I am starting to plan a fiberglass tank to be built this winter and was wondering if anbody has built a mold and used gelcoat for the inside of the tank? And then built up the fiberglass with wooden supports. I dont know if the gel coat is fish safe but it would make a nice finish.
Gel coat???
- Thread starter cjohll
- Start date
Hi I had a fibre glass tank a few years ago and my friend still has his, the gel coat is fine aslong as it dosnt crack!!! my friend's has been fine for the past 4 year's but mine only lasted about 14 month's and the gel coat formed a crack and the water got undeneath and the stynene started poisoning the water which killed 2 Leo's. But like I said my mate's has been fine and we built all the pond's in his shop and they are fine.
Kev
Kev
I never had a problem with mine but the box has to be rock solid or like Kevaldo said it will crack. Mine were heavily framed and could be set on a corner without flexing.
watch your temps if your glassing in the winter
Dr Joe
.
watch your temps if your glassing in the winter
Dr Joe
.
errr. I doubt the styrene killed the fish, unless you didn't mix it properly. Gelcoat is polyester resin with some solid fillers and UV stabilizers.
To answer the question at hand - the gelcoat will be fine for fish, but you are talking about a TON of work to build a mold and then build the tank around that. It sounds relatively easy, but trust me, it will take you a lot of time, and consume a disgusting amount of material. Of course, this depends on the size of tank we're talking about. if it's a 20gal, not so bad... 100+ and you're talkin about a serious undertaking.
To answer the question at hand - the gelcoat will be fine for fish, but you are talking about a TON of work to build a mold and then build the tank around that. It sounds relatively easy, but trust me, it will take you a lot of time, and consume a disgusting amount of material. Of course, this depends on the size of tank we're talking about. if it's a 20gal, not so bad... 100+ and you're talkin about a serious undertaking.