The fiberglass mat its self is 2 layers. Then more resin on top. The walls are probably a little over an 1/8 think and the floor close to 1/2" thick.
10x4x3 900 gallon plywood build w/ pics
- Thread starter dscort
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cool, thanks for the info
yea , If I do fiberglass I will probably do matt instead of the cloth , I like the idea of it being thicker lol
I always read that fiberglass matt wont work with epoxy resins, but on fiberglassite.com their mat will work with epoxy resin as well as polyester resin.
yea , If I do fiberglass I will probably do matt instead of the cloth , I like the idea of it being thicker lol
I always read that fiberglass matt wont work with epoxy resins, but on fiberglassite.com their mat will work with epoxy resin as well as polyester resin.
Did you sand in-between coats of resin and matting? Or just go right over top , I'm a body man by trade as well and you would usually sand in-between coats so it would stick to it self ? Or did you just keep going wet on wet ?
I did all the fiberglass epoxy wet on wet. Cant remember the amount if time it took to kick inbetween coats but it was bad enough sanding the last coat. I sanded w 80 on the da. It killed one whole day just to lay the fiberglass. The fairing compound i mixed to fill the screw holes sanded worse than duraglass. Supposed to be easy sanding but not the case.
Ya I fiugered its best wet on wet or that's lots of sanding in between coats , so u just sanded the last coat for adhesion for the top coat of paint / sweet water ? I'm trying to read as many builds as possible before I build mine and what I'm seeing is in the end epoxy and fibergalss resin and matting / tape always seals best , guys who had issues leaking resort to this in the end any way ! I'm planning a 16 long , 4 wide 3 tall 2x4 stacked construction with 2 vewing glass 1 inch thick , sealed like you and the 1700 gallon shark tank I like hearing that it filled up no leaks first shot , and its still running , im a body man of 15 years plus so I'm not worried about the sealing process , but I just like to read all the builds and get the facts before I start ! Thanks for the replies man !
I had a couple of saggers in the back wall that needed smoothed out but ya i sanded the last coat of resin for adhesion of the sweetwater. 2 different colors so i knew all was covered. Sweetwater isnt very thick but it seems pretty durable. I dont have any sharp rocks in the tank to scratch the walls and im always careful when cleaning.
Sounds like you have an awesome tank in the works..
Sounds like you have an awesome tank in the works..
Just an update, the tank is still up and running. No major malfunctions. The time spent building was definitely worth the wait and work.
That is really cool! I love to see these things years later, how they hold up. So its 6 years old?
Yep 6 and a half years later still up and running. Still have the 3 gar and the bowfin, others have come and gone and been eaten.
