# What to do with these huge panes of Glass? Updated with pics



## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

So my work was throwing away the display case glass that is in perfect condition, instead of letting it become a waste i decided to take it all up and now i wanna make something of it.

there 6 peices of 4.5'hx2'w and 6 3'hx2'w, im thinking of making a couple vivs from the lot of it.

I was thing maybe mostly wood construction with no more than 2 or 3 panes of glass in each, maybe a hex with 3 glass panes or a high tank with 2... hell maybe a pentagon with 2 glass sheets...Anything is possible let me know your ideas and if its good ill do it.

The only problems i face are how to go about doing it, what to use.so if you guys could post some links for tanks with similar construction...post em!! 


im sort of rushing this post because ive gotta catch to new york in a minute and needed to get this out of the so i can hopefully get started next. so if you feel like i left out and details about what i wanna do or what ever let me know.

ill try and pictures of it up maybe friday(if it will help)

thanks guys


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## pl259 (Feb 27, 2006)

The first thing would be to determine if it's tempered or not. Were there any broken pieces from other display cases? Big pieces = not tempered. Small corn sized pieces = tempered. You could try cutting one piece. If it cuts cleanly then it's obviously not tempered. But if after you score it, it seems that it takes a lot more force then usual to snap it, stop! It's probably tempered. The risk is you could end up with countless small bits of glass everywhere if a tempered piece shatters. *Always wear eye protection when cutting glass.*
If tempered then you're stuck with those sizes because you can't cut it. If not then it's up to you. If it were me, I'd cut the glass to make up larger all glass custom tanks that had sizes that would fit nicely onto 4'x18" or
4'x24" wire racks. The 2' dimension of those sheets is a nice size to have and is a good height for many tanks. 

BTW, how thick is the glass? I'm assuming 3/16" or 1/4"

EricG.NH


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

thanks alot for the reply, the glass is tempered, or so it say's on a stamp in one of the corners,the glass also has a slight green tint to it.So i guess thats good since i didn't really wanna cut it but i had been thinking about it,i HEART huge Vivs , also the glass is 1/4". 

my only problem it looks like is the aluminum handles and sliders things on the sides and bottoms of the glass, ive tried about everything to get it off except heating it with like a blowdryer of sorts(just thought of that).

again thanks alot again for the response PL259 information was very helpful

im probably gonna have to wing since it doesnt seem like im getting much help here 

anybody else?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

All glass has a green tint to it, that's because of iron that is left in the quartz during the glass making process. It's possible to remove the iron, but it drives the price of the glass way up. http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache...t=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a

As for what to do with the glass, I'd probably try like hell to make a rectangular tank that's 4.5' wide, 3' tall, and 2' deep. You'd have to get creative with how to do the front to accommodate the 4.5' x 2' piece, but it could be done and look nice. I'd stay away from tall, narrow tanks because they present challenges when you go to light them.


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## Peter Keane (Jun 11, 2005)

In the earlier days of my dart frogging adventures I had decided to make a huge display tank 4' tall x 3' wide x 2.5' deep.. I planned it all out it was tempered glass from a local glass shop.. 3/8" I put it together with chrome corner thingies that you usually see with this glass (on coffee tables, doors on entertainment centers, etc .. ) But this left quite a gap between the glass pieces but I wanted to keep this idea because it would keep the tank together, than trying to silicone this all together.. anyway after I got this all together (shape-wise) I then siliconed all the edges, which I found out the hard way that silicone for some reason does not stick to tempered glass that well.. or the fact that I had used about 8 tubes just for the bottom and sides of this monster.. there was silicone dripping thru the cracks and dropping on the floor.. this part was a mess.. I was very willing to just give up.. but it kept driving me.. I finally got it all siliconed with the help of duct tape.. which I later peeled away after the silicone had dried.. the inside was all sealed now and it looked stupid with big globs of silicone all over .. I then made a false bottom and tried to lift this thing O Damn that was VERY heavy.. I had to get two of my friends over to lift it onto a heavy duty dolly.. and then came my most favorite part, creating the mini jungle.. I was no longer limited to plants that fit into a 20gal high any more.. I used huge phillodendron, diffenbachia, large palms.. and pothos (not the real name for these) which leaves were about the size of plates.. and all the huge broms that always looked pretty and I only bought to not put into a viv.. and then the best part is that all the little plants, epiphytes, vines, ficus, mosses, ferns etc.. looked even better in this viv because they were now accent plants and not the focal plant(s).. I added some vines to the background and after a few weeks of seeing if the plants would take to it.. I found out another problem lighting this bad boy... I needed a light strong enough to reach the bootom.. my fluorescents weren't getting that job done.. I experimented with all sorts of lights.. and settled on a salt water aquarium light Coral Life I think.. it had like 10000k, I think.. two bulbs of these and a blue bulb.. that my brother was using for his coral reef tank.. this worked like a charm.. all the plants were groing.. so I added my blue jean pumilio in the tank.. they immediately got lost.. but within 10mins they started calling.. I then added the rest of my pumilio non-select breeders into this tank and had a lot of calling, wrestling, etc.. I had to remove a few because they turned out to be pairs.. rather than 2 females because of lack of interest in each other.. so.. when it came time to water this thing I had a hand sprayer I was using for this.. yeah right.. arm cramps galore, so, I extended my Rainmaker misting system for 8 more nozzles, but the machine was programmed for too short a period of time.. I had these for 12 mins am shower, 2mins shower 2 x each afternoon then a 15 min shower before the lihts went out.. these were all fine mist/low flow nozzles.. that was barely wetting the monster.. I had to get it's own misting system.. I still love it and I would like to try another especially with today's ideas.. Anyway Best of luck.. Peter Keane, JungleWorld


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

thanks response Peter, you brought some new thinking to me....how heavy the finished product is going to be or even more important the over-all size, i will now build it in my garage and not my basement lol

Im gonna go buy some wood to tomorrow so i can get started on the base for this monster


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

can anyone here help me with this? ive been searching (google mostly and i even went to the zoo to get an idea...no avail) like mad on how get the glass set into wood like this....



















anybody here know? or can one of you awesome brodudes provide a link


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

from the research i've done on glass/wood tank construction, the way you get that look is to have the wood frame and lay a bead of silicone on the inside of the wood, then lay the glass onto it. This creates that lip effect you're going for, as well as creating a nice seal between the glass and wood. 

the little ascii drawing below should make it more clear. 


```
* = wood
- = glass
@ = silicone

*****------------------------------------*****
*****@@@                              @@@*****
********                              ********
```
so you'd assemble the wood frame, run a bead of silicone around the lip, then lay the glass down into it and allow for curing.

-Devin


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

oh, and yeah, make an enormous viv out of those panes


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

Thanks dude, id didnt think it was that simple lol i thought that there was like a cut out in the wood and it was epoxied in somehow, is that method you listed water tight?, 


anybody got any other ides on this? if not ill just do it that way doesnt seem like a problem


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

That's exactly how it's done. It is water tight: http://www.garf.org/140.gallon.html


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

got the wood cut, ill start building tomorrow ill take pics and thurn this into a mini construction journal


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## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

But I thought your glass was tempered? So what are you going to do?


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

it is tempered....im not quite getting your question...


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

MonopolyBag said:


> But I thought your glass was tempered? So what are you going to do?


Nothing, he's going to build to suit the size of the glass.


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## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

defaced said:


> MonopolyBag said:
> 
> 
> > But I thought your glass was tempered? So what are you going to do?
> ...



Holy Cannoli (Italian dessert pastry) that is huge! Good luck building that.


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

well, what else is a man supposed to do when he has a few huge pieces of glass that can't be cut?


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

finished building the main box last night...pics to come soon


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

So here's the box in all it's glory, nothing to note here other than i siliconed the joints where wood meets wood, this was done before i drilled so i get a watertight seal bear the real waterproofing

since then i waterproofed it with silicone(Cheap, Easy) and re cut the frame in the front, as you can see in the pictures....it looks a bit jagged.

now all i have to do is build a stand and figure a way to make glass door that slides up and down, anybody got any ideas? if not ill just do it the way that was previously mentioned in the threads.

did i do anything wrong so far? tips? let me know


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

pretty much finished all the hard stuff, now all i gotta do is make a top and finish with the molding on the stand.


after that ill drill holes for my bulk heads and install the false bottom then ill great stuff it and make it look all nice and ill install the glass last


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## arielelf (May 23, 2007)

Have you figured out the door situation yet? If is going to be free standing, and you will have access to the side, then it might be nice to cut a door on the side so that the front glass could be uninterupted(sans hinges and latches.) You could disguise the door from the inside with a piece of cork bark or make it into a foam rock.


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## Hassan347 (Jan 8, 2006)

i thought about putting a door on it but i opted not too, don't ask me why....i guess i just feel like messing around with it

Filter and everything else will be outside of the tank so i don't think it will be a problem


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