523 gallon plywood build (pic heavy)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
new2natives said:
hey scott i just caught this thread when u added the link on cafe (im not too active on mfk lately :-/ )

looking great man, like klee said i will have to see this for sure!
as soon as i buy a house, i plan on building something crazy ;) or rather maybe have klee build me something crazy hahaha

anyhow congrats!!!
mind saying a ballpark price for just the tank?


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Just send me a PM on here or cafe if you ever wanna come check it out in person :)

As for price...hrmmm... honestly I didnt keep a runnign total because I kinda didn't want to know lol! But I'll try to do it from memory the best I can.

2x4's about $20
2x6's about $30
screws probably $20
plywood screwed up one peice so I had to buy another so $45 more than it should have been...about $150
Max acr epoxy and colorant $140
Fiberglass corner cloth and epoxy mixing supplies $30
Dry-loc $25
6x3x 1" acrylic sheet, found a great deal used for $400
Dow 795 10 tubes $60
plumbing roughly $100
Bulkheads $30
Sterilite tower for filter (already had one from previous tank)$30
Bag of packing peanuts for filters $10
Lifegard mech filter $40
Pumps I already owned

roughly $1085? I probably missed something but that's gotta be really close!
 
Still looking for anyone's input on how long you allowed the silicone to cure before test filling, as well as if you would use a center brace on a 6ft tank reinforced like this one. Any input is greatly appreciated!
 
I would always use a center brace, even if it's just a removable one like a clamp. The reason being glass safety factors are calculated on bowing, the center of your viewing window is thus the focal point of all of the outward pressure from the water. Glass does bend but only so much, if you glass bows just a little and gets struck it could be enough to fracture it. A center brace helps to eliminate bowing and thus makes your glass much more stable.

As for the silicone, I have not used that exact type. I know most silicones cure within 48 hours and don't develop a full bond for another week after that. Kinda like car paint, it's dry and workable after a day or so and baking (putting it in a heated chamber to speed up the process) but the paint doesn't finalize it's bond to the surface/primer for quite awhile after that. I know this because I didn't wait long enough after painting my boat and the paint peeled off in many places. (was just a 12 foot dingy) IMO the dry time you are looking at sounds like full bond not cure time. If it's odorless and solid it's probably good to use.. I filled my tank after a 24 hour cure.
 
Thanks Rivermud, that's ppretty much what I was thinking on the center brace but I guess I needed someone else to say it :) As for the cure times I'm torn between test filling it in 14 days, or waiting out the 21 day mark for full "adhesion". Timing kinda sucks as there is a local fish auction on the 28th and I would love to have this thing full of water by then, but at the same time rushing it would be stupid....so I'm just beating myself up over when to do the test fill if that even makes any sense!
 
stempy said:
Thanks Rivermud, that's ppretty much what I was thinking on the center brace but I guess I needed someone else to say it :) As for the cure times I'm torn between test filling it in 14 days, or waiting out the 21 day mark for full "adhesion". Timing kinda sucks as there is a local fish auction on the 28th and I would love to have this thing full of water by then, but at the same time rushing it would be stupid....so I'm just beating myself up over when to do the test fill if that even makes any sense!
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I feel your pain. The one thing to remember when doing diy is to have patience and let time be your friend. Rushing only leads to mistakes which lead to catastrophic failure. There are other things you can be doing while waiting. I made fossil rocks once with cement and cement pigment. I made a sand bed and made the indent (lack of a better descriptive word atm) in the sand for the "rock". I used wet sand to help it hold it's shape.. i also used very very very fine sand because i didn't want the granules messing with the look of the finished product. then i chose my fossil.. i used a lot of shells and some dried up carp carcasses (see bones) I sprayed them with non stick cooking spray then placed them in the sand bed where I was going to pour the mold. Quick note here.. if you use fish bones or any other 3 object you must press them down into the sand so that there is no gap for the cement to fill in.. otherwise you end up with encased bones. once that was done i mixed and poured the concrete and waited a day.. the results were awesome.. sadly no pics because my fiance and i split at that time and i lost pretty much everything. Plan to do it again soon though.
 
Sounds like an awesome project, pics woulda be nice! I actually had planned on doing a 3d rock background since I'm going back with african cichlids in this tank, but I know at some point in time (probably a few years) I want to give stingrays a go so the rock background just wouldn't look right so I have decided to just leave it black. I probably have 3-400 lbs of lace rock to make a nice aquascape anyway :)
 
Worst part of this whole build is the suspense waiting to test fill.......will it leak or won't it........I think I may go for a 3d rock background just to give me something to do in the meantime since the weather is making going outside and enjoying life impossible atm:irked: http://forum.columbusfishclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5464 I made this one last year in a 75 gallon I had using quickcrete and crappy stryofoam. May try using the pink stryofoam and drylock this time maybe it'll be a little easier :D
 
looks like you did a good job mimmicking rocks with your other one. can't wait to see how the new one turns out.
 
agreed!
i cant wait to see your background!!!

youll have to post a diy thread detailing everything ... im very interested in doing this myself (or having someone do it for me lol!)


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Thats gonna be one BIG background lol!
 
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