Safety Factor - Please guide and Help me

[nagukush]

Hi Friends,

I'm having trouble understanding what Safety Factor of a glass aquarium is and just wanted to request you to please guide and help me regarding this.

My Tank is going to be 6.5 Feet Long x 2.5 Feet Wide x 1.75 Feet Tall and I'm going to use a 12mm Glass for it.

Kindly guide me if a 12mm Glass will be safe enough (as I have 2 year old babies at home) and how do I calculate the safety factor for this tank. Also what will that Safety factor mean practically.

Please guide me Friends.
Thanks a lot !
Regards to all !
Kush

 

[Squawkbert]

Hmmmm - 12mm is thicker than 3/8, not quite as thick as 1/2" but is often sold as 1/2". Oceanic tanks of that length tend to be 1/2" glass, but what you must remember is that water pressure, and rim design dictate how thick your glass must be. Rim design comes into play with long runs of glass and supporting it to keep it from bowing (much). Pressure is strictly a function of depth. At depths of 21", 3/8" glass would actually work well enough, but I'd brace the heck out of it for a run >6ft (I'd suggest bracing it 1/3 of the way in from each end).

For a 21" tall x 6.5ft long tank, I think 12mm plate glass would be optimal for the sides. I would advise using a 7" wide center brace (to make it easier to set light fixtures on the tank) and using tempered glass for the bottom of the tank. It will be very heavy, but it will last for ever if well constructed (good job w/ silicone, all nice & square, pieces cut properly etc.).

Make sure your stand and floor really sturdy and level - they will be holding up over a ton for several years.

 

[bgcoop8784]

if i got all my calculations right almost 213 gallons, 78" long, 30" wide, and 21" tall, then 12mm would give you a safety factor of about 4.92 which is great. a safety factor of 3.8 is normally all you would ever need, so looks great.

 

[nagukush]

Thanks a lot for the kind replies and for guiding me Friends - Really so grateful to you all...