Newbie to building

[houston]

OK... so I got the go ahead from my sweetheart who is very excited at the idea of building our very first aquarium... so I started doing my research online and I found 1 place that will sell us a 3/4" x 4' x 8' acrylic sheet for $489. I would need 3 plus (2) 3/4" x 4' x 4' to cap off the sides.

Let me first begin by saying heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp! :frustrat:

The thought of an 8' aquarium has excited everyone. Is 3/4" too much? Not enough? rest assure I will be reading much much before I attempt anything, but you all are the gurus so I figured this is where to start.

Thanks'
Houston :bowdown:

 

[squibley2]

In my opinion 3/4" is not near enough if it was glass maybe but you have to think about pressure and the force of 8000 lbs of water before you add rock and sand and other things.

 

[houston]

That's what I was afraid of. I haven't had a chance to read up on it yet. Everything is still in the "Dream" stage. We've just now started our research. $500 a sheet is pretty pricey.

maybe I'll do a small one to get used to the building first.. I could always use it as a hospital tank.

 

[ReefWannabe]

Check on ebay, look for a search on like 240 gallon tanks, should be a shop in tennessee. They can probably make one cheaper than you can build it. Im ordering my 240 gallon with 4 holes for CL, and 2 overflows, for $850!! Otherwise check ebay for heets of acrylic also.

 

[bobby]

a great site to learn to build aquariums is garf.org they will teach you to build it out of plywood and glass i called around and for me to build a 110 gal basicly to 55's put side by side 8 feet long would be around $200.00 for everything the glass i priced was only 67.89 but that was for a 1/4 inch thick witch i would probably go 1/2 inch on that site there is also a article from a guy who built a 500 gal 3'wide 3'tall and 8'long successfuly using plywood :sfish:

 

[sabotaged]

ive heard great things about socalcreations.com