Building a Fish Tank

[PMaj]

Hi Guys,
I'm new here. I 'm interested in building my own acrylic tank. Looking at 48in x 24in x 18in. From what I have read on many threads to use cell cast acrylic with a min thickness of 1/2in. I understand why to use 1/2 for the sides but can I use something like 1/4 for the top and bottom plate of the tank? the cell cast is so expensive.
Thanks for any help or ideas,
Pat

[benny]

Hi Pat,

Welcome to Aquatic Quotient.

I think not many hobbyist here uses Acrylic tanks. You might have better luck trying the marine forums.

Also, most of our acrylic tanks are made of measure as it's quite difficult for a lot of use to cure the tank during the build up stage.

Cheers,

[ankank]

I 'm interested in building my own acrylic tank.

Please note that acrylic tanks are very hard to clean from algae on the walls, you are very prone to scratching and/or blinding the wall. Out of curiosity: May I ask why you are reluctant to using glass which is by far cheaper and easier to maintain? If you dislike the usual black silicone there are also tanks using transparent silicone - even pre-built ones.

[XnSdVd]

Whatever your reason for wanting to build one are, I say good luck =) I've gone down that path before just to give up and buy a glass tank But yes, you're right. It's domestic cell cast acrylic.

As for cleaning there's something new on the market called "TankGuard" which should make it possible to clean an acrylic tank WITHOUT scraping Green Spot Algae off.

http://www.tankguard.org/index.htm

And considering Practical Fishkeeping ran an article about it, i'd say it's worth a shot. Though i'm wondering if the solvent in TankGuard will melt the acrylic.