MY 300+ GALLON BUILD

I'm going to start this thread off by thanking everyone for posting the tank builds. It is these that inspired me to try and build one. Now with that being said i'll start my build.
If i had to do it over i would not do it this way. i didn't want to post till it held water but thats taking longer than planned. i cheeped out were i shouldn't have (on the wood), it was free so i used 5/8 OSB that i then covered in fiberglass and resin, then used pond shield to make sure it was fish proof. I had never worked with resin befor this so there was some learning along the way like wood will eat up alot of resin, should of bought it by the gallon and saved money. i should of used a better resin then bondo like west system or another fish proof one and skipped the pond shiled. I'll get on with the build and show some more of my mistakes.
The tank external dimension is 96"L x 36H x 28 1/4W internal the tank is 84"L x 35 1/4H x 26W and the filter chamber is 9 1/4"L x 35 1/4 H x 27 W
Here is the wood i doubled up around the glass on the front and the bottom back edge. i decided To try and build a internal filter to help with heat loss and evaporation. that was a bad idea a little box 36" deep is hard to work in. lots of screws and wood glue, everything was per drilled and counter sunk

After i had it together i fiber glassed all the seams on the out side

I then started to work on the inside i filled the corners with wood put drywall tape over it then used bondo filler to smooth all the edges on the inside.

Here is another one of my mistakes i wanted handles on it to make it easy to move because i almost maxed it out on going threw doors but i wanted to be able to remove them so you didn't need to look at them. i also rent so nothing can be to permanent. So i took 2" long hex nuts doubled up the wood in the corners drill out holes and put them in with bondo filler, so i could put bolts in as handles. it was great for the first bit but the tank got heavier and after the glass i don't trust using them so wasted effort.

After alot of sanding i was ready to fiber glass the inside. i did all the seams as well as the back wall and bottom. the hardest part was my stupid corners and the lip for the glass to sit on. lots of air bubbles to get rid of on those 90s

Then i hit a dead end for 2 months. i order my Pond shield when this first started thinking 2 weeks, but NO it was over 2 months before i had the product. the supplier i ordered threw said they had it in stock on the web site but after i order they said they only had one kit in stock and i order two so started the waiting game. pond shield (pond armor) is not cheep in Canada its 60$ a kit state side and 120$ a kit up here, i tryed to order direct but they told me to go threw a Canadian distributer. All i have to say is i would not use this product again it was hard to work with.
Make sure all the air bubble are out of your fiberglass or they could pop under the pressure as i have seen on others builds
When i did get it we sanded everything with 60 grit then wiped with a damp rag and used a good auto body prep spray like was suggested in the instructions. we followed the instruction on thinning the product and quickly realized that if we were to do that i would have to order more. it says 1/4 cup per half can but to get the coverage and to do multiple coast we thinned it out to 1 cup per half almost by the end. the first coat the we applied properly had a lot of fish eye in the resin as the pics will show don't know if we did not prep it enough or what happened i just know after thinning there was a lot less.

After the second coat there was still a lot little pin holes to patch up so i let it dry then sanded and did spot work for a third coat. The tape shows the area of the holes. everything was coated in bondo resin first but i don't want that in contact with my tank water.

So lets see the stand is built out of 2x6's and some 2x4's all the cross supports are supported by part of a 2x6. two full 2x6's make up the bottom i wanted to give it a large foot print and some ply wood for the top