600g DIY plywood build

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DIFish said:
I have been working on this build for a couple of months, and am now waiting for my silicone to cure on the tank, so i figured now would be a good time to post all my pictures as I will hopefully be busy filling this tank with water next week. Like I have said, I am still in the progress of building the tank so please be patient as it may be awhile till it is fish ready.
So, why a plywood tank you might ask? Well for starters plywood is cheap, while I will will post final prices later, my budget for the tank itself was $1000, while a similar glass tank would be well over $3000, if not considerably more. I also have limited space to work with as the tank would have to fit through my basement door, meaning that I couldn't possibly bring a large tank into my basement. But with plywood, I can assemble it all in my basement to whatever size I want. I have always wanted stingrays, and after some research, my final tank size will be 7ft by 4ft by 3ft tall, or just over 625 gallons. This will allow my rays ample floorspace to grow out and live in comfortably. I would like to have built a bigger tank, but I ran out of wall space as this tank will be set back in a wall. Here are some pictures of my build in progress, I will post more when I have time. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them.
For this first part of the build I used 4 3/4inch birch plywood sheets deck screws of various sizes and woodglue in between sheets. No other materials were used at this timeView attachment 1157200 View attachment 1157199View attachment 1157197 View attachment 1157196 View attachment 1157198
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Hey did u use one Sheat on 2 sheats on each other need advice thx
 
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Just a quick update on the tank, the build has come to a stand still for a bit while I workout some issues with the sumps. The main problem I am experiencing is that the K1 kaldness is floating much more than I thought it would, and trying to put all 2 cubic feet in the sump makes it float itself and overflow out of the sump. I also am not getting as much movement in the section as I need to make the media self clean. Otherwise everything is still going fine, the tank is holding water no problem and there are no major issues. IMG_3501.JPG
Here is a picture of the bag of K1 just for size reference, it was much bigger than I expected.



rke said:
Omg your background is awesome nice job. Wish I had your skills
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Thanks, but to be honest most of these things are fairly simple and can be done with just a little effort. Having the background 4 feet from the front of the glass also helps to hide all the flaws haha.
christopher shivdat said:
Hey did u use one Sheat on 2 sheats on each other need advice thx
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The tank is pretty much just a box of 3/4 inch plywood with bracing using the same plywood. So in some places it is the same thickness as 2 sheets, but the majority is only 1 sheet, including the entire bottom of the tank. If you have any questions feel free to send me a message and I will try to give more in depth build info.
 
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I was having the same issue in my sump, same as you I bought 2 cubic feet of K1 and put it all in the tank to simply watch it all float well above the water line. From digging around the net what I could find is that once it is cycled and starts to turn a shade of light light brown it will not float nearly as much and then you will be able to see the movement as well. I'm still in the process of cycling but I scaled way back on the amount so it would actually be in the water and have been slowly adding a big more every day or so once the existing is moving a bit better.
 
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DIFish said:
Just a quick update on the tank, the build has come to a stand still for a bit while I workout some issues with the sumps. The main problem I am experiencing is that the K1 kaldness is floating much more than I thought it would, and trying to put all 2 cubic feet in the sump makes it float itself and overflow out of the sump. I also am not getting as much movement in the section as I need to make the media self clean. Otherwise everything is still going fine, the tank is holding water no problem and there are no major issues. View attachment 1166798
Here is a picture of the bag of K1 just for size reference, it was much bigger than I expected.




Thanks, but to be honest most of these things are fairly simple and can be done with just a little effort. Having the background 4 feet from the front of the glass also helps to hide all the flaws haha.

The tank is pretty much just a box of 3/4 inch plywood with bracing using the same plywood. So in some places it is the same thickness as 2 sheets, but the majority is only 1 sheet, including the entire bottom of the tank. If you have any questions feel free to send me a message and I will try to give more in depth build info.
Click to expand...
Thx a lot for he help
 
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mscamp02 said:
I was having the same issue in my sump, same as you I bought 2 cubic feet of K1 and put it all in the tank to simply watch it all float well above the water line. From digging around the net what I could find is that once it is cycled and starts to turn a shade of light light brown it will not float nearly as much and then you will be able to see the movement as well. I'm still in the process of cycling but I scaled way back on the amount so it would actually be in the water and have been slowly adding a big more every day or so once the existing is moving a bit better.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have decided that is what I will be doing aswell, may I ask how big is the compartment that you have your 2 cubic feet of k1 in? I read somewhere that there should be 60% k1 to 40% water for optimal filtration, but 25 gallons for that amount of k1 seems a little small even after it all sinks.
 
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Nice build! I love how "simple" your build is compared to the over kill projects we see a lot of. To solve your sump flow balancing issue and still get 100% flow you will need to connect your sumps with a balance pipe or water bridge. Either drill the sumps or you can use another King of DIY method and just run a U shape piece of pvc between the tanks. I just had to figure out the same issue with one of my tanks. Here is the video where he shows the U method. Click to 1:00 when he starts the explanation.
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