter i get about this. cant complain about that.

thanks again

Matt

[woz9683]

Now expand it out to 48" x 48" x 12" high and keep it rimless, you simply couldn't do it with 1/4" material

Hey James, I think maybe you misread me.

If you made a frag tank 4'Lx4'Wx1'H and it wasn't rimless, you could make it from 1/4" material.

I definitely wasn't suggesting you could make a rimless 1/4" tank of that size. Of course there are some odd situations where you might be able to undersize the acrylic compared to the height of the tank, but I would also guess that those situations are few and far between. You show me someone who has a 1"Lx1"Wx48"H tank and I'll eat my words . And you can't cheat and go out and make one now. Mainly I wrote that statement as a reply to TIMMYE saying the tank needed to be 1/2" or thicker without even knowing the height, and that's just not true.

On another note,

This one I'd have to debate with ya, though in a good natured kinda way (I'm in a good mood)

If you weren't in a good mood would I be in trouble .