18' x 9' x 3.5' catfish tank build in progress.....

[nolapete]

Silicone and plastic are a bad combination. NONE truly bond to it. The closest thing to plastic in our eyes is usually considered glass, but the molecular structure of glass is completely different than plastic. This is why it bonds to one and not the other.

I was thinking the same thing with the use of the closet flange. You'd have to get some 1/4" rubber to make a gasket with otherwise it wouldn't seat properly. I'd make the hole extremely tight then lube it with some silicone grease to slide the closet flange in from the inside of the tank.

The only thing I haven't been able to resolve is a threaded fitting on the outside to be able to secure it. The rest after that is easy pvc plumbing.

 

[necrocanis]

What about a closet flange for a "bulkhead"

And as for adding all the 2X on the front of the thing. My vote is no.

The teeth on a pacu is why I mentioned it... How big was the one you did?

Thanks for the vote and the pacu was about 1' long, and I still have the skull. i prepared it nearly 10 years ago. After skim coating the whole front of the tank with some wood putty and sanding down part of it this weekend I'm gonna go with not putting any trim on this thing. That $100 can go towards the heater I'm getting. I'll look into closet flanges. Not sure though. Wouldn't I have to screw it down? It would be submerged and not sure how well the screws would hold up underwater.

WRT your bulkhead issue, I don't know. I'm very wary of gluing bulkheads now, as I had a siliconed one start leaking behind my plywood tank after about 6 months submerged. If you used a plastic friendly silicone instead of the silicone I crap it might be OK though. Any of the plastic friendly DOW silicones would probably work for bonding a bulkhead in. If you're going to use the AMES stuff though you might want to do some tests before you try to stick anything to it inside your tank tho

That's what I'm thinking too. I'll definitely have to do a test. Apparently when I called their service team they told me that you can order it directly through Ace hardware. I've contacted my local ace and they gave me a price of 159.97 for 5 gals. So to get the 10 gals I was planning it would be about $319.94 which saves me a lot on shipping! I was told that it's used for ponds, and cisterns. Does stick to pvc, and acrylic panes, silicone however will not stick to it.

Silicone and plastic are a bad combination. NONE truly bond to it. The closest thing to plastic in our eyes is usually considered glass, but the molecular structure of glass is completely different than plastic. This is why it bonds to one and not the other.

I was thinking the same thing with the use of the closet flange. You'd have to get some 1/4" rubber to make a gasket with otherwise it wouldn't seat properly. I'd make the hole extremely tight then lube it with some silicone grease to slide the closet flange in from the inside of the tank.

The only thing I haven't been able to resolve is a threaded fitting on the outside to be able to secure it. The rest after that is easy pvc plumbing.

I see what you are talking about. Basically instead of screwing it down like a normal flange you'd have to modify it to be a bulkhead with a nut on the outside? Hmm, I think I can come up with something from that! Thanks guys!


Here's a pic of my RTC x Marble hybrid when I first got it 1.5 years ago, and the other day!

 

[necrocanis]

Here's what I worked on today. I skim coated the front of the tank with wood putty. I also sanded after it dried for about 2 hrs. I also test stained two areas, and then sanded them back to bare wood. here's the pics which stain do you guys think will look nice against a blue interior?

 

[cnoel08]

ohhh that top stain looks pretty sexy!

 

[ITHURTZ]

i like the bottom stain.

 

[nitrofish1]

personally, i like the reddish colored stain in the one second from the bottom. good thing its taking shape!

 

[I<3fish]

Bottom stain will contrast better with the blue- Go for it!

 

[cvermeulen]

I like the bottom stain, but I'm suspicious... are they the same stain with different levels of color correction?

What wood putty are you using for a skim coat? I was gonna use bondo to fill all the screw holes in my 600 build, but I'm almost out. If wood putty is cheaper or works better, I might go that way.

Looking damn good btw. Every time I get a full tank shot I think holy ass that thing is huge!!

About the bulkheads... since Ames says the rubber stuff sticks to PVC, you could epoxy the bulkheads into place and then just seal over them. You could also ask them if they have a thickened version of the Blue Max to use for filling gaps and gluing stuff in place. What better to seal the bulkheads to blue max than more blue max?

 

[fenton06]

I would go with the second stain

 

[tcarswell]

Top stain all the way and thanks for the updates glad to see things are smoothing out and your getting time to work on the tank.