Hey everyone,

I am a cabinet designer/maker (woodworker) by trade I have
already decided to make my own DIY tank. It will be over 100 gal. US. I have all the resources as far as tools and woodworking knowledge. If all fails I already have a 75 gal glass tank for backup and enough money to purchase another. I have 4 oscars at the moment but they are all under 3 inches. Out of these 4 I hope to get a breeding pair eventually (not good odds I know)

Anyway long story short, any info on building your own tank
or anyone elses experience building one would be appreciated.
This tank will not be in an area where if it fails I'll need a new rug so thats not a problem.

Thanks for any info
Miah

aslong as you get the correct silicone from i would say your local fish dealer and use the correct glass for the size of tank with adequit braces you should be fine i myself are going to be building my own whn i get round to it

good tip is to set the tank outside on foam or simalar material to prevent cracking the glass and fill it then leav for a good few days to make sure it wont leak or smash as filling in the house then putting fish in and it smashing will leave you with a big problem if you dont have a tank to put the fish straight back in or worse could kill the fish as the galss will be sharp

dnt let it put you off thou plenty research on tank building and youl be fine anything bigger than 3ft which you will need ide advise 12mm touighened glass or thicker and remeber your cabinet will need to support the entire bottom. Polystyrene laid over the wood base will cusion it nicely

hope that helped and surely someone on here could give you betteradvise than me

Thanks Drew
any and all info helps

hi there firstly i have to dissagree with toughend glass,toughend glass cannot be cut and if for any reason sumone bumps or its starts leaking the glass will shater into millions of pieces.

normal 10mm float glass will just start leaking and acctually give you time to repair it.

if the tank is built right we wont hv leaking issues any way.

Step 1: lay your garage floor with big flattened boxes
Step 2: Place the base on the floor and silicone all around the edges.
step 3:silicone the front glass from top to bottom,place it in place on top of the base & get sumone to hold it for you.
step 4:work yr way clock wise and put the left side panel in place on top of the base
step 5: be sure to line up front & left and put alot of pressure on the glass to ensure that u get all the air bubbles out of the silicone ,once you have those two lined up properly on the base use that thick boxing tape and tape a big piece of tape from front glass to left at top,middle & bottom.
now follow these steps with yr back glass and the right glass and keep taping the perfectly aligned glass as you go.

Most important is to get all air bubbles out of silicone and dont wipe any silicone spilage that cum out of the joints,u can cut it off with a blade once silicone is dried.

Leave the tank as is for at least 24hours and then go and silicon all yr braces on to the the tank.

while braces are drying it is time for the most important part and that is sealing the tank off.

you need to now run a thin constant line of silicone on the inside of the tank trough every joint.

this is what keeps your tank from leaking so be very precise run the silicon all around then start with yr finger in middle bottom of front glass and run it with medium presurre through out the whole tank trying to stop as little as possible.

the sealing of tank you need to practice as doing this to fast or pressing to hard/soft will make yr tank look un neat.

once completed leave yr tank for 7 days.

move it outside fill it quater full and keep adding every two days untill full.leave it full 2days and then empty it and move it into its designated spot in yr house.

hope this helps.

i read on net that toughned glass was best and you can get it cut at a reptuble glacier as ive got a few around the yard which i used for the old dog pen

then again im no expert just going off what i read lol pleased i havnt built mine yet

few things i forgot to mention.

thickness of glass is determend by the hight of the tank,any tank higher that 55cm should be 10mm glass.

if using 6mm/8mm glass u need to put tape on the floor and place the base on top of tape so u can tape from bottom totop aswell as the thinner glass moves easyly on the wet silicon.

10mm glass is heavy so this is not really neccasary with thick glass but to be absolutly safe u can tape as much corners and glass sides together as possible to keep the tank alligned whilst the silicone is drying.

good luck and post us a pic once completed so we can see yr handy work.

glass gets cut and once its cut to size they toughen it once its been toughend it cant be cut.

check on "you tube" under cutting toughend glass and you will see sumone attempting it and failing big time

cheers cleared things for me too there as i was confused with myself hahah

This is all good advice thanks vbaby. I also saw some articles on making a plywood tank which I would like to do where the front of the tank is the only piece that is glass. Ofcourse the plywood would have to be totally water-proofed using marine epoxy resin. I even saw one which was built out of fiberglass similar to what bathtubs are made of. This tank does not have to look nice just provide a good home for an O or 2. Anyway I am keeping my options open and still researching different ways of building tanks. But I am running out of time my 4 oscars are growing fast in their 75 gal. must get to work!!!

Keep the advice coming
Thanks

im going to price the glass for mine soon after i check my floor as im wanting full wall tank which is erm roughly 8-9ft soo be a 8-9ftx3ftx3ft

Pricing glass is very exspensive ive found that buying second hand glass off ebay from old office spaces works out very cheap.

people renovate their offices and sell off the old glass walls.

make sure its normal float glass before you buy it though.

I will be doing the same, let me know what you come up with.
I went to one of my lfs and got a price on a 125 us gal. tank it would be $325. I think I can make one a lot cheaper so I am going to price up all the materials I need once I decide on the final design.