600g DIY plywood build

[DIFish]

Looks awesome!! Did you stay under budget?

Well I finally have the price of the tank by itself written up. Without counting everything else and just focusing on the tank, it came out to just under $800.
$160 for 4 sheets of plywood
$225 for 3 things of pond armor
$290 for the glass
$125 for screws, silicoln , glue and fiberglass. I will post more exact numbers after my build is completely finished, but yes I stayed under budget for my tank, and it cost me a little over $1.25 per gallon.

 

[Maximizer]

That's not bad at all. When do you plan to get it wet?

 

[DIFish]

That's not bad at all. When do you plan to get it wet?

Tomorrow I will be filling the tank with water. If no signs of leaks or stress are shown I will begin plumbing the filtration system.

 

[Maximizer]

Is it filled? How many coats of pond armor did you get on?

 

[DIFish]

Is it filled? How many coats of pond armor did you get on?

It has water in it and so far no leaks! I will post pictures when I am confident it will not bust when I walk out of the room. It is taking much longer than I thought to fill it all the way, but I will get there. As for pond armor, I did it in 3 steps but applied 5 coats total. 1 coat of the entire white can as my base, letting it sit over night and sanding it flat. Then I used half of a blue can for the seams with fiberglass, when this was tacky I put the other half of the can on. After this sat for a day I sanded the seams very well and applied 2 more coats from the last can back to back. If you look at my pictures you should be able to see what it looked like after each can of epoxy.

 

[Maximizer]

Sounds pretty solid. Ive been debating about building one but i don't know if i have a lot of confidence in one yet. Haven't really seen them run for a substantial amount of time.

 

[DIFish]

NO LEAKS!! The tank is full up to my overflow and not a single drop has crept out. Tested for bowing and there is not any that I can notice with a level, and I will be double checking later after it has set. Actually pretty excited right now, I really think this thing is solid and I won't have any problems. Crossing my fingers that I don't wake up tomorrow with 600gallons on my floor, but my confidence is growing by the minute.

 

[Maximizer]

Very nice. I hope it all works out and holds water.

 

[Maximizer]

Hope the tank is still holding water?! What are your filtration plans?

 

[DIFish]

Tank held fine over night, didn't find any leaks but I will be watching closely. I have 2 old 55 gallon tanks that I am going to use as a dual sump setup. I'm still trying to finalize my plans, but I will most likely end up using k1 kaldness as my bio media. I plan on starting the plumbing in a day or two once I know for certain there won't be any leaks.