the formula calculates the glass to a safety factor of 3.8 if you're using
good quality new glass. A safety factor of 3.8 can withstand most accidents, such as jimmy throwing his 6" tonka truck at the tank, or dropping a 6 pound piece of liverock in the water. I'd go to the glass guild. they have top notch glass, and they can machine polish the edges giving you a beautiful tank. It's something like $2 per linear foot of polishing, but it's worth it. I wish I did for my 120 gallon.
I've been planning on and off for either an 18" or a 24" cube for a while now, and I'll probably go to them for the glass.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tarolisol
I dont plan of drilling any holes but would like to go bracless. So i think i would need to increase the glass width. Any ideas how much.
|
6mm SHOULD be fine braceless. The formula calculates it without any brace, and with your sides and front panels lieing ON the bottom piece. But, I'd say if you have the extra money, allways go with the next glass up. I bought 12mm for my tank when 10mm should have been fine. i'm glad I did. when it was a tanganyikan cichlid tank, I had 45 pound boulders in the tank lmao. I almost dropped one putting it in. that would have been HORRIBLE! it looked nice, but when I took them out, I decided to NEVER do something like THAT again
If you don't have the budget, 6mm should still be fine for the sides, and 9mm on the bottom. Make sure any rockwork is on egg crate or something to spread the load and prevent pressure points. and don't drop any 45 pound boulders on it
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by marcingo
Kwirky- Im just wondering your calculator says the glass thickness for my tank parameters should be 4.11 milimeters. I bought tempered glass that is 3/16 of an inch thick which is 4 millimeters do you think I should be safe or do I need to buy new glass. Tank parameters are 30 1/4 inch L by 9 inch H by 12 inch deep.
|
ha. 4mm of tempered glass is almost like 20mm of normal glass. it's more than enough
don't drill it though!!! lol do NOT drill it! it'll shatter the second the drill bit goes 1/2mm deep.
you can't cut it either. the way tempered glass is made, is you cut/polish/drill it exactly to order, THEN temper it. once it's tempered, it's a done deal. no changes.
oh, i'd be careful. I'm sure that place is selling OLD glass. contractors who remove a window, sell the windows to those places. you could be buying 20 year old glass. see, that glass is fine in a window, because it's not holding anything. and it's never been scratched because all it's been exposed to is wind and such. but the stress your water puts on it... filling an 18"x18"x18" tank made with 6mm glass, the glass will bend up to 2mm once the tank's filled. glass isn't like plastic. if it bends past a certain point, CRACK. and older glass can't bend as much as new glass before it cracks. One way to tell if glass is used is how green it is. The greener, the older. Try to buy less-green pieces if you really want to use older glass.
tempered glass is 5 times stronger than normal glass. you should be fine with the used tempered glass, if it's already cut to the sizes you need.
here's good information, and I based my program on this formula.
http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/tec...lassthickness/