Stingray addict w/o hope must build bigger
- Thread starter DIDYSIS
- Start date
Biggest thing is I don't trust liners. This is in my house in the basement and I want everything to be super strong and puncture proof as much as possible. Rays is the whole name of my game with this pond, and breeding them which get them going crazy and stabbing everything means that a liner can be an issue really fast. I just don't want to ever have that as an issue with everything. Its not easy or fun to think about having a liner leak and then need to move all and reinstall. So a fiberglass setup should be the strongest and best long term. Even thinking about my other tanks I want this pond to be a setup that if all else fails it will still stand and I can keep everyone in it if needed.
Moving all my rays and keeping them in the risky pool has been ok but nothing that I really like. I feel a liner will be similar.
Moving all my rays and keeping them in the risky pool has been ok but nothing that I really like. I feel a liner will be similar.
Im rather lucky my wife is willing and enjoys the fish. If it wasn't that way this would never be possible at all.
Awesome build! Wish my wife would approve of a epic build
Well been working hard on the pond and got all the first layers of glass and mat done and now adding some extra resin on top just to make sure I have a really good thick layer.
The process rather simple. You want to cut all your mat first and get it all fitted then get ready to go fast as the resin won't stay liquid forever. Also mix smaller amounts to start and then go more if you can or want. I mixed up half a gallon mostly. Was an easy amount to work with.
To start you roll or brush on some resin where your going to place your mat, overlap by at least 3 inches just to give you space to work with and the mat plenty to soak up on the edges. Then after you lay down your mat where you want it you start going over the mat with more resin to saturate it. It's rather easy to tell when it's saturated as it will not show any white spots. Some white spots can be air pockets but your going to deal with those a little later. Once you get it all flat and layed out with resin you want to get a roller to roll out any bubbles. Be careful to not apply to much pressure when you roll to tear or push/pull the mat. You get the hang of it. Doing the seams first is definitely a good practive run. You can also tell after it drys if you got enough resin on if you see more white spots. You can go back over it and add more. At some point you will add more resin to really smooth everything out. So far I found out that you definitely want to get a good amount of resin on it all to really keep it good.
I'm going over it all with a few more layers to coat it all really really well.
After looking at the wood and how much I like the look I'm also going to use the extra resin I have to coat the front of the pond for a really nice look. The resin over the wood makes for a nice clean bright finish.
Also I have been thinking and trying to decide what I want to do about another brace across the pond and have decided I want to see if it's needed at all. I'm going to let it be just as is and if I see bowing then I'll do something to brace it better but if the deflection on the front is minimal I would love to have no brace across it. We will see. If I did it over again I would have just don't another brace like I did on the right side but it's after the fact. I don't want to just throw a 2x4 across or a 4x4. That would stick up a lot and also make it harder to put a cover over it. Only reason I'm thinking about a cover is for heat loss and humidity. If it's not to bad I'll keep it open and really enjoy it but it's not going to be needed 100 percent as I have a window to enjoy them and can feed easy still with a hole in the top.
Progress is being made and happening. Hope that it will be wet and full soon. Have to give dry time for everything that is making time slow but it's not to bad. The window drying and epoxy resin dry time will be the longest still.
Thanks for coming to check out the update and hope to get it going soon.
The process rather simple. You want to cut all your mat first and get it all fitted then get ready to go fast as the resin won't stay liquid forever. Also mix smaller amounts to start and then go more if you can or want. I mixed up half a gallon mostly. Was an easy amount to work with.
To start you roll or brush on some resin where your going to place your mat, overlap by at least 3 inches just to give you space to work with and the mat plenty to soak up on the edges. Then after you lay down your mat where you want it you start going over the mat with more resin to saturate it. It's rather easy to tell when it's saturated as it will not show any white spots. Some white spots can be air pockets but your going to deal with those a little later. Once you get it all flat and layed out with resin you want to get a roller to roll out any bubbles. Be careful to not apply to much pressure when you roll to tear or push/pull the mat. You get the hang of it. Doing the seams first is definitely a good practive run. You can also tell after it drys if you got enough resin on if you see more white spots. You can go back over it and add more. At some point you will add more resin to really smooth everything out. So far I found out that you definitely want to get a good amount of resin on it all to really keep it good.
I'm going over it all with a few more layers to coat it all really really well.
After looking at the wood and how much I like the look I'm also going to use the extra resin I have to coat the front of the pond for a really nice look. The resin over the wood makes for a nice clean bright finish.
Also I have been thinking and trying to decide what I want to do about another brace across the pond and have decided I want to see if it's needed at all. I'm going to let it be just as is and if I see bowing then I'll do something to brace it better but if the deflection on the front is minimal I would love to have no brace across it. We will see. If I did it over again I would have just don't another brace like I did on the right side but it's after the fact. I don't want to just throw a 2x4 across or a 4x4. That would stick up a lot and also make it harder to put a cover over it. Only reason I'm thinking about a cover is for heat loss and humidity. If it's not to bad I'll keep it open and really enjoy it but it's not going to be needed 100 percent as I have a window to enjoy them and can feed easy still with a hole in the top.
Progress is being made and happening. Hope that it will be wet and full soon. Have to give dry time for everything that is making time slow but it's not to bad. The window drying and epoxy resin dry time will be the longest still.
Thanks for coming to check out the update and hope to get it going soon.
