DIY glass aquarium

kwirky · #1 05-08-2007, 05:45 PM

people say to "degrease" your glass with turpentine to remove fingerprints, which I never understood, since turpentine is grease based.

I know this from my lithography (printmaking) experience. I'd say when you're using turpentine, make sure you're wearing a respirator with properly stored organic filters, and follow it with a wiping of rubbing alcohol.

The turpentine leaves an oily residue, and the rubbing alcohol will make it squeeky clean afterwards. Basically they're solvents for two different things, and using both will make the glass super clean to work with. Rubbing alcohol's cheap anyways, so it doesn't hurt to use it.

Just make sure you're wearing new rubber gloves while handling the glass afterwards. Don't want to go through all the effort cleaning it only to muck it up again

Oh and don't be cheap when applying the silicone. Allow a 1mm thickness of silicone between the two glass panels. Apply masking tape before you silicone to get a clean edge. Just remember to remove the tape before the silicone dries. And if you get sloppy and get silicone somewhere that you don't want it, don't clean it while it's wet. Wait for it to dry and it'll come off real easy with a razor blade.

As for strongest silicone, I think GE 1200 would be just fine for a tank that size if you properly degrease it before-hand.

Big al's might have quoted you that price because getting polished glass isn't cheap usually. They charge by the inch to polish the glass to that nice smooth edge we all like. With a tank of the 40g size, you might be able to build it with acrylic for cheaper. You'd be dealing with a completely different set of problems if you did though.

hqgc · #2 05-09-2007, 03:07 AM

Here is a good link for diy tank building. http://garf.org/tank/buildtank.asp

Kronk · #3 05-10-2007, 12:08 AM

Cool thanks for the link, one wierd thing about that is it has the bottom piece surrounded by the 4 sides... i was planning to stack the sides on the bottom piece... makes more sense to stack it to me because the pressure from the water would push OUT, separating the bond between the bottom and the sides. If they were siliconed on top of the glass it would be pushing ALONG the bonded edge not away from it... know what i mean?

Kronk · #4 05-10-2007, 12:15 AM

For the benefit of people searching for DIY tank links in the future here are a few good links...

Tutorials

Examples

Glass Thickness

Kronk · #5 05-16-2007, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kronk

Cool thanks for the link, one wierd thing about that is it has the bottom piece surrounded by the 4 sides... i was planning to stack the sides on the bottom piece... makes more sense to stack it to me because the pressure from the water would push OUT, separating the bond between the bottom and the sides. If they were siliconed on top of the glass it would be pushing ALONG the bonded edge not away from it... know what i mean?

Can anybody comment on this i am going to be getting the glass cut soon... Thanks

LeeR · #6 08-02-2007, 01:27 AM

just finished siliconing my second tank together last night and i put the sides on top and did so with my last tank and it seems to work fine.

bv_reefer · #7 08-02-2007, 02:43 AM

-gotta admit for big tanks 60+ your better off buyin' a tank (unless u have some unique idea that hard 2 find) but as for the bigger tanks, making it sounds very logical when u look @ some of the prices...big $$

Der_Iron_Chef · #8 08-02-2007, 04:59 AM

I've been doing some reading on this. Apparently, since the bottom pane is generally thicker, it makes sense to silicone the side panes NEXT to it instead of on top, so that the area where the two connect is bigger. More area, more silicone, stronger bond.

I don't think I'm explaining it well...does it make sense? I was at Wai's the other day and inspected the big a$$ display tank there, and his were also designed this way.