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Acrylic tank project (1 Viewer)

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GWSS

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HI All

My son really wants to have a mantis shrimp in his tank a peacock one , now with that said I want it to be safe so we were thinking acrylic, we asked around and got sticker shocked , we got hit with prices ranging from 5 to 15K for a tank that was to be mantis safe....

So we are thinking of making it a project, as in building it ourselves....anyone got advice for us? we kind of want to build something around 120 to 250 gallons (a mantis alone would be boring) so we can house other 'mantis safe' animals (if there are any)

Any advice as to providers , or vids are greatly appreciated, we will be at moody gardens for the tour regardless and will ask around there too....

thanks
Glenn and Chris
 

Scoto

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So it seems to me like way over kill to get a 100G+ tank just for a mantis shrimp. Have you thought about two tanks? 1 specialized for the shrimp (like 30G or so) and 1 for everything else if you want both? It'll save you a tonne of money on the big one cause you won't need it to be shrimp safe any more.
 

Cody

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HI All

My son really wants to have a mantis shrimp in his tank a peacock one , now with that said I want it to be safe so we were thinking acrylic, we asked around and got sticker shocked , we got hit with prices ranging from 5 to 15K for a tank that was to be mantis safe....

So we are thinking of making it a project, as in building it ourselves....anyone got advice for us? we kind of want to build something around 120 to 250 gallons (a mantis alone would be boring) so we can house other 'mantis safe' animals (if there are any)

Any advice as to providers , or vids are greatly appreciated, we will be at moody gardens for the tour regardless and will ask around there too....

thanks
Glenn and Chris
Having worked with acrylic for years, I can tell you that a project of the size you’re mentioning should be left to a professional. Building acrylic containers is much more complex then glass, and it requires very specific tools to mill the acrylic. There’s a large learning curve with it. Having said that, if you wanted to learn on something the size of say 10 gallons then that would be a good learning project. Anything more than that and you should just save yourself a few steps and put the 100 gallons directly on your floor, because that’s where it will end up.
 

RR-MAN

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You can keep a mantis in a glass tank - I had a mantis in a sump which was only 3/8" thick glass. The chances are very very slim that the mantis breaks the glass.
 

soymilk

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i'd rather keep a mantis in a relatively smaller tank than a big one. Minimize the damage if it does break.
 
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