DIY Aquarium

[Eric Noa]

Last month we did some remodeling at my job and some offices were removed to make more showroom space and I took home 4 sheets of 1/4" plate glass that were originally window's separating each office so Im going to give it a try at building an aquarium. Im going to start with something small, probably a frag tank so here is my question.

Lets say the tank is going to be 2' x 2'. The bottom glass will obviously be 2' x 2' and the front and back will 2' long and 1' high. Now the two side pieces is were I need some help. Would making them 23-1/2" long be okay or a bit smaller like 1/16th smaller would be better to leave some room for the silicone? Any help will be greatly appreciated since I've never done this before.

[tufkab]

I'll bet you $20 that if that glass came from inside an office, it's tempered. If it is, you'll be doing no cutting. Tempered glass can not be worked, it WILL explode.

To answer your question, yes, the sides will have to be shorter than depth-(thickness x 2)

Also, I would strongly recommend you educate yourself a little more on building aquariums and start with something MUCH smaller as a first diy tank.

Glass is cheap, buy your glass to make the tank you want; don't build a tank because that happens to be the glass you have.

[Eric Noa]

I'll bet you $20 that if that glass came from inside an office, it's tempered. If it is, you'll be doing no cutting. Tempered glass can not be worked, it WILL explode.

To answer your question, yes, the sides will have to be shorter than depth-(thickness x 2)

Also, I would strongly recommend you educate yourself a little more on building aquariums and start with something MUCH smaller as a first diy tank.

Glass is cheap, buy your glass to make the tank you want; don't build a tank because that happens to be the glass you have.

Do you want to PayPal me those $20? lol the glass is definitely plate glass not tempered.

I think a 2' by 2' is not that big for a first DIY aquarium. I know that if the glass is 1/4" I will need to off 1/2" of the overall size of the side glass to fit in-between the front and back panel. My question was that if taking off 1/2" would be sufficient or maybe taking off 1/16" more would be better?

Also Im not trying to be cheap by making a tank with the free glass I have. Im just using the free glass to experiment in case something goes wrong Im not wasting money.