Thinking of bulding a new tank, how thick?

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Feb 12, 2007
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I'm looking at putting together a new tank with dimensions of 22" X 22" X 90" and what wondering how thick the glass should be. Garf says 3/8" which seems thin. My LFS owner who sucks at fish info but is good on setup info says 5/8 to 3/4" which seems a little much. I was thinking 1/2" should be about right but thought I'd get some second opinions first. Thoughts?

Also, I'd be having the bottom drilled for overflows most likely. Would this make a difference on bottom thickness?
 
I would side with the 3/4" recommendation. No trim or framed?
 
I would side with the 3/4" recommendation. No trim or framed?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by framed but...

It's either going to use a regular stand or be in-wall. I'm not sure yet. If it's a regular stand I'll either trim both the bottom and the top or just trim the top and have the bottom kind of recessed but snug fitting in the stand if that makes sense. If I do it in-wall I won't trim it but I'll completely frame around the top and bottom (with the exception of the front pane) with 2x4's since it won't be visible.
 
I just did some searching and found this table which give the safety factor for various sizes of tanks and glass thicknesses.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumdiy/l/blcustomtank.htm

Anything over a 3.0 is supposed to be safe. The closest I could find on this table was 21" (22 for my tank) by 96" (90 for my tank) which shows a 12mm piece of glass (1/2 is 12.7mm) has a safety factor of over 5 so I think I'll be all right. Thanks for the response, though :)
 
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