19 mm glass

seank

seank

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Please help: I am changing the size of the new tank I am building. I can get a 3 meter x 1.2 meter x 19 mm thick glass for R15 000.00. It works out at R4166.67 per square meter. Is it too expensive or is the price right. Please advice as I still need to make a decision today. It is clear glass. Also, can I go for thinner glass?
 
Is that 1.2m depth or width?
 
Wow that's hectic Sean, I think he is referng to the piece of glass Hill. Sean whats the tanks gonna be LWH?
 
It all depends on the depth of the tank.
 
I bought 04 250watt metal halides and I still have my existing ones so the depth is gonna be 1.2m. The glass I suppose cannot be thinner than 19mm so that is sorted. The piece of glass belongs to someone who bought it for his tank but not gonna use it any more, so he said I can buy it off him for what he paid for it. Apparently that thickness goes for about R6000.00 per m2. But I would still like to confirm on Masa if the price sounds fair- people who know the price of that type off glass. So, please reply if you can get it cheaper for me as I need to buy it before the week ends.
 
On 1.2m surely 250w MH's will not be enough to penetrate right down to the bottom, and how are you going to work in the tank if it is 1.2m deep, Don't get me wrong it will looks awesome !!!! but you will need to think about a few things before going that deep
 
Saw a 1.2m deep tank in PE and Danie used 32mm glass on his system, you will need 1000w MH to penetrate to the bottom of that, unless you only keep corals in the top half.
 
Danie had 2 400W MH plus skylights. On a cloudy day the 400 W lamps do very little for light penetration on their own. If I recall correctly Danie is going to upgrade his lighting.
 
Danie also mentioned that the 32mm bowed significantly. They were using 32mm x 2 angle iron as bracing. During filling they had to do extra bracing from front to back. Otherwise the 32mm was not going to hold.
 
Ok, to who wants to know what is brewing in my house:

The original glass system I wanted to do changed a bit. (I still have the 10mm Armour plated glass at my friend's place)

What I am going to do now: I am building a reinforced concrete shell (sides and Bottom) with a front viewing panel only. It is going to be flush with a new wall I am erecting next to the reinforced concrete tank. I am shuttering in such a way that I leave grooves all round where the glass are gonna sit (50mm deep grooves). Then I am gonna fibreglass everything (including the Grooves)

The lights will sit on a shelf that runs on rollers to slide it backwards if replacing of any lights are to be done.

This is the size of the complete display tank:

Length = 3.0 meter
Height - 1.2 meter
Width = 0.85 meter (from front to back)

Thus the system taking more or less 3000 liter excluding live rock and 500LT Sump

I thought the lights will be enough as I bought 04 x 250Watt Mh lights and I have 03 x 150 Watt on my existing system plus all the Fluorescents (And moonlights for the people interested)

But this is something I'll discuss in another thread at a later stage and yes, I have asked Andrew if he would be interested to do a complete engin room for me. But the reason for this thread is still: Is the glass too expensive or not????
 
Regarding the thickness of the glass : This system was designed by on of my structural Engineer friends. And 19 mm, according to the calculations, is ample.
 
OK cool if you are happy with the glass. Is there going to be concrete bracing on the top as well? If so it might be fine. I would just hate to read a thread someday saying something like help my 3000 litre tank broke.

Unfortunately I cannot help with the price.
 
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