Habitat - Indoor :: need help about building your own tank

[mindy and zach]

hey i was wondering how difficult is it to build your own 120-200gallon tank i wanna do it because it would save me money on buying a tank that size but im scared to build one cuz if i dont do it right my room will be flooded lol. If you can please leave me some info on building your own tank. thanks

[megcornell]

A few people have asked before and from what I remember, the resounding answer is to let a professional build the tank. Water weighs something like 8lbs per gallon I think, and that much pressure really needs a very sturdy, well-crafted tank to support it. I personally wouldn't risk flooding my house with that much water unless you had some excellent glass skills.
If you're looking for a bargain, I'd suggest looking at a used tank via craigslist or want ads. Also, glasscages.com has cheap tanks- but ordering online can lead to expensive shipping fees, so it's be best if you could pick it up at a show, they list them on their site. You can also always opt for a stock tank.

[N4784N R4613]

Taking on a tank that size would be a challenge to say the least. The glass has to be extra think, and heavy, which makes it very hard to work with. I have a 240 gallon tank from glasscages.com, and it weighs 800 pounds EMPTY!!!

So good luck, but I think you should leave this one to the professionals.

[killrmack]

Check out monsterfishkeepers.com they have allot of people on there that make there own fish tanks

[DavidY]

Steve (the site admin here) has built his own glass tank too, I believe. Hopefully he can chime in on how risky it is. I think he said it wasn't as bad as it sounded, but the idea still makes me a little nervous too. Another thing to try is using fiberglass to build your own custom tank. Using boat making materials you could design and build a really fancy setup with a rocklike finish and a few windows nicely positioned in a couple of places to look like cave openings into the water or a cross-sectional view. I've been doing research on that too so if you're interested I can give you some links to some products (epoxies, adhesives, etc) that were recommended to me by other builders.

[steve]

Well, my brother built it to my specifications (wanted it to be shorter but wider). The glass was pretty expensive since had to be custom cut. The custom stand was the biggest money saver and was made out of steel.

You can search for "DIY Reef", those guys are really into making their own setups. I do think that you might want to look into a commercial tank... even a used one would be fine.