523 gallon plywood build (pic heavy)

[stempy]

Ok, so I finally decided to post my build (in progress) so that I can get some insight from all you professionals for the last stages of the build! It's been about 6 months in the making after doing nothing but reading all these amazing builds on MFK. For sharing all your knowledge I thank you all, because without that knowledge there is no chance I would ever attempt to build my own tank, I would have just settled for a 180g glass/acrylic tank and been happy but how much fun would that be, right?! So due to the layout of my basement and the way my wife wanted it finished I ended up with a space of just 6ft in length to build the tank in-wall. Final dimensions are 6x4x3 with a 72'x35"x1" acrylic viewing window. The crazy thing about this whole thing is I have 0 literally 0 skills in any form of craftsmanship, I have never made anything and here I am about to finish my basement and build a tank out of wood! The worst part was with the basement, hanging drywall and doing electrical work is NO JOKE!!!! Hated every second of it. Anyway on to the build

I started with the tank frame following Gator's build http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?181445-600-Gallon-Plywood-and-glass

laying down a base of 2x6's


then building up the base of the stand using more 2x6's spaced about every 12" and putting 2 layers of 2x6's on top staggered so they overlapped in the corners.


after that I built the base up with 2x6's standing on edge spaced about every 8" apart for added strength.



from there it was time to build the frame of the tank using 2x4's. I used 3 at each corner for strength and for a solid base on each side to attach the plywood to and 2 stagered layers on top.


At this point I painted the whole frame in Drylock to help protect it against water splashing out because we all know how careful we are about not getting water everywhere!


And here is where it stops as my wife made me finish the basement next..... so here's some pics of that then back to 'the build'.






So after finishing the basement I got the walls in the tank and that is now where I stand.


From here I'm not REAL sure how to proceed, I asked in my other post but I'll ask in this thread again. I ordered some 6" seam fiberglass from us composites for all the corners, again I have no skills in working with any of this let alone fiberglass and I've read how hard that can be. So needless to say I'm a bit worried about working with big peices to cover the whole inside of the tank, should I glass the whole inside, how hard is it really to do?

Thanks for any help from this point on!

-Scott

 

[greenbud]

fiber glassing comes down to money and learning curve.
Money in that the better quality the cloth is the easyer your life is.
Learning curve. In that you have to get air bubles out and how much presure to use and how to angle the blades.

Practice on a few pices of scrap plywood screw together and learn how to seam.

 

[BigDaddyK]

I noticed your other post and you are asking for comments between the two products. I haven't used either but I know that VLDesigns is a supporter of the ACR material. When I built my tank I Glassed only the seams but if you have the $$$$ the whole tank can't hurt... I'd do the seems first then the main tank so that your edges of the main tank are on top of the seams. that way you have two layers of protection leading into the seams.

 

[Tor-Eriik]

When fiberglassing you should do what i did in the seams, il lay a picture with! I think its name is fillet`s. Its made of epoxy and something you mix inn with it. I just took some hard plastic, cut out a 3cm round sheat, glued a stick to it, and then had the perfect shape for making the corners nice and even.

 

[aislin]

This is looking good ,iam going to follow this tread.

 

[stempy]

When fiberglassing you should do what i did in the seams, il lay a picture with! I think its name is fillet`s. Its made of epoxy and something you mix inn with it. I just took some hard plastic, cut out a 3cm round sheat, glued a stick to it, and then had the perfect shape for making the corners nice and even.

So it looks like you put the fiberglass down first, then put the nice bead of epoxy on top of the glass? I won't have my fiberglass in till next thursday so I got plenty of time to make sure I got the correct way of getting the seams water tight.

 

[stempy]

This is looking good ,iam going to follow this tread.

Thank you aislin, I am mainly proud of the basement seeing as how I have never built anything before and to take a project like this on all by myself was really satisfying. Hell I don't even have proper tools, I used a table saw, an angle, a tapemeasure, a hammer and cordless drill to do all this.

 

[aislin]

It looks very professional.
The room on the pictures looks very nice, the window with a sea view I really like, and the colors in the room.
Keep us informed.

 

[GBHammbone]

Its probably a little early, but what are you planning to stock for fish?

 

[stempy]

at this point my plans are rays, a couple arawanas, and some discus. My wife wants an mbu puffer as well but I'm not real sure about that one. But it's all up in the air still, I have even contemplated making it an african cichlid tank.