Aquarium construction

Question
I am 67 yrs. old and as a youngster was much interested in and involved in breeding fancy guppies, not for show, but for personal pleasure/interest. I had a room with 20 tanks + breeding traps + temporary isolation tanks + genetic charts + all the other madness that fancy guppy breeding entails + a 50gal. community tank to deposit the less desirable, excess offspring that the local tropical fish store didn't want!! In about 3 years I will be relocating to North Carolina to a new retirement home and I'm seriously considering the construction of a large capacity in wall tank unit. It would be in what is known as a partition wall and not a load -bearing wall and would be so contructed as to provide absolutely stabile support with additional support from below by 10"diam. concrete piles on 24" footings bridged by an I beam.  I only go into this detail so you realize that I know, from a design standpoint, what I am doing. I'm a self-employed contractor and have been so for 43 years. The tank would be of narrow construction ( between 16 to 20" front to rear) and the height would be 6' and the length, between 6 to 7'. My question concerns the proper choice of glass to use for the base and 4 side panels and also the type of sealant. I have the ability to assemble and construct this on-site in it's permanent position and have all necessary hardware items to do so. My other concern is that the sealant be one that does not release any chemical once in contact with the tank water.  Thanks in advance, Bob.

Answer
Hi Bob;

That sounds like a fun project! I have never built my own tanks though so I really don't know about thicknesses and such. I can tell you though that a tank that deep will be very hard to maintain. Anything taller than your arms can reach will be a struggle every time you need to vacuum the gravel and change water, which should be every week to two weeks. If you add any decorations there is always a risk of dropping one and busting out the bottom at some point. (Yikes!) For sealant, it just needs to be 100% silicone and non-toxic when cured. Curing usually takes about 48 hours. Hardware stores usually carry tubes of that type you can insert into a caulking gun.

Your construction experience is a valuable asset in this project for sure. Supplies may be available at a discount or direct if you can. My husband has been a contractor for many years and it definately helps. We live in California where everything is regulated and everything costs too much. We use his contractors discount wherever we can.

Go to the freshwater fish forum on About.com for more info. (Address below) There are lots of great folks there including Gonzo who actually built his own huge tank last year, including his own filter. He may be able to help you decide on what to use.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!