# I have built some Acrylic Aquariums, what do you think?



## sajo (25 Jan 2017)

Hi Guys,

I have built some Acrylic Aquariums, what do you think?




 

It is made of super high quality acrylic and its corners appears invisible.

It took some time, to made it perfekt without any bubbles (which can influense the lifespan).



 

It is clearer than "low iron glass" which you know from ADA/Emmel. On the left is a Emmel.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers, Jo


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## ian_m (25 Jan 2017)

Nice.


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## Mick.Dk (25 Jan 2017)

Be EXTREEMELY carefull about how to clean this. All the ones, I've had have quite soon been scratched. Even the slightest scratch will for some reason be visually highlighted by reflections from ligjt.......
- I have not been able to find a material, that will effectively clean the acrylic on the inside, without damaging it.


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## KipperSarnie (25 Jan 2017)

Have you tried it with water yet?
We have a local plastics company, manufacturing & supply, they made a large perspex display tank for demonstrations of a chemical mixing unit for farm sprayers.
It burst at the seams.


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## kadoxu (27 Jan 2017)

Awesome!


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## sajo (30 Jan 2017)

Mick.Dk said:


> Be EXTREEMELY carefull about how to clean this. All the ones, I've had have quite soon been scratched. Even the slightest scratch will for some reason be visually highlighted by reflections from ligjt.......
> - I have not been able to find a material, that will effectively clean the acrylic on the inside, without damaging it.



Hi Mick, I'm testing the Acrylic tank with water running by > 30C°, and after that I'm testing this special sponge (from DM, German drug store) if he removed algae without scratching.





There are of course some cons, the price and that acrylic is easy to scratch. But the pros are very nice, the tank is just invisible in a dark room 






The tank is running by 30C° and each day I fill more water in. Tomorrow i get another bigger heater, i wanna be sure that the tank runs well even when its comes a hot period of time..


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## dean (8 Feb 2017)

I have made a few myself but only small photography ones 

Have you made a video of how you made it ?

Which method did you use to join the sections 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Aqua360 (8 Feb 2017)

That looks really good, hope it works out well for you


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## ricreis394 (10 Feb 2017)

Looks pretty awesome. Always thought glass was better visually and everything. 
Probably because I saw terrible quality acrylics

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## sajo (23 Feb 2017)

dean said:


> I have made a few myself but only small photography ones
> Have you made a video of how you made it ?
> Which method did you use to join the sections



I made this with some colleagues which are skilled in working with Acrylic stuff, I'm in a training with that guys, to be able to make this by myself in the future. Here is an example what they also build:




This is a special custom made "cooling tank", it is with screws because of heat reasons.

My 60x36x30 tank is still running with 28 - 31 c° and its not exploded until now. Thanks to god it works.

The biggest problem with building such a tank is a) you need the knowledge of capillary action to build a tank and another hand is required b) the costs of the acrylic plates is high as like to buy an ADA 60x36x30 tank.
This means, an acrylic tank is super expensive.

Next time I will make some photos in night with water an fish with black background, the crazy thing is, its like water is standing in your room.

So, bottom line, I have two tanks and and I'll sell my second if someone needs a special tank msg me.

Later.


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## zozo (23 Feb 2017)

sajo said:


> This means, an acrylic tank is super expensive.



I realy couldn't say that.. I looked it up to build a 90x40x25cm tank of 12mm GS acrylic it was about € 80 material cut into needed sizes. Ok it would be unprocessed, i guess l would need to add a little to let them route the edges. Did build about the same tank in blank floated which did cost me €45 with kit, if i had choosen Opti white glass it would be about € 80, same price as GS acrylic. SO by material cost it aint that expensive, it is the welding skills making it more exciting. 0 margin for errors, once welded it is permanent. But the guy offered me to build it for me, he asked about €300 ex. shipping. So he calculated about €220 for welding the thing together and buff it up..  That's completely bonkers. 

Anyway, nice job you did there..  Compliments.


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## Nick Norman (23 Feb 2017)

Looks good! I Make acrylic covers for models at my work, though about making a tank but I don't trust the glue we use. We use UV glue (very week, tensol and chloroform. What did you use?


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## PARAGUAY (25 Feb 2017)

Had a email from The Green Machine showing James Findleys recent display set up Spontinaity its a huge 5 feet by 5 feet by 3 feet acrylic aquarium with huge rockwork,worth a look and proves Acrylic has robust properties


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## zozo (25 Feb 2017)

PARAGUAY said:


> proves Acrylic has robust properties



GS is known to be up to 20x stronger than glass.. Down side is it's flexibility, there for you need to go up to 5 or 6 times thicker than glass and for large tanks with hight of 30 cm + still need to brace it, or else it might bulge out and crack a bonding.


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## PARAGUAY (25 Feb 2017)

zozo said:


> GS is known to be up to 20x stronger than glass.. Down side is it's flexibility, there for you need to go up to 5 or 6 times thicker than glass and for large tanks with hight of 30 cm + still need to brace it, or else it might bulge out and crack a bonding.


I wonder if thats why so many popular ones are bow fronted and moulded arc shape


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## sajo (25 Feb 2017)

Nick Norman said:


> Looks good! I Make acrylic covers for models at my work, though about making a tank but I don't trust the glue we use. We use UV glue (very week, tensol and chloroform. What did you use?



One of my tanks is running with water and a heater for a long time heat test. Next week I'll change the water an will put in some plants first. I will see if its work,because we are using UV glue too.

There is no other glue that welds the acrylic for our purpose.

@PARAGUAY, do you have any pictures? 5 Feed ? I can't imagine how to build such a big tank, unless this build a professional company?


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## PARAGUAY (25 Feb 2017)

Hi Sajo cant get pictures up it actually a video tutorial of the set up it should be up on TGM  tutorials on its You Tube channel later if not now


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## sajo (25 Feb 2017)

zozo said:


> I realy couldn't say that.. I looked it up to build a 90x40x25cm tank of 12mm GS acrylic it was about € 80 material cut into needed sizes. Ok it would be unprocessed, i guess l would need to add a little to let them route the edges. Did build about the same tank in blank floated which did cost me €45 with kit, if i had choosen Opti white glass it would be about € 80, same price as GS acrylic.



I use GS acrylic from Plexiglas and it's hard to find another suppler with that quality. Still looking for other options ...


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## sajo (27 Feb 2017)

PARAGUAY said:


> Hi Sajo cant get pictures up it actually a video tutorial of the set up it should be up on TGM  tutorials on its You Tube channel later if not now


Found it : youtube.com/watch?v=VuScdr53SM8
It has two frames and I'm sure, this is a must by such a big aquarium size.


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