Yes, I used mostly a table saw and a compound miter saw, although all cuts could be made with 1 handheld saw
600g DIY plywood build
- Thread starter DIFish
- Start date
im planning on making my own tank as well soon. possibly this summer depending on how things go. But definitely going to get a bigger tank. im just afraid that i wont cut the wood correctly or the wood wont be exact. How big is the tolerance when it comes to building the base of the tank? that is what im afraid of the most.
The tolerance is not that much, however it is really easy to make good cuts if you measure correctly. If you are that worried about cutting the wood, most lumber yards will do it for you for free if you buy the lumber from them.
Best way to build a whole plywood tank is to sit down and make a drawing/drawings to figure out all your lengths of every piece of wood before you cut a single board. Check the drawing twice and measure twice before you cut
I like to stay +/- 1/32 when building anything.
But if you double check your measurement you can be bang on with every cut
But if you double check your measurement you can be bang on with every cut
Well I finally added up how much money that building a plywood tank and doing everything myself has saved, and let me just say, plywood is the way to go. Before I go over the specifics, here is a general idea of how much a 600 gallon tank is supposed to cost to set up. I looked at 3 different ways of achieving a ray tank. The first is paying a company to come and install and do all the work for you, they build and ship the tank, then come and install it along with lights, sump, plumbing ect... I got a quote on a 600gallon tank from one company for $11,000 for the entire set up. This included everything I needed, and would leave me with a cycled tank. While this seems like a lot, that was the cheapest I could be quoted, with many custom installers wanting at least $50 per gallon or more!! ($30,000). While this would have left me without any work to do, there was now way I would even consider paying that. I also looked into buying a glass or acrylic tank. From a reputable aquarium maker I got a quote of $4000 for a 600 gallon glass aquarium predrilled with built in overflows and an starphire front panel, but only if I also bought a 75 gallon sump for an extra $600. This seems like a decent price from looking at what others pay for a new tank. While this was considerably more reasonable at only around $6000 once I added in the tank, filter, and all extras I would ned to run it, I figured I could still do better.
Not including my time, here is almost the exact cost of materials for my plywood tank, stand, and everything else that I needed to get it up and running.
Tank
Everything else
Total cost of tank and everything needed for fish-$2200
There you have it, for less than the cost of an average glass or acrylic tank alone, you can afford to set up not one, but almost 2 complete plywood setups. This gets even better considering the method of lighting, filtration, and heating were not skimped on, and everything I bought is actually very energy efficient so that over the life of the tank even more money can be saved. The total energy consumption on this tank is extremely low coming in at under 450watts on average. I hope that others here can see how affordable monster fish keeping can really be if you are willing to put in a little bit of work!
Not including my time, here is almost the exact cost of materials for my plywood tank, stand, and everything else that I needed to get it up and running.
Tank
- 4* Plwood sheets-$160
- 3* Pond armor-$225
- 1* 1/2inch Starphire glass-$290
- 4* Silicoln-$30
- Fiberglass mat-$25
- Screws glue ect...$70
Everything else
- Stand(2by4s)-$50
- Lights(2 finnex 24/7 led)-$250
- Lid(corrugated greenhouse roofing)-$40
- Sand(200 pounds pfs)-$50
- Granite rocks-$25
- Plumbing-$75
- Water pumps(2 laguna max flow)-$400
- 2 ft^3 k1 kaldness-$100
- 45lpm air pump-$50
- 2 55 gallon drums-$50
- 2 300 watt water heaters-$60
- 4 filter socks-$30
- miscellaneous(almost sure I missed a couple small things)- $220
Total cost of tank and everything needed for fish-$2200
There you have it, for less than the cost of an average glass or acrylic tank alone, you can afford to set up not one, but almost 2 complete plywood setups. This gets even better considering the method of lighting, filtration, and heating were not skimped on, and everything I bought is actually very energy efficient so that over the life of the tank even more money can be saved. The total energy consumption on this tank is extremely low coming in at under 450watts on average. I hope that others here can see how affordable monster fish keeping can really be if you are willing to put in a little bit of work!
Great build, I am going to be building a 600 plywood next this week, still in final plans but I have the glass 8' by 30" tall. I have a couple questions I would really appreciate if you could answer. On the front panel did you cut a hole out the front and leave all the edges as 1 piece or did you make it 4 seperate pieces? Is it double thick? My tank will be hidden so looks are not important, with that being said would you go with 2X4 bracing or stick with plywood bracing? I can buy a 1.5 gallon of pond armor for about $50 more then 3 quarts kit. Did you feel like you had enough or would you recommend getting some extra. Thank you in advance and I will post a build thread when done. Already have a 3 55 gallon drum filter set up with K1 for it
Thanks, the first layer is all one piece, I just cut out a hole in the center which made a great piece to cut out the bracing. It is actually triple thick if you count the small bit on the inside that holds the glass in place. I think the plwood bracing is more than adequate, however I planned my tank to use up all the extra wood as bracing so it was cheaper and easier to do it this way. The bracing is up to you as both ways work great. Extra pond armor is always awesome, especially since I nearly ran out! Feel free to pm me any questions and I can go over it more in depth and even provide pictures when I can.
Thanks for the reply and I will definitely pm you if I get in a jam, how do you like the overflow box? I was just going to have 2 drains at the top of the tank where I wanted my water level to be and my returns I am using pvc and just coming over the top into the tank so I don't have to cut any extra holes
The overflow box is pretty nice, although it was really annoying to look at this big blue box before I put in my background over the top of it. It gives me a lot of surface skimming and also disperses the force of the water being pulled out of the tank, making it less likely that a fish will get sucked up. I also don't think that coming over the top of the tank will work. The water has to go over the bend in the pipe for an overflow to work. You would have to create a siphon every time it breaks, and drilling holes in plywood in super fast and easy. I am no expert so I am not sure, but I would highly recommend bean animals silent and fail safe overflow method. It works great for me, is totally safe, and is no louder than my air pump making for a extremely quiet tank for the volume of water it is cycling through.
