Photo Essay: Building a Glass Aquarium Tank

By Ravi Chandran

Aquarticles

Recently, Venket built a 6 feet Glass tank for his Frontosas. IAH was there to cover the story. Here is a photo feature on building the tank.

Caution: All work shown in the following pictures were done by trained professionals. We do not recommend untrained hobbyists to try this by themselves. Hire professionals, since this is a skilled job & an element of danger is always present.

Nagaraj, guy who makes Venket's tank is loading the silicon catridge into the silicon gun. Make sure that the silicon sealant you purchased is suitable for aquarium use.

Nagaraj is laying the bottom glass on the floor.

The plan is to paste the glasses on the floor. This technic is OK for small tanks. For a large tank, it's a good idea to build the tank on the stand which will be it's final resting place. Is Venket taking a big chance with his new tank ? We'll soon see ...

Nagaraj is now applying the silicon sealant along the four sides of the botton piece. Note that the sealant is NOT at the very edge. It's a few mm away from the edge. Nagaraj is applying the sealant such that sealent is exactly in the middle of the vertical side glass piece. When the side piece is lowered, the excess sealant should flow out and form a nice long bead along the side piece.

Note how he is guiding the nozzle along the side of the glass by using his index finger. Be careful with this technique. You will end up with cuts in your finger if the glass sides are not polished.

The sealant must be one long, even line. You will have to apply the paste, move the cartridge while pumping the level which makes the sealant flow out. All this in one smooth, clean, even motion.

Nagaraj has come to the end of side one. The bottom piece is the only glass on which we will apply sealant on all four sides.

Now, we have applied sealant to all four sides of the bottom pieces. Time to move on to the vertical side pieces.

We now apply sealant to the one of the back side glass pieces.

For the front & back glasses, sealant is applied only to the vertical sides. The top & bottom sides of the glass do not require sealant.

Now, the other side is applied with sealant. Again, the sealant is not the very edge, but a few mms away from the edge.

The back piece is now lowered & positioned on top the bottom glass.

The two people holding the glass sides must make sure that the glass lands exactly on top of the sealant. First one side of the glass is lowered & then the other side is slowly lowered.

Now, the back piece is in proper position. One person holds the glass in place while others start to work on the side pieces.

Note Nagaraj is now bringing the side piece.

Now the side piece is lowered into place. The back piece is tilted outwards & held in the position.

Another helper holds the side piece in position.

Nagaraj now lowers the other side piece into position.

Now, the other side piece is also in proper position.

The helper who is holding the back piece, which is tilted outwards, now pushes the back piece towards the two side pieces. The back piece is now attached to the side pieces.

Make sure that the glasses are properly aligned.

Now check the otherside edge too.

Now, the "tank" is ready to receive the front glass, the final side.

The front glass is now lowered into position. Venket, (wearing black T shirt) is holding the right side glass.

The final piece is lowered with it's top side tilted away from the side pieces. If not, it will scrap away the sealant. Note that the sealant is on the sides on the front glass.

Once the front glass is lowered & is in proper position, Nagaraj pushes the top side towards the side pieces. Finally, the tank has attained it's form.

Jute ropes are used to hold the tank together & to compress the glass joints. Good compression will yield good, tight joints. Make sure there are no air bubbles with the sealant.

The rope is positioned 1/3 from the top of the tank. For a deep tank, you might want to consider 2 such ropes. First on at 1/3rd & second one at 2/3rd the height.

Nagaraj now tightens & knots. Some tank builders will now move the knot up or down to further tighten the rope.

Nagaraj now removes excess sealant & adds sealant where it's insufficient. He starts with the first joint which he made & moves to other joints in a chronological order.

If the glass is not in proper position, now is the time to gentle move it to proper position.

The remove excess & fill process is carried on for all the joints. As Nagaraj moves his finger over the joints, he is also looking or feeling for misalignments.

Note the quantity of excess sealant he has removed.

The positioning process always follows the remove excess sealant.

A view of the tank, work in progress.

Front view.

A close up of the excess sealant. This is what should be removed & smoothened.

Close of excess sealant inside the tank. Nagaraj will soon remove this.

He is now clearing the inside joints.

The excess sealant is removed from his hands with precut newspapers.

Nagaraj is now applying sealant to the inside joints. This sealant will then be smoothened to form a nice arc between the horizontal bottom piece & vertical sections. This arc will create a very strong bond which will prevent water from seeping out through the initial sealant (incase there are some imperfections or holes) which was applied to hold the glasses together in proper position.

The sealant should be applied soon after the tank is formed & the existing sealant is still fresh. If there is a delay & the existing sealant starts the drying process, then the new sealant will NOT stick to that sealant & the entire excise is wasted.

The sealant is now smoothened.

Before smoothening.

After smoothening.

Now, we are done with the inside. Time to work on the out side joints.

Applying the sealant to the outside joints.

Smoothening the sealant.

Close up of the smoothening process.

After all the joints are applied with sealant, the tank must be allowed to dry & bond properly. Do not disturb the tank for at least 48 hours. You may fill with water after this curing period.

Editor's note: I will try to get a photo of the tank after it was set up and a post-script as to how the tank has held up!