professional knowledge/help required regards tank build strength

[chrismaher1505]

Tank Water Height (H) (mm): 700
Tank Length (L) (mm): 1150
Tank Width (W) (mm): 700
Recommended Safety factor (Sf) : 3.8

Recommended Side Glass Thickness at Sf: 13.3
Maximum Deflection of Glass (mm): 0.44

Recommended Bottom Glass Thickness at Sf : 18.7
Maximum Deflection of Glass (mm): 0.34


So working on that theory, 15mm glass with a 20mm base is what you need for a braceless tank, knock a couple mm off the thickness for a braced tank and 10mm is probs more where you would want it. I suspect the water pressure to increase by quite a bit from 400mm to 700mm height. You might get away with it at 8mm, fill it up outside ( or garage or a place it can drain properly! ) stick a pump in and leave it a few days and see.

im gonna try to get them filled to test them (only place i can do this is in the garden though unfortunately as no garage.

the way i see it i have few options

1 wing it and prey
2 break the tanks down and have the side panels re cut to approx 500/550mm then rebuild so i can still have the top of the tank exposed (ie no hood) as i was hoping to have hanging supsended lights directly above
3 leave it exactly as it is and only fill it to 500/550mm high (where id feel more comfortable and have the lights inside the tank so to speak inbetween the top of the water and current top of tank with a special made hood that would have to hook over the front top 150mm of the tank to hide lighting inside.

thoughts welcomed??

[fr499y]

Test it and see, if not I’d personally cut it down. If it’s the full height, you’ll want to fill it up!

[chrismaher1505]

So after a lot of thinking I decided to examine wether or not taking the tanks apart would be doable! After about 2mins I quickly decided cutting down between glass joints will be nigh on impossible they are very well jointed!

So now I'm thinking make use of what I have ans make the most of them.

I now plan to test them but to a max height of 50cm

If that holds comfortably without issue I intend to use around 50mm of substrate leaving around 15cm of open unfilled tank at the top which I will scape with tall bogwoods and that will climb out of the water and hopefully grow some plants that will also grow above the water line to make it look like the empty void is on purpose.

Do we think this could look effective?

[plankton]

Sounds interesting at the very least.
Don't get any known jumping fish though unless the upper foliage stops them from jumping right out.

[chrismaher1505]

Well the good news is I filled them both to just under 2ft high for 48hrs with no issues

Next step to paint the back and sides

Then plumb in the filters and hook up the lighting

[Andys temperate tank]

They look great. Is that your running water level? If not I'd fill up to that for a night. Just to be safe.

[chrismaher1505]

They look great. Is that your running water level? If not I'd fill up to that for a night. Just to be safe.

Yes that's my max fill height. Am draining them as we speak

[Andys temperate tank]

They look great. Is that your running water level? If not I'd fill up to that for a night. Just to be safe.

Yes that's my max fill height. Am draining them as we speak

Champion then Chris. I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.

[plankton]

Yes, this should be an interesting project.