Calculating the thickness of the glass for the aquarium

The thickness of the glass used in the construction of an aquarium affects its dry weight and therefore affects, for example, when designing a cabinet or shelf. The thicker the glass, the less transparent it is. Often glass, as its thickness increases, gives an increasingly noticeable green tint.

Glasses that are too thin may not be strong enough and will crack if they are too small for the size of the aquarium. And, of course, the thickness of the glass is reflected in the price of the finished aquarium. Thick glass is usually more expensive. Is it worth overpaying for too thick walls if the aquarium is small - we will consider in this article.

But even in this case, it is advisable to calculate the thickness, otherwise the aquarium may lose some of its useful internal volume. You should not sacrifice the living space of the reservoir for the sake of excessive strength.

For frame aquariums, where part of the load is borne by the metal corner, the thickness of the glass may be less, however, in this case it is important not to be mistaken with this characteristic. For frameless structureswhere the strength of glasses determines all the performance characteristics, their thickness is one of the most important indicators. With great lengths and heights, the front and back walls of such an aquarium experience the greatest stress.

With even larger aquarium sizes, you have to use transverse ties - glass strips glued across the aquarium between the front and rear walls on the stiffening ribs flat. This allows you to reduce the deflection of the walls and, accordingly, the load on them by about half.

In the manufacture of a glass frameless tank, this can lead to a decrease in the thickness of its walls. Additional structural elements are made of the same material as the entire aquarium. These designs allow you to save some on the size of the cover glass, which does not require additional devices for installation, it just lies on top of the ribs and ties.

When making or buying a ready-made aquarium, the issue of choosing the optimal thickness of glass used for its manufacture is very acute. Calculating this value on your own can be difficult, and mistakes can be costly. If the glass is thinner than required, a real disaster can occur, the scale of which directly depends on the volume of the aquarium. Flooding of an apartment and downstairs neighbors can result in a very expensive renovation.

Of course, it's not worth reinventing the wheel in search of solutions to a problem. Everything has been calculated for a long time. At the same time, it has been proven by numerous experiments that thickness is the main parameter that determines the strength of glass to break. Even so-called tempered glass, which is more difficult to break than usual, may not withstand the deformations that occur when filling a long, tall aquarium with water.

The table below allows you to select the required values ​​depending on the parameters of the aquarium.

Recommended glass thickness for frameless aquarium without stiffeners (mm).

The height of the aquarium over 60 cm is unjustified due to the difficulties of maintenance - there will not be enough arm length.

However, a metal frame or the use of stiffeners can somewhat reduce the severity of the problem. The following table will help you imagine how significant the difference in wall thickness is. It is known from the experience of aquarists that finding thinner glass is always easier.

Optimum glass thickness in frame aquariums and all-glass tanks with stiffeners (mm).

As you can see from the above table, one of the most important factors determining the thickness of the glass in aquariums with stiffeners or with a metal frame still remains exactly their height.

Let's try to give examples of calculating the wall thickness for an aquarium of 200 liters. To do this, we will use the material from the above tables.

With an optimal length of 1.5 meters, a width and height of 37 cm, the walls in the frameless and edgeless version should have a thickness of at least 8 mm. The use of a frame or stiffeners will help to reduce the glass thickness of a 200 liter aquarium by 2 mm, then it will be 6 mm. Finding such glass is much easier.

For an aquarium that does not have a frame and stiffeners, the length of which is 200 cm with an optimal height of 38 cm, the glass must be at least 8.5 cm thick. Stiffeners or frame will reduce the thickness of the material used by 1.5 mm. And again it will be possible to get by with more affordable glass of 6 mm thickness.

Thus, the use of frames or stiffeners on frameless aquariums allows the use of a more common material on the market, and, accordingly, more affordable.

How to calculate the thickness of the glass for an aquarium, see below.