Is safety glass needed for fish tanks?

[FishBen]

Thinking about getting a tank made and wondering if it needs to be made of safety glass?

Cheers!

[Ira]

Thinking about getting a tank made and wondering if it needs to be made of safety glass?

Cheers!

They are rarely made of safety glass. You can't cut it to make the tank with so it would have to be specially made in the size you want. Some commercially mass produced tanks are because they have the volume to get the glass made rather than just expensive one off runs.

[Barrie]

I am a total supporter of safety glass (Toughened not laminated)

The problem with using it in tanks is that when they break, the whole panel of glass breaks like an old fashioned windscreen, into thousands of small pieces.

What can make it break? When the glass is toughened, the heating and cooling process (tempering) shrinks the outside surfaces making the inner part of the glass under presure and creating tensile strength through the process.

When the glass is scratched (not a surface buff but a scratch you can feel as a grove with you finger nail) it gives a point that the presurised inner part of the glass can escape which in turn means that at any stage in the future the glass can give way. It may never happen but can.

If you have been to the National Aquarium in Napier, the glass there is all annealed (standard glass). It is 35mm thick and something of beauty in its self. I have a piece that was given to me by a good friend and I have it mounted like a trophy in my factory as an interest point.

Simple answer is that I would not use safety glass but would make sure that I used the minimum thickness as exactly that, a minimum

[FishBen]

Thanks a lot for the replies