What kind of acrylic used in aquariums?

gonereefin' · #1 02/23/2002, 02:16 PM

I have read here that there are different kinds of acrylic, Lexon, Plexiglas and others. I've also read that they all have unique qualities/properties. I was hoping someone would know the typical kind(s) found in our hobbie. As a note, Plexiglas seems very pliable, causing additional stress to the joint. Any suggestions?
Thanks all, Randy.

David Grigor · #2 02/25/2002, 11:54 AM

I would stay away from the lexan but plexiglass is a brand of acrylic. Because it is somewhat plyable you need to be sure to reinforce the top. The thickness of acyrlic is also important depending on the deminsions of the tank you are wanting to build ?

What deminsions do you have in mind ?

GH Sniper · #3 02/25/2002, 12:25 PM

Why stay away from Lexan? I am courious now... It is optically better than what you normally get. It has worked just fine for me on the tanks I have but it does run more!!

reef_ayuh · #4 02/25/2002, 11:28 PM

I heard that Lexan is curved making it difficult to work with, particular when hinging. I have also heard (same source, LFS) that Lexan is superior optically.

RA

Snailman · #5 02/26/2002, 06:49 AM

I know that some types of plastic are UV stabalized. Do we need to be concerned about this with the lights we use?

GH Sniper · #6 02/26/2002, 08:00 AM

From my understanding, the Lexan is formed much like the cell cast acrylic and polished with a UV protectant. It has kept most of the light in and nothing harmful comes from the tank as far as light is concerned.

Anyone intrested in seeing pictures of my tank I built with it?

gonereefin' · #7 02/27/2002, 12:39 AM

Sure Mr. Sniper, Love to see it. Again, what is it made of?
Do you use jigs, and how do you bend acrylic? I've heard you use some kind of heating strip, is that what you use? How much do they cost and is there an alternate method? Maybe a propane torch??
Thanks, Randy.

Snailman · #8 02/27/2002, 08:34 PM

www,usplastic.com has a heating strip 4' long for $39.33 part number 37542. I have one and it works like a champ. Acrylic is to expensive to risk burning it with a torch. The heat strip will not get over 280 degrees so it will not burn the acrylic. It also gets the entire line you want to bed hot and ready to bend at the same time.

gonereefin' · #9 02/28/2002, 12:20 AM

I just ordered about $80 dollars worth of stuff from them today. Can't believe it. They are great though, a 24x48 inch of 3/8 for $47 dollars. I thought that was a dang good deal. Also got two pieces of 1/4"x24x12" of black for I guess around $23, shipping for $10. I asked their rep, Nathen, if they got a lot of aquarium people ordering because their name was on the best aquarium board in the country. He said occationally they did. I would suggest RC give them a business call, maybe interested in some advertizing!

GH Sniper · #10 02/28/2002, 08:32 AM

I never bent any of my acrylic. I used the butt joint method and used Weldon #4 to seal the joints. I used Clear Lexan acrylic because of the optically clear properties. I have no issues with it and no leaks. I'll have to take a picture this weekend and post it since I will be back and forth from the office

As I've said before, Lexan is expensive and thus most will not use it at all. I got a 4x8 sheet if 1/4" for $20...that was a one time deal!!

Snailman is on the money with the heat strip though. I have friends that use it regularly and love it. You'll be satisfied with it.

bstreib · #11 02/28/2002, 08:48 AM

Hi,

We bend Lexan all the time at the plant. We use a sheet metal bending brake. All thicknesses up to 1/4" is fairly easy, 3/8" can be bent requires more attention to keep from cracking along the bend line. Hope this helps. Local sheet metal fabricator should have bennding brakes and may be able to bend it for you.

StirCrazy · #12 02/28/2002, 09:25 AM

I used to work in a plant that makes skylights and I have worked with both acrylic and Lexan, I would not use Lexan for anything short of a built proof window as it scratches very easy compared to normal acrylic. we made skylights for the cop shop out of a layer of Lexan between two layers of acrylic as the acrylic would allow them to be cleaned with out getting scratched and the 3/4" lexan would stop a high power hunting rifle. another thing about lexan that would make it maybe undesirable is that if you heat a area above a cretin temp ( I think it is 300 degrees or something like that) with out it being dried, it will develop bubbles in the plastic Turing it from nice clear color to a opaic color. also it is more flexible than acrylic which would allow it to bow more.

Steve

Snailman · #13 02/28/2002, 07:49 PM

I forgot that you can cold form Lexan but not acrylic.

JMK Displays · #14 03/01/2002, 08:58 AM

We been useing acrylic for about 21 years in our product production, we had just jumped into the aquariums, terrariums, sumps, and refugium business about 8 months ago and had found a few tips and trick by trial and error. We can say Lexan WILL scratch much easyer then acrylic. Acrylic comes in a few grades, we had talked to an acrylic Rep. about building tanks and for smaller tanks standard acrylic will work fine with proper glue, joint prep, and bonding. When you get into larger tanks 50 gallon + you should start looking into a "G" grade material, this is a cast material, better strangth and properties in the resin (more expensive then just acrylic).

One thing with acrylic and proper equipment is you can make just about any style you can imagine. Drilling acrylic has a few tricks also, even if you have the special drilling tools and equipment, its not like just punching through a piece of 3/8" plywood, keeping your acrylic as cool as possible will help keep material stress down, and when heating for a bend use a lower heat setting for a longer heat time will eliminate some coner stress.

Edge prep is another important part of building any water tight joint, keeping a clean edge for the proper adhisive to bond the 2 pieces IS the most important part of tank building. Also cool time and dry time are very important. We work with 24 hours as a rule for each step, bending and bonding B-4 we polish or routing excess material.

Proper tools does help, but the knolage of these materials and steps helps also. Get some smaller samples of material you will be useing and practice with that, checking for heat bend time, proper glue joints, drilling, Etc...

" Carpenters Rules "

Measure twice Cut once

Hope this helps for you DIY's,
http://www.jmkdisplays.homestead.com...gium001MED.jpg
Signed: Jay M Kaye Of; JMK Displays

lbussy · #15 03/01/2002, 12:10 PM

Damnit! Now I'm getting interested in Acrylic and my first salt water tank has not even cycled!

So where can a guy go to see/read about some basic acrylic working processes? Edge prep and so on?

JMK Displays · #16 03/01/2002, 12:54 PM

Hello Ibussy:

Their are many sites that you can look over for this subject, I just surf around looking into acrylic forming, acrylic fabricating, acrylic aquariums, acrylic fish tanks, acrylic machining, Etc..

I have not ever bookmarked any of these sites myself, but they are out their. We are working on a book all about working with acrylic that we hope to have out in about 8 months or so. Keep looking into our website for it to go on sale.

Thanks for your reply to our thread,

Signed: JMK Displays

gonereefin' · #17 03/01/2002, 02:25 PM

Those websites you suggest Jay are far and few between, I have spent many hours searching USPlastics and Adaptplastics, IPS Industrial Adhesives and Cements and many results from Yahoo searches, including your site. By the way you have some great products and I/we appreciate your knowledgeble input as well as your getting involved in this hobbie. But some of us just have to go it on our own! That's the cool thing about this hobbie. Whether it's plumbing, stands, tanks, dsb's, animal compatibility, water parameters there is always something to keep our minds busy when we have the opportunity to let them wonder. Sometimes I wish I had the money to spare to just go buy a fancy ATS scrubber and give up on trying to dream one up, but in all reality, that would be no fun.
IBussy has got the BUG! It is dangerous, be careful sir, it will consume you if you're not careful.
Jay, any suggests on a good method to drill the stuff? How about what sawblade to use, maybe a Melamine blade. I have a jointer, do you use them to finish the edge? My daughter had a school project where we used pvc a lot, I cooked my jigsaw blade and don't want to do that to a $75 dollar tablesaw blade. Knives on a jointer aren't cheep either.

Keeps us out of the bars, just good clean fun.

All input welcome and encouraged!!!!! Randy.

JMK Displays · #18 03/01/2002, 09:04 PM

Ibussy:

We'll, dont want to give out ALL my secrets on acrylic fabricating but I can give you a few.....Shaper will work with a good carbide bit, just take off the least amount just to clean up the edge (.005-.010 is pleanty). 10" carbide table saw blade 60 tooth tripple cut. Drilling is a whole new ball game, high speed can be used but the rake of the drill MUST be backed off about 1/16" and a slight angle as to not break through and crack on exiting the material.

I'll toss a few more from time to time...

Hope these few tips helps for now.

We had made some realy great looking 1 of a kind tanks for some local people and pet shops in NY. Nothing real huge 50 -75 gallon, but tanks you will never see over the net. We are adding a new bilding to our site to start on a larger scale aquariums and terrariums for local customers, well, untill we can find a better shipping method. We will be producing up to 200 gallon aquariums, and if we feel good even larger.

Till next time,

Signed: Jay M Kaye Of; JMK Displays

lbussy · #19 03/01/2002, 09:30 PM

Thanks for the tips JMK Displays.

I think when I start amassing some tools I'll look into buying a sheet of (insert some plastic here) and playing a bit. Maybe I can find someone in town to watch a couple of times.

Don't worry, I'm not likely to be a competitor. I hardly have enough time for all my hobbies now.

Snailman · #20 03/01/2002, 09:33 PM

I use the Freud LU-94 10" plastic cutting blade for cutting acrylic and it works great. There is information on my web site on how to modify a normal speed drill so you can use it to drill acrylic. There are several good articles on working with acrylic on [DIY]

JMK Displays · #21 03/02/2002, 09:13 AM

This site may help answer some acrylic questions for the newB in acrylic forming and fabricating also. Take a look @ http://www.cyro.com/

Let me know if this site helped you any.

SIgned:JMK Displays

Snailman · #22 03/02/2002, 02:20 PM

Thanks for the link Jay. It is the best source of information on working with acrylic I have seen. It answered several of my questions.

I am going to get it put on our DIY page.

gonereefin' · #23 03/02/2002, 03:14 PM

What's the number of the closest pizza joint to you Jay. I'm serious!!!!! I owe you big time. I have a new bible and you are the apostle. That site has it all. What adhesives, what acrylic, how to machine it, cut it, form it, you name it. It even has info on choosing the proper thickness for aquarium building. I sure hope the Moderator sees this post/site 'cuz it is the BEST!!!!
Let me know by way of privite message and I'll have a supreme on it's way.
Thanks, Randy.
It even has what circular saw blade to use.
PS Snailman: thanks for your tip on the Freud blade, I'll track one down!

gonereefin' · #24 03/02/2002, 03:19 PM

I was at the site so long I never seen you had posted while I was gone. Glad you visited, like to see others benefit too.
Glad to see you're getting it to the DYI area.
Randy.

JMK Displays · #25 03/02/2002, 04:57 PM

Hello:

That is the place I found about 21 years ago when I started working with acrylic and never needed another site for acrylic advice ever again.

Have fun, enjoy..Come up with a great idea I would love to try and sell it for you over my website ( with wholesale pricing of course..Ha Ha....).

Enjoy,

Signed: JMK Displays (AKA: Jay M Kaye = Owner)