Looking To Build My First Large Aquarium.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Well let me start right off at saying I have never done this before and I could purchase an aquarium manufactured by a professional aquarium company but I don't want to do that. I want to build everything from scratch and have the pleasure (or misery if it bursts a seem) of saying that this was something I built from the ground up. So with that being said who on within the community has every built an aquarium? I have always preferred glass aquariums but in this case I am also considering acrylic. Any thoughts or suggestions. I'm looking to go 60 inches wide x 60 inches deep x 24 inches tall. That should give me roughly 374 gallons in the display alone.

[yellowRubi]

Do you have any experience with building anything out of glass or acrylic?

[Angry Andy]

why not start with a used setup from cracklist and get your feet wet with plumbing, lighting, sumps, fuges, husbandry, etc????

THEN thing about building something on your own.

I am a construction worker, and IMO I would rather pay for a tank built with the correct materials and done right vs saving a buck and building something that I would constantly be worried about holding 50 gallons or more of water inside of my house.

edit: after re-reading sounds like you already have your feet wet, so my bad....

You want the pride of the build, I understand.....but will you be happy if/when that build becomes rubble? I wouldn't, my wife would kill me (again).

[JaysLittleOcean]

Do you have any experience with building anything out of glass or acrylic?

No I don't... hence the reason I'm on hear asking about tips tricks and thoughts.

[JaysLittleOcean]

why not start with a used setup from cracklist and get your feet wet with plumbing, lighting, sumps, fuges, husbandry, etc????

THEN thing about building something on your own.

I am a construction worker, and IMO I would rather pay for a tank built with the correct materials and done right vs saving a buck and building something that I would constantly be worried about holding 50 gallons or more of water inside of my house.

edit: after re-reading sounds like you already have your feet wet, so my bad....

You want the pride of the build, I understand.....but will you be happy if/when that build becomes rubble? I wouldn't, my wife would kill me (again).

I would rather walk down I path I have never been and said I tried it then rather to not walk down the path at all. :-)

[karimwassef]

My advice is to practice and start small. Make a 12x12x12 box first - just to get a taste of the difficulty of an easy build. Then see if it holds water. Test it outside for a month.

Then move up to a bigger box 20x20x20? Learn, test...

Etc...

I find acrylic to be more forgiving, but you'll need to find your own medium.

A tank that big would require a lot of testing outside the house. If you build it out of glass, it'll weigh ~ 1000lbs empty (didn't do math, just guesstimating), so plan on a lot of help and pain. I personally wouldn't risk it, but good luck!

[JaysLittleOcean]

My advice is to practice and start small. Make a 12x12x12 box first - just to get a taste of the difficulty of an easy build. Then see if it holds water. Test it outside for a month.

Then move up to a bigger box 20x20x20? Learn, test...

Etc...

I find acrylic to be more forgiving, but you'll need to find your own medium.

A tank that big would require a lot of testing outside the house. If you build it out of glass, it'll weigh ~ 1000lbs empty (didn't do math, just guesstimating), so plan on a lot of help and pain. I personally wouldn't risk it, but good luck!
That is actually a very good idea. I think I may go that route and eventually use the pratice boxes as sumps for the new system. If I went with glass instead of acrylic do you happen to know where I could purchase aquarium safe silicone?

[NanoReefNoob]

Lowes and Home-depot sell a silicon that is safe for aquariums.

here is a link to a guy that does everything DIY. He explains witch silicon to get and how to build it quite in depth. I built my own aquarium a while back. it was a small cube around 30Gs or so. It lasted for about 4 days before i started to notice leaks and had to redu it. Took me 4 trys to get get it right but in the end i had a nice little sump, but honestly it really did stress me out for about 6 months wondering if it was going to hold and if I was going to wake up to a pond in my living room. I will not be doing it again due to this fact alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKIT2OLOYQ

[RocketEngineer]

Have you considered a plywood aquarium?

[JaysLittleOcean]

Lowes and Home-depot sell a silicon that is safe for aquariums.

here is a link to a guy that does everything DIY. He explains witch silicon to get and how to build it quite in depth. I built my own aquarium a while back. it was a small cube around 30Gs or so. It lasted for about 4 days before i started to notice leaks and had to redu it. Took me 4 trys to get get it right but in the end i had a nice little sump, but honestly it really did stress me out for about 6 months wondering if it was going to hold and if I was going to wake up to a pond in my living room. I will not be doing it again due to this fact alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKIT2OLOYQ
Thanks for the video link. I will defnitely look at it after work todsy.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Have you considered a plywood aquarium?
I have but to me personally it lack whe ability to look at it from all angles and I am not s fan of that.

[RocketEngineer]

Have you checked out CyclistMT's 300 Gal Plywood and Glass Build (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2022040)? The tank has three glass panels for a peninsula tank. Just a thought.

[nuxx]

Yikes!

Build the sump for the system first and maybe an ATO container.

Learn the ropes on smaller tanks.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Have you checked out CyclistMT's 300 Gal Plywood and Glass Build (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2022040)? The tank has three glass panels for a peninsula tank. Just a thought.
That I have not. I will definitely have to take a look.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Yikes!

Build the sump for the system first and maybe an ATO container.

Learn the ropes on smaller tanks.
Yes, I am going to test run a few smaller aquariums. I have an idea for some aquarium around the house. So I can learn on those.

[karimwassef]

Lowes and Home Depot are terribly expensive. Look up local plastic and acrylic businesses in your area.

I bought mine online and from Lowes until I found a local vendor at half the price without shipping costs.

[adamwheel]

You can do it.

SCS 1200 or RTV 108 for silicone. Don't listen to those who want you to use cheap silicone from lowes.
Tape all panels and sides. Plan this extensively.
Silicone one panel at a time one day intermission. Day 1 has to be 2 panels.
You can come back later and silicone internal seams (I recommend this)
As others have stated, smaller tanks and sump first
Rehearse every move and have piles of paper towels everywhere ready to go
You have ~6 minutes for each panel.

I've built 2 @ 66x26x24, 2 ATOs, 2 sumps and I got better each time.

Good luck,
Adam

[JaysLittleOcean]

Lowes and Home Depot are terribly expensive. Look up local plastic and acrylic businesses in your area.

I bought mine online and from Lowes until I found a local vendor at half the price without shipping costs.
Thanks for the info.

[JaysLittleOcean]

You can do it.

SCS 1200 or RTV 108 for silicone. Don't listen to those who want you to use cheap silicone from lowes.
Tape all panels and sides. Plan this extensively.
Silicone one panel at a time one day intermission. Day 1 has to be 2 panels.
You can come back later and silicone internal seams (I recommend this)
As others have stated, smaller tanks and sump first
Rehearse every move and have piles of paper towels everywhere ready to go
You have ~6 minutes for each panel.

I've built 2 @ 66x26x24, 2 ATOs, 2 sumps and I got better each time.

Good luck,
Adam
Thanks Adam. I appreciate the good vibes of the Do it yourselfer! Where did you get the silicone from?

[Shawn O]

Probably safer to build it out of 1/2" or 3/4" acrylic.
Check out this thread, it's by an acrylic tank builder:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1056956&highlight=acrylic+i+can+help

[karimwassef]

probably safer to build it out of 1/2" or 3/4" acrylic.
Check out this thread, it's by an acrylic tank builder:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1056956&highlight=acrylic+i+can+help
+1

[rfgonzo]

If you want tips and tricks the link that Shawn O posted will give you more proper information than any other place on the web. It will be an extremely long read but absolutely worth it. I've built quite a few tanks and always go back to that link for great info.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Thanks guys I appreciate the information and will look at it shortly.

[kinnadian]

You could use Acrylic for practice but I'd never recommend one for a big marine tank. Transparency isn't as good as good (starfire) glass, scratches too easily.

For your practice tanks what you need to focus on is technique (getting an even bead across the whole span), keeping air bubbles out of your silicone seal and working quickly. I would make up a wooden jig that can be customised for your tank dimensions, so that the panels can be kept 90 degrees from the bottom of the tank.

You will need to check all your "practice" tanks for the quality of the silicone adhesion that you get between panels. Again you need no air bubbles.

Also I would go with thicker glass than recommended just to get that increased area to account for a little weakness due to your inexperience.

Since you are making a big tank (over 4 foot) I would recommend running glass strips along the inside of the bottom of the tank for extra strength. This is a bit of an advanced method though.

If you wanted to be safer, you could put a centre piece at the top of the tank to stop bowing.

[karimwassef]

Glass is a lot heavier than acrylic.

Building a large glass tank is not a DIY in my book. There is serious risk here.

Just my 0.02

[rfgonzo]

You could use Acrylic for practice but I'd never recommend one for a big marine tank. Transparency isn't as good as good (starfire) glass, scratches too easily.

For your practice tanks what you need to focus on is technique (getting an even bead across the whole span), keeping air bubbles out of your silicone seal and working quickly. I would make up a wooden jig that can be customised for your tank dimensions, so that the panels can be kept 90 degrees from the bottom of the tank.

You will need to check all your "practice" tanks for the quality of the silicone adhesion that you get between panels. Again you need no air bubbles.

Also I would go with thicker glass than recommended just to get that increased area to account for a little weakness due to your inexperience.

Since you are making a big tank (over 4 foot) I would recommend running glass strips along the inside of the bottom of the tank for extra strength. This is a bit of an advanced method though.

If you wanted to be safer, you could put a centre piece at the top of the tank to stop bowing.

Acrylic is actually more transparent then glass even starfire, as for scratches acrylic can be buffed out where glass can't. Also you don't need to worry about air bubbles in silicone for glass, just the seam on acrylic with weld-on, and glass doesn't bow like acrylic.

[Devaji108]

WOW!
I have always wanted to build a small tank...just never have.
good luck man and keep us posted.

may the GODS of reefing bless you!... lol

[JaysLittleOcean]

WOW!
I have always wanted to build a small tank...just never have.
good luck man and keep us posted.

may the GODS of reefing bless you!... lol
Thank you!