Suggestions for Custom-Built Aquarium

[Raswan]

We've got a red-eared slider who deserves to live like a king after spending the first few years with us in a 40 gallon fish aquarium.

I'd like to put him in a corner aquarium with plenty of depth and breadth. 100 gallons would be nice, with or without stand. 75G minimum, I'm thinking. So, two options:

1. Tips for sites that offer a wide variety of quality aquariums at a decent price?

2. Build one myself. Anyone have experience with how easy this would be to put together? I know you can get plexiglass cut to custom dimensions for not that much. Two other alternatives would be to mod either one of those livestock watering troughs or a large barrel drum. In order for him to have external stimulation, of course, it would still require a wide-angle window to be cut and fitted with plexiglass or something, but structurally I'd worry less about this than fitting my own together from scratch. Anyone know of a decent modders site for this kind of thing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[paperfist]

Have you looked at used ones? People just about give those away.

I know glass shops used to build them or at least knew who to call locally.

I've only built plywood tanks, but i don't think that's what you are looking for.

 

[MongGrel]

Have you looked at used ones? People just about give those away.

I know glass shops used to build them or at least knew who to call locally.

I've only built plywood tanks, but i don't think that's what you are looking for.

I'd even forgotten about Plywood tanks, that is old school, used to know a few people had those.

I'd personally still go with a glass tank over plexi anyday, used to even pick up busted ones here and there and reseal them myself. It's not that hard to do with silicon tubes and a calk gun.

Picking up just used ones would be cheapest route. Glass clean up pretty easy and even if you do need to reseal it is just a matter of cutting the joints out with a razor blade and running a bead again.

You could probably pick up a used 110 for not a bad price if you looked around.

 

[Raswan]

Yeah, used is not a bad idea, and I've spent considerable time looking for something. Problem is I'm not in an area where there's any real chance of a selection to choose from, and the nearest large city is 3 hours. The reality is that I've been on the hunt for about a year now, and if I haven't found it by now I'm not likely to in this area in the future.

Calling the local college today though to see if the biology department has one they'd be willing to part with.