Hi everyone, I decided to share some of my work here. I've written a calculator for both glass and acrylic DIY projects.
Rivermud's Glass and Acrylic Thickness Calculator - Guide not Gospel
The glass portion of the calc defaults to a 3.8 safety factor. This is a solid choice for a safety rating on a rimless tank. If you are using bracing such as a cross brace found on most mass produced aquariums you can reduce the safety factor by a large amount. As a guide I normally use 2.4 as a SF for braced tanks. This is only meant as a guide however so please choose a safety rating that you yourself are comfortable with.
![calc.PNG]()
The areas in yellow are editable. As I stated before, it defaults to 3.8 as a safety factor, you can choose to change this. The calculator also has a reverse calculator built in to it. The pasted example shows 1/2" (.5000) glass, it will have a safety factor of 2.2 if used with the dimensions provided above without bracing. Useful for those who are trying to work within budgets. his is also provided for bottom thickness as well.
Next, the calculator will calculate the weight of your glass. This normally isn't a major issue, but for those who are building large tanks or or are working by themselves this helps to provide them with information that can be invaluable when telling your doctor how you threw your back out.
Lastly, I have added an acrylic thickness calculator. This calculator assumes you are using square seams. It does not have the ability to calculate for compound angles and corners. As such, it is built to fudge the numbers a bit high in the interest of safety.
This calculator is only a guide, please use it as such. I will happily answer questions if you have any. Comments stating something similar to "Well, my acrylic aquarium is 26 inches tall and built out of half inch, your calculator sucks because it tells me I need (insert high number here) will be ignored as whoever posts comments like that will have failed to read the initial post in the first place and is simply trolling.
Please enjoy.
Rivermud's Glass and Acrylic Thickness Calculator - Guide not Gospel
The glass portion of the calc defaults to a 3.8 safety factor. This is a solid choice for a safety rating on a rimless tank. If you are using bracing such as a cross brace found on most mass produced aquariums you can reduce the safety factor by a large amount. As a guide I normally use 2.4 as a SF for braced tanks. This is only meant as a guide however so please choose a safety rating that you yourself are comfortable with.
The areas in yellow are editable. As I stated before, it defaults to 3.8 as a safety factor, you can choose to change this. The calculator also has a reverse calculator built in to it. The pasted example shows 1/2" (.5000) glass, it will have a safety factor of 2.2 if used with the dimensions provided above without bracing. Useful for those who are trying to work within budgets. his is also provided for bottom thickness as well.
Next, the calculator will calculate the weight of your glass. This normally isn't a major issue, but for those who are building large tanks or or are working by themselves this helps to provide them with information that can be invaluable when telling your doctor how you threw your back out.
Lastly, I have added an acrylic thickness calculator. This calculator assumes you are using square seams. It does not have the ability to calculate for compound angles and corners. As such, it is built to fudge the numbers a bit high in the interest of safety.
This calculator is only a guide, please use it as such. I will happily answer questions if you have any. Comments stating something similar to "Well, my acrylic aquarium is 26 inches tall and built out of half inch, your calculator sucks because it tells me I need (insert high number here) will be ignored as whoever posts comments like that will have failed to read the initial post in the first place and is simply trolling.
Please enjoy.
