price of glass or acrylic

[rocketboy]

        Alright I'm at the beginning stage of planning to build a 1000g in the basement ,I can get all the blocks and cement (basically all the building material)for free, so my biggest expense would be the glass. Before i go any futher with my plans I was wondering if anyone had any clue what a 1inch 10foot by 4foot sheet of glass or acrylic would roughly cost me?


Adam

[babblefish1960]

You had better take a look at Monsterkeepers website, you'll find many there who have done this sort of thing. I will tell you though, a sheet that size is cost prohibitive, especially when you consider it is special order, and 1/2" glass at a good price is $30 per square foot. You don't double the price for doubling the thickness either, once you hit the 1/2" mark, the price seems exponential.

And to locate roughly 5 tons of water box in the basement is probably more than the structure could stand, floors are just poured with bar or mesh, not very thick, the garage is thicker, you will want a knowledgeable engineer or someone to see what it is you are trying to do. This is so not going to be cheap. Then the heating, filtration and lighting and so on, it gets very expensive fast.

Have fun with that one. Call around to the various glass stores, they can give you a quote that more accurately reflects the enormity of this piece of glass.

[jeffd]

and not to mention the moisture issues which could be delt with with air exchange and engineered ventilation. A seperate building on your property would be the best solution:)

[veron]

you'd better be a rich doctor! because just to light,waterchanges,rock,corals,moisture issues,pumps alone will set you back thousands and thousands of dollars!!!!!!!!
I have a 500g and believe me, if I could do it all over again I'd stick with nothing larger than a 220g

[Adam]

Well...veron, I think he posted in the Freshwater section because he's not planning on thousands of dollars of coral/LR, nor will he need 1000W halides.

What's with all the negativity?  It can and has been done many times...There are many people who have built their own tanks...it will be pretty expensive but you can do it on a budget, especially if all the concrete and building materials will be free. 

The glass will be the kicker, especially at 1 inch.  Maybe at 29" tall you could get away with 1/2" glass, and it would really cut down on your costs.  The height of the water determines the thickness of the glass almost exclusively.  You could do two panels with a concrete support in between.  Some people sell used glass and you can probably find a good deal somewhere.

The moisture can be fixed with covers, proper ventilation and maybe a dehumidifier if need be. 

The filtration will have to be a DIY job but if you look on www.cichlid-forum.com, there is a guy called 'TheFishGuy' who has a thread in the DIY section about his ~900 gallon tank.  He got almost everything for free or very little, so that would be a good place to start. 
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=103294

Adam

[darkdep]

I would suggest you look into a heat exchanger.  This device works on the premise of pulling air from the room (which will be fairly humid), extracting the heat, and blowing it outside.  Then it pulls in outside air, adds the heat, and blows it back in.  Net effect is a very efficient way of dealing with humidity without ruining your heating bills.

These cost under $1000 from what I hear, and I'm seriously considering putting one in my own basement when I plan to expand my fishroom later this year.

[rocketboy]

Thanks guys and girls for your response. i check out mosterfishkeepers and it seems to have tons of useful information that would help me out.  for the structure of the tank I'm really not worried about that, my dads a bricklayer and has access to all the information needed,so hopfully we wont come into any problems with that. Ill start calling around for prices, cause it seems my searching skills on the net are not very good, most of the places i find are from the states lol.

for the moisture issue i would definitely have a cover for it and have it well ventilated.if needed ill check into a heat exchanger as darkdep mentioned.

hmmm i do have a nice big shed in the backyard , you have me thinking now lol

its going to be a freshwater tank, would love to make it into a saltwater tank but thats just way to expensive and time consuming.i live in Quebec so doing waterchanges wont cost me, and the lighting I'm just thinking of using those energy-efficient bulbs or regular fluorescent tubes.that should be good enough no?

i went to big Al's and they were nice enough to show me their setup for the shark tank, it seems pretty simple 300g wet/dry sump with a 4 horsepower pump and a HUGE skimmer(but i wont need that).thinking of doing the same thing, i have a 200g plastic barrel that i can use for a sump.

i haven't check out the sites you mentioned yet Adam but i will check it out forsure thanks. i was thinking about doing it with 2 panels but then i would take away some of the view lol I'm picky like that, but if the cost is alot cheaper to do it that way i might just have to sacrifice some of the view.

I'm going to go with acrylic it seems to be much cheaper.  is there any difference between glass and acrylic when looking into a tank?

Adam

[hamstercaster]

I think acrylic scratches a bit more easily and the scratches are usually a bit more apparent but if that's not a concern then you shouldn't see any difference between the two.  So the fighting with swords around the tank or shooting your nail gun around it should be avoided and you should be fine ;-)

corrected spelling and grammar ;-)

[veron]

weres the negativity??? I've built my own so I'm speaking from experience.
seeing that its a freshwater it'll be much cheaper. around $5000 or so to get it going.

[Saltcreep]

I would suggest you look into a heat exchanger.  This device works on the premise of pulling air from the room (which will be fairly humid), extracting the heat, and blowing it outside.  Then it pulls in outside air, adds the heat, and blows it back in.  Net effect is a very efficient way of dealing with humidity without ruining your heating bills.

These cost under $1000 from what I hear, and I'm seriously considering putting one in my own basement when I plan to expand my fishroom later this year.

I think what you're describing is technically known as a heat recovery ventilator or HRV. We installed one when we did a big reno job in 1995. While the do do what they say they do, they are not without their faults. The reduction in relative humidity comes from condensation. The unit relies on two streams of air, one from inside the house and one from outside, which pass over each other in the core of the HRV. Mine is about a one foot cube made up of tightly packed aluminum tubes. In winter, the incoming air cools the core and the warm, humid air passing through the core condenses on it. The water then drains down a tube. The problem here is that in winter, your indoor air is already fairly dry and what you end up drawing into your home is dry also so the reductin in humidity is not really that noticeable. In summer, when your dealing with very humid air, the core does not get cold enough to do a really efficient job of condensing the moisture. Although the effect an HRV has on humidity is negligible, the effect on overall indoor air quality is amazing. At the time of the installation we had three smokers in the house. When the HRV was running (manufacturer recommends running it 24/7/365) smoke was not detectable in the house even by non-smokers. Works great on kitchen odours and bathroom humidity too. Most HRVs also require a return from every room being served by it also which could mean extra ducting for your installation. Both airstreams must also be 'balanced' so that, for example, in the cold months, you are not pulling cold air into a humidity-filled door lock. Take my word for it, they freeze up real good. Last point is that you will lose about three to six percent of your valuable heat (or cold) to the great outdoors.

Sorry about the longwinded threadjack but, when you're going to lay out big bucks, you should know what you're getting.

[veron]

if your going to be covering the tank then you should be good with a small CFM setup to a humistat.
just remember big tanks have big problems LOL.
but salt is a lot more demanding.

[rocketboy]

about 5000 , i hope thats with all the building material included. all i would need to buy would be a glass or acrylic sheet, pump, piping, heater, filter media, special paint to coat the inside of the tank with,and lighting. that shouldn't come any where close to 5000 i was thinking 2000

[darkdep]

Thanks for that Saltcreep, I haven't actually investigated them that much, very valuable information.

In my basement, the Humidity is usually around 60%; it spikes up to 70% after waterchanges.  I'd like to find a way to get that down.  My dehumidifier doesn't really get it below 60%.

[Sue]

We installed an HRV 3-4 years ago. It cost about 2 grand including installation by a furnace contractor, and I've been happy with its ability to remove humidity in our house in the winter. We have severe MTS, so we used to have water running down the windows and condensation on cold spots on the outer walls which would grow mold. In the summer we tend to turn it off or to low speed, to save hydro.
If you are going to have a 1000 gallons indoors, it might be worth the investment.

[Saltcreep]

We installed an HRV 3-4 years ago. It cost about 2 grand including installation by a furnace contractor, and I've been happy with its ability to remove humidity in our house in the winter. We have severe MTS, so we used to have water running down the windows and condensation on cold spots on the outer walls which would grow mold. In the summer we tend to turn it off or to low speed, to save hydro.
If you are going to have a 1000 gallons indoors, it might be worth the investment.

I'm not saying it doesn't work to remove humidity, just that it isn't designed for the level of humidity we're talking about here. I'm sure there's a limit to how much humidity can be removed by an HRV just because of its design and the amount of air it can move. I think what would be required in this installation would need to be more robust, maybe a little more industrial-like. More like a dehumidifier that utilizes refrigerant to cool the surface where the moisture condenses. I would recommend an HRV to anyone and I still run mine all the time, but they do have limitations.

[veron]

you find glass or acrylic at that price for a tank like that let me know. plus, building a tank of that size is not for rookies. you'll will need help from a pro. thats a TON of water!!!

[darkdep]

Are there any HRV systems combined with a dehumidifier concept?

Right now my tankage is small compared to Sue or veron's tanks (I have 8 main tanks comprising 390 gallons, along with about a half dozen 10gal fry tanks) and this past winter we had major condensation issues along with mould problems. I'm looking to add a couple hundred more gallons this year but I have to find a humidity solution.

[rocketboy]

you find glass or acrylic at that price for a tank like that let me know. plus, building a tank of that size is not for rookies. you'll will need help from a pro. thats a TON of water!!!

like i said in my origanal post I'm at the beginning stage of planning this project, and have tons of reseach ahead of me .  obviously this is not something I'm going to jump right into and start building this weekend, if i do go threw with it it would be in about 2months.

10f by 4f  was just a rough estimate, mostlikely going to go down in size not by much, maybe 3 feet high and 9 to 8 long.  i found a store(in the states though) that charges $0.09 per square inch for a 1 inch thick piece of acrylic. i could be wrong i did do the calculations really fast but it was in the 500s us. ill be calling around this weekend to see what the prices are like around here.

Adam

[veron]

I built my 500g from glass, I got the best price in town bar none.
cost me around $4600 just for glass! mind you one pane was extra clear STARPHIRE. [add $200] so glass is basically out of the question for a tank of 2000g!! you'll need acrylic.
now, acrylic is not the same as glass in forming a tank. you'll need it built by a pro for sure. you cant just use weldon for a tank that size.
your looking at about $7000 but thats just guessing. not trying to be negative, just showing you some facts. you'd have to be pretty serious about staying in the hobby forever! because you'd almost never be able to sell/remove that tank and/or get even 1/2 of your money back. like I said, been at this for awhile and your looking at some serious cash.

[rocketboy]

the design is going to be something like this



considering i can get all the blocks, cement,and wood for free i have no idea where you pulling 7000 from.