260 gallon Plywood

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H

HFRCampbell

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2008
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okay ive being planning this out over the last few months, but i really need help on a few things.
A. What plywood could i use? i mean would osb work? or do i have to use a exterior grade plywood?
B. Epoxy? Resin? what? I planned to make the tank then staple a meduim thickness fabric to it then epoxing or resening the fabric. would this work?
C. The glass 1/2 or 3/8?
D. How can i do a diy filter that will be cheap and effective.
Oh yea the dimensions are 6 ft long 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

So what do you think? oh yea if you guys could help me find the price this will cost i was thinking about 250-300 is this accurate?
 
HFRCampbell;2224477; said:
okay ive being planning this out over the last few months, but i really need help on a few things.
A. What plywood could i use? i mean would osb work? or do i have to use a exterior grade plywood?
I'd stay away from OSB as long as you use a good sealant then regular plywood will be ok. At least 1/2".
B. Epoxy? Resin? what? I planned to make the tank then staple a meduim thickness fabric to it then epoxing or resening the fabric. would this work?
I used Sweetwater Epoxy with no fabric. as long as you have nice tight seams and you brace and support the plywood well you shouldnt need fabric. IMO its just an extra more costly step.
C. The glass 1/2 or 3/8?
3/8" should work but 1/2" shouldn't cost that much more. In this case better safe than sorry.
D. How can i do a diy filter that will be cheap and effective.
do a search in the DIY section there are tons of examples.
Oh yea the dimensions are 6 ft long 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

So what do you think? oh yea if you guys could help me find the price this will cost i was thinking about 250-300 is this accurate?
Click to expand...

Hope this helps But the 250-300 price range is to low. you'll probably spend that much Just in glass and a good pump for your filter.
 
okay thanks gator for all that info. So for the filter i was thinking this getting a 50 gallon trash can with a lid then cutting a hole in the lid and in the bottom w a pump conected to the bottom, then add three plastic plates with holes in them the top one contaning some filter floss, second containing bioballs, and the third contaning activated carbon. The pump im htinking of doing like a 500 gph pump so it filters pretty well. Also the pump will split into three ins to split the flow back into the tank up. Woud this filter be large enough?
 
500 gph seems a little to small, 3-4 times turnover minimum and thats mostly for the mech filtration a lot of people say 10x minimum but imo the most important part is making sure you have enough biological surface area in your filter for the bacteria to do a proper job. One thing I would do is ditch the carbon. You'll have to do more filter maintenance just for the carbon than you would for normal sump maintenance. Also to get the most out of the filter and to keep a lot of stuff from building up in dead spots on the bottom of the tank you might want to think about adding Under Gravel Jets (UGJ) to help keep waste suspended in the water to get sucked up in the filter. I planned out my tank and researched it for about 6 months and I still kept researching while I was building. Go to your local home improvement store and just start pricing things. Most important thing is to not rush your research, planning and definatly not the build!
 
okay so do you think i should drop the carbon and just have two layers with a whole lot of bioballs? So i should get a bigger pump? or would the 500 work? Wait or another option is a fluidized bed filter right? i mean they have huge filtering capabilities dont they?
 
FBF's - Yes but they lack the mechanical filtration. They are usually placed after Mech filters. Keep the 3 if you want and make 1 part mech and 2 parts bio so you can alternate cleaning of the bio of buildup. Go with at least 1000 gph Quiet one makes a good pump and it uses very low wattage. Check my sig I have the build process of my tank in there step by step.
 
Okay so heres my plan, have a siphon tube coming from the tank going down to a 30 gallon trash can hitting part 1 the filter floss, going to part 2 bioballs then out the bottom of the tank to a pump shooting it through the FSB then to three return tubes going back to the tank
 
Siphon tube? if the power fails the tank will drain to where ever the tube ends in the tank. You could also extend the tank on one side to house a built in sump that will drastically reduce the amount of plumbing needed and your pump can run much more efficiently. something like this:

aquariumwithbuiltinsump.jpg

view2sumparea.jpg


You can then place your UGJ in a way that lifts and directs the debris towards the end of the tank where the water flows into the filter. The water flows over your mech filtration then through the bio media and the pump instead of pumping the water up and over just pumps the water through a bulkhead in the partition and right to the outlet jets.
 
Seems like a lot of questions. I would encourage you to browse the forum a little more. There are plenty of options for plywood tank building. Find the one that you feel would be the most efficient and you would be most confident in and go with it.
 
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