building a rimless aquarium - glass thickness?

[dustbust_1]

I plan on building a rimless tank for my seahorses with macro algae and some softies. The dimensions will be 16x16x24. Needs to be tall for the sea horses. I was planning on acrylic but glass is much cheaper. An acrylic tank with no visible seems would be ideal But I do really like the look of the rimless with black silicone. So I am wondering for all the tank builders what would be an ideal thickness for glass? Could I get away with 1/4" with it being that tall or should I go with 3/8" the $ difference is about double. If I have to go with 3/8 its almost better just to buy. Thanks in advance

 

[fish-n-chips]

What kind of glass are you planning on using? What are your plans for keeping the tank from blowing apart since there will be no rim? Although the top of the tank has less water pressure on it than the bottom, I would figure out how to keep it in place first. Tempered glass is alot stronger than annealed glass. With your height I would say 5/16" tempered would be good. I wouldn't really trust annealed for a tank.

Edit: I was assuming height of 16". If your dimensions L16xW16xH24 then you will need 3/8"

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Why dont you just buy a tank and remove the rim. Petco's $1 a gallon sale ends tomorrow the 18th the last day for Aqueon aquariums tall or long in 20 & 29 gallon, also they also have 55 gallon for $55. There is a thread on AC where member did it and it looked pretty good. I did it to salvage glass lids for my 210 tank, you just have to take your time removing the plastic framing using a hot knife.

 

[Ace25]

Your a much braver person than I am. I picked up a 29G at the sale and there is no way I would remove the rim on that type of tank. Too tall, to thin of glass, and the rim does offer support. On true rimless tanks the glass is much thicker than a standard 29G glass. Maybe a 20G long you could get away with that since it is a short tank, but not on tall 20/29G tanks.

I can only recall 2 AC members in the SW area that removed the rim, one was Got2Envy and I believe hers was a 10G tank, and Scooternerd on his biocube, both of those I think are acceptable tanks if you wanted to remove the rim.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

The framing that Aqueon tanks use is for the mass production process that acts like a jig to hold the panels in place while silicone is applied. Even so a hot knife makes removal fast and the placement of an overlapping glass center brace or end braces is allot less work then starting from scratch, not to mention allot cheaper. But I highly doubt you'll need bracing on a 29 gallon. If you do decide to build your own the experience if you never built a tank, will be worth the learning experience.