plywood paludarium

My sister is graduating high school this year and has been wanting a nice large paludarium. SHe has a 30 gallon tank now with a few piddly fish here and there. Her boyfriend is also into fish and they have been researching plywood tanks aswell. I thought i would beat them to the punch and the money they are saving to build the tank they can then use to buy fish for it. Ive been dropping hints that they should look into some anableeps. you know four eyed fish. I had them when i was younger in a 130 gallon tank and love them really neat fish. My sister is interested in them and so im going to build this tank with them in mind more or less.

SO first let me start by apologising for my poor spelling and punctuation. dislexia and digraphia add up to if you dont like my writing dont read and or offer to correct it for me lol. also im prone to rambling but i digress.

have glass. 1/4inch 46 x 42 1/2 inch. will work fine as my water doesnt need to be deep .
bought plywood 2 sheets 34 inch plywood. cut into 2 48"x48" pieces 2 - 22 1/2" x 48" and the 24" x 48" top piece as well with a little left over. as i already had some 3/4 inch plywood on hand im using for the bottom piece.

water will be 15 inches deep and i will make a contoured fiberglass planter/ shore on the back of the tank. it should be around 75 gallons of actual water when im all said and done.

okay onto the pictures.


got my filter box planning on only using two drawers though. due to space constraints. will make first drawere mechanical filter so sponge. second drawer will be full of either scrubbies or army men as my bio matter. my mom had a big salt water aquarium running army men for bio matter so im kind of leaning that way. plus its cool to say youve got a whole army keeping your tank clean.

got my plywood frame starting to go up you dont really apreciatethe size of a 4'x2' aquarium until its in this kind of shape. my wife walked up and thought it looked a little big. She says its too big for a small room but i say a the room is too small for it.
am taking into consideration height though. shooting for a 24inch high stand. because im thinking ill wind up with another six inches of height on top for lights. making a six and a half foot height over all. my sister is 5'6" so shell be on a regular step ladder to reach in not a real ladder lol.

found some great bulkheads at the local hardware store. 5 dollars a piece. have 3/4 threads inside and about an inch and a half overall diameter. and best yet when tightened through the plywood will have three threads showing on back side of nut. they had them in larger sizes too but im thinking to run 1 inch pvc for my overflow so these are perfect.
once i got the box finished except for the front panel i got ready to cut out my land frame the idea is to create a nice structure to stretch my fabric and then fiberglass. similair to how you make a subwoofer box. i debated for a while on draping it with carpet instead for the added streingth once glassed but decided for this small a thing it will eb fine with regular glassing of about four layers. subwoofer boxes ive made like that are strong enough for my 230 pounds to jump on them. so to hold back 100 gallons or less of water should be good to go.

well thats as far as i got today. still need to put the actual glass mat down will do that tomorrow.

things still up in the air are pump size. im thinking 350gph or so so i can turn my water four times an hour. im still looking for the marine epoxy. ive found some of the oounter and bathtub refinish epoxies some have used but im wanting to stick to tried and true. living in a small town though has its downsides. will probably epoxy the whole box but considered only epoxying abotu 6inches abover the waterline then some other finish for the rest. but since the whole thing will eb very humid i guess its best to just cover everything with the epoxy. im also considering adding two more shelves or planters up higher on the walls aswell. and the plan right now is water to return via small waterfall on back right corner. water will drain through stand pipe in front left corner just out of sight of front glass. havent cut the front panel yet as im sort of undecided how much overlap of the glass there should be.
i was thinking of a 3inch overlap on all side but the top and having 2 inches up there any thoughts???

anyway am very open to input on anything im doing.

got some more done today.glass dried good and hard. though it needs about two more coats to be solid.
cut the front window frame out. left 2 inches of wood glass overlap on top and bottom edges and 3 inches on each side edge. may bias this later to a one inch overlap on top and 3 on the bottom since all the water is down there.

if your wondering just how good a grip you get into the edge of plywood like i was well as you can see its pretty good as i twisted off about three screws all together and didnt strip out any holes.

laid some chop mat in the corners and glassed it in.

also got to dry fit my bulkheads. this is only finger tight so when i get ready to tighten it upp its going to be perfect.

and heres what it looked like at end of the day.

went by ace hardware today and they had an abundance of different coatings but none exactly like i wanted. drylok was there. kool seal, pool paint, al elastomeric coating of pure rubber looked great at first but then said not for use on basements or anywhere with presuure applied to it. they also only had one quart of epoxy. it was for tubs and only one part so i passed. will be looking at homedepot this weekend.

spent some other time today down in my creek looking for wood and roots for decorations. found some great ones and will post pics tomorrow. also planning a sand substrate anyway so will eb getting coarse sand fromt eh creek then boiling and baking to prepr it for this tank. i loosely fitted the top brace but decided i better not put it on until i install the glass as it will eb tricky to fit the glass in then. also going to do soem bondo work on the outside of the tank to smooth things up.
debating on finishes for outside. i wanted to do some rustoleum hammered in grey or brown. but my wife nixed it so open to ideas. i alos like the black lacquer look.

the list for tomorrow includes stand building, sanding, priming exterior, filter modifications, possibly more glassing but i have to go pick up more resin.

also thinking about giving the whole interior a cote of thinned bondo and resin lik i do on the outside of subwoofer boxes gives mor rigidity and smoother apperance but im not totally decided. anyone think epoxy will resist bonding to bondo? i wouldnt think so since bondo is fairly porous and made to be painted over.

Rivermud said:

Stay away from the epoxy for tubs. I built a "test tank" to document new ideas and products for the diy section. I tried XIM Tile Doc, a true waste of money. I found that sherwin williams carried a lot of different epoxies that would work and one that was pure awesome. It's called Macropoxy 646 2 Part Fast Cure Epoxy. It can be dyed to your specifications. my tank has been running for 3 years now, it has been a fully planted tank for 1 year and is now dedicated to an aquaponics setup with some central americans. I could have made a much much much larger tank with the product I got but alas mine was only 100 gallons. The epoxy is meant for saltwater metal protection.. I will use this again on my next project.

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good to know. i guess ill have to run into austin or the like to get some from a sherwin williams. no such luck in my hometown.

Rivermud said:

if they tell you that dyeing it a dark color is not advised, don't worry about it. The reason dark dyes aren't used in potable water sources is that the dark dyes can leech. For potable water according to the sherwin williams guy they have to use a pastel type of color.. no idea why but thats what they told me.. I would go for a dark color to better blend in with the paludarium. something like a blue brown or black.. even a dark rust might look ok

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yeah i was discussing that with a buddy as far as color choice. im wanting sort of a sandstone or mud color. as ive got some nice roots i cut out of the creek today that once i soak and bake them will make a real nic feature of the tank and with a mud colored background should be nice.

patrickjohnsgarcia said:

nice build!

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thanks