# Acrylic tank sizes?



## Bert2oo1 (25 Apr 2017)

Hey guys I'm looking down the path of making a custom size acrylic aquarium. I'm thinking 90x45x45cm? Just wondering what size acrylic I'd need? I want it completely brace free if possible. Would 10mm be enough? 


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## Progen (4 May 2017)

Nope, at those dimensions you won't need it to be that thick. I have only basic arcylic working experience picked up during my schooldays but to be really frank with you, if you need to ask about the thickness required, it's best you find an expert and I do mean an expert who's built acrylic aquariums before which are still in use a year or two later. Working with acrylic is quite a big difference from working with glass and if you do it wrong, and if you're lucky, all you'll be getting is a leak or two. If unlucky, your room will be the next set for Waterworld  - The sequel.


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## MarkyP (4 May 2017)

I have built a couple of acrylic tanks a while back, you need to use 'cell cast ' acrylic and not extruded acrylic, for the proposed size of 45cm height you should be using 12mm and to be super safe 19mm, i would always go super safe and use the thicker 19mm acrylic - hth


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## zozo (4 May 2017)

Here is an online calculator.. But it goes in inches, so it's a bit approximate converting metric to inches.
http://diyfishkeepers.com/AcrylicThicknessCalculator.htm
would be 36"x18" x 3/4" = indeed about 19mm..


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## Bert2oo1 (4 May 2017)

MarkyP said:


> I have built a couple of acrylic tanks a while back, you need to use 'cell cast ' acrylic and not extruded acrylic, for the proposed size of 45cm height you should be using 12mm and to be super safe 19mm, i would always go super safe and use the thicker 19mm acrylic - hth



Is it basically the same as using glass? Just silicon between and clamp together? I used to be a builder so I'm good on the tools, do you think I'd be able to handle it? 




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## MarkyP (4 May 2017)

No m8 you need to bond it together with acrylic cement the edges must be perfectly flat and square, you apply the cement using capillary action with a syringe and do both sides of the joint with no air bubbles and you have to be very quick to keep the joint wet, if you don't bond it correctly it will fall apart when full, I had the first one I built go on me but the second one was fine.

As zozo has said 19mm would be your best bet to build it from

btw - silicone wont bond to acrylic


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## MrHidley (4 May 2017)

Bert2oo1 said:


> Is it basically the same as using glass? Just silicon between and clamp together? I used to be a builder so I'm good on the tools, do you think I'd be able to handle it?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You'll be fine, there's a load of excellent youtube videos on how to build acrylic tanks. I'm a total beginner when it comes to DiY and i managed to build mine and i'm really happy with it.


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## Bert2oo1 (4 May 2017)

MrHidley said:


> You'll be fine, there's a load of excellent youtube videos on how to build acrylic tanks. I'm a total beginner when it comes to DiY and i managed to build mine and i'm really happy with it.



Awesome  thanks for the advice! Looking into acrylic because glass is massively expensive where I live. Was going to cost me $700 just for the glass 


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## MrHidley (4 May 2017)

Bert2oo1 said:


> Awesome  thanks for the advice! Looking into acrylic because glass is massively expensive where I live. Was going to cost me $700 just for the glass
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Make sure you use cell-cast acrylic.


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## Bert2oo1 (4 May 2017)

MrHidley said:


> Make sure you use cell-cast acrylic.



No worrys  I'll do abit of ringing around today and see what I can come up with 


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## zozo (5 May 2017)

Bert2oo1 said:


> Awesome  thanks for the advice! Looking into acrylic because glass is massively expensive where I live. Was going to cost me $700 just for the glass
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Now that's funny, my last tank build in about same dimensions 90x35x35cm x 6mm regular glass and was done with kit and all for about $70. I considered acrylic but i can't get my hands in the welding solution in main land europe, it a chemical and the hazard code obliges a professional permit, can't buy it just like that. Professionals are reluctant to sell it in small quantities. But it is no rocket sience i do mix the welding sollution myself for my little home acrylci projects. But yet not found the confidence to weld a tank with it.


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## ian_m (5 May 2017)

zozo said:


> can't get my hands in the welding solution in main land europe


Freely available in Europe in small quantities. You are looking (on Ebay) for Tensol brand or just generic acrylic cement. Ebay sells it along with syringe applicator(s). There are different varieties of Tensol/acrylic cement, basically varying from water like to paste like. You really want the water like (Tensol 12 ?) along with a syringe to apply it.

My mate made a large acrylic tank years ago. You hold the sheets in place using masking tape and then inserted needles in the gaps between the sheet. You then run the cement along the joint from inside edges and very quickly remove the needles. Done.


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## zozo (5 May 2017)

ian_m said:


> Freely available in Europe in small quantities. You are looking (on Ebay) for Tensol brand or just generic acrylic cement. Ebay sells it along with syringe applicator(s). There are different varieties of Tensol/acrylic cement, basically varying from water like to paste like. You really want the water like (Tensol 12 ?) along with a syringe to apply it.
> 
> My mate made a large acrylic tank years ago. You hold the sheets in place using masking tape and then inserted needles in the gaps between the sheet. You then run the cement along the joint from inside edges and very quickly remove the needles. Done.



It might have changed, but have my doubts, havent looked in a 2 years.. But then they gave me the run around and i ran around a lot to get it. It was the shipping which was the problem.. As was explained to me because of the hazard code it has to be shipped to or even in my country in a special container suitable for transporting hazardous chemicals. Which actualy is bull, but it has this code. Probably because it contains a percentage chloroform. So i indeed can get the stuff, but getting it delivered to my doorstep i$ the problem.  I asked the acrylic provider for it when i bought the acrylic, he didn't want to sell to me, not allowed to, he came up with a tube UV curing Bison paste as alternative. Other online acrylic providers also do not offer it. But they offer to build the tank with a € 80 hourly wage.

The main content of the liquid stuff is Dichloromethane and monomers, i have both and are freely available in the acrylic nail industry.. But the acrylic weld solution contains also chloroform. If i go to the pharmacy for Chloroform i do not get it just like that. Maybe if you know the pharmacist very well.

I found it 2 years ago on ebay via a private seller from Rusia . I ordered 2 bottles and he shipped it in a cardboard box to me. I was lucky and just on time. When i looked again in my purchase list a few weeks later Ebay did take him offline with that stuff with the announcement the seller acted against ebay agreements.

Someone probably ratted him out.. But i got it.


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## ian_m (5 May 2017)

I assume from your profile you are Netherlands. Ebay Netherlands list Tensol 12 for sale for €5 for the particularly useless 5ml amount and bigger amounts for €20, shipped from UK.

I have also seen Tensol 12 (and others) for sale over the counter in model shops as it is also used to glue Airfix kits and model train kits.


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## zozo (5 May 2017)

Yup i'm Netherlands, never seen that Tensol stuff anywhere before even the acrylic provider hushed about it and played stuppid with his Bison tube. Or it is something rather new. I'll ask around.. Thanks.  Looking at the Tensol datasheet is is the same basic stuff without the chloroform. Main component is Dichloromethane which is very cheaply available as a brush cleaner in the beauty shop. Last time i bought it in 2015 it was $ 2.90 for 120ml.  Welds acrylic like a charme, yet not builded a tank with it. But definitely going to try.


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## ian_m (5 May 2017)

According to data sheet Tensol 12 is just dichloromethane and methyl methacrylate (Perspex). I am sure, years ago my mate made his own solvent cement by dissolving Perspex in, it would have been, dichloromethane then.


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## zozo (5 May 2017)

Yes you can do that to make it thicker in consistancy and even tick enough to fill gaps.. In the early days chloroform was the best solvent around for perspex. But people also use paint thinner ans acetone. As far as i know according the info i could find. It is best to also mix in a monomer. This has a slightly less volatile propperty and will keep the perspex soft a little longer and prolonges the curing time. Than it gets the change to melt into eachother beter and line up molucularly during the curing/bonding process. Without the use of a monomer it bonds faster and the molucularly line up will be erratic and less strong.

After doing some researching found out all is available in the beauty industry, in the acrylic nail hobby.. Girls want very strong and beautifull acrylic nails. And to get acrylic that hard and strong they mix in monomers. Much cheaper available, less fush bout it, because it's teenager hobby stuff. But axcactly the same.. Just need to find out the propper mixture..  If i remember correctly Weldon4 uses 80% Dichloromethane. 10% chloroform and 10% monomers and claim their product makes the strongest bond. 

Maybe you should let your baby sister glue your tank..  They know how to handle that stuff.. Or apply to a acrylic nail workshop first..


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## ian_m (5 May 2017)

zozo said:


> But people also use paint thinner ans acetone.


Cant use acetone on cast acrylic as it causes stress cracking.


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## zozo (5 May 2017)

ian_m said:


> Cant use acetone on cast acrylic as it causes stress cracking.


Yup that's the erratic molucular line up..  Acetone is much to volatile, paint tihnner, choloform only dito.. Dichloromethane does beter but still needs a monomer to get it even stronger. In how far this is absolutely needed to glue an aquarium i do not know.. But thinking back, Dichloromethane is later generation, before acrylic tanks were welded with chloroform and it was likely suficient enough. Maybe not for braceless tanks. Real indepht information is hard to find, always missing the cooks recipe secret somehow.

That's why i say, visit an acrylic nail workshop..  When you come back home, your wife will be jalouse because you nails are more beautiful than hers and you know all about solvents, monomers and bonding acrylic as strong as possible.


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