740 Gallon Plywood tank for Discus
- Thread starter A3aan
- Start date
It looks great and Heckels would be nice in that tank!
I recognize your avatar here i have seen it before
I recognize your avatar here i have seen it before
Ah!! altijd leuk hier ook medelanders te zien!
De platen zijn 40 mm dik. (The plywood sheets are 11/2")
I've got he avatar from a dutch discus forum. So dunno where it originally comes from
And a small detail from one of the boxes in the corner. All the corners are rounded off and filled in. The small holes are filled. Sanding the whole thing and then it's ready for applying the epoxy.
After all that woodwork it's about time to start messing around with glassfibre matting and epoxy.
So I bought two 5 litre cans of epoxy with hardener (at a dutch company, www.polyservice.nl). Along with rollers, lots of brushes.
A roll of 280 gr/m2 woven glassfibre matting (1 metre wide) and a roll glassfibre 15 cm wide (for the corners). Some black pigment for the last two layers. Gloves and an air-mask (You don't want that fine dust in your lungs while sanding
)
Underneath all those cans are some rubber tiles. These will be placed between the tank and the concrete blocks.
First I apllied some very thin epoxy with hardener on the plywood. Because it's very thin it reaally gets into the pores of the material and that should give a good bond between the okoume wood en the epoxy.
While still wet I then applied a second layer of the thicker epoxy from the 5 litre cans. Then on came the glassfibre matting. Some more epoxy, and then gently rolling the epoxy into the matting with the rollers to get the air out. OK sometimes the five or ten little fingers helped too.
With the first glass-fibre layer still wet, I brought on the second layer in an identical manner. And after that two more coatings of just epoxy. So one wall in one go. Gives a good bond, and minimises sanding.
This whole proces was rather time consuming. So I did one tank side in one day the overlap in the corners was sanded to get a good bond.
So the panels all have 2 layers of glassfibre matting. In the corners there are some extra layers (with the 15 cm wide matting). So in the corners, which take the most stress, there are 4-5 layers. That should make it all strong enough.
One tank wall finished. Those little boxes proved to be a lot of extra work with all those corners.
Those 45 degrees corners made it certainly a lot easier to get the glassfibre matting in without air bubbles. And also give the tank additional strength.
The rear wall took some time, so a little extra light was needed to spot any air bubbles and roll them out. The HQI will be used later to light the tank during the evening when there's no daylight available. Gives nice shimmering effect!
Then with the whole inner tank finished it's time to let it all dry. Then sand it all and apply the two last coatings of black epoxy.
So I bought two 5 litre cans of epoxy with hardener (at a dutch company, www.polyservice.nl). Along with rollers, lots of brushes.
A roll of 280 gr/m2 woven glassfibre matting (1 metre wide) and a roll glassfibre 15 cm wide (for the corners). Some black pigment for the last two layers. Gloves and an air-mask (You don't want that fine dust in your lungs while sanding
)Underneath all those cans are some rubber tiles. These will be placed between the tank and the concrete blocks.
First I apllied some very thin epoxy with hardener on the plywood. Because it's very thin it reaally gets into the pores of the material and that should give a good bond between the okoume wood en the epoxy.
While still wet I then applied a second layer of the thicker epoxy from the 5 litre cans. Then on came the glassfibre matting. Some more epoxy, and then gently rolling the epoxy into the matting with the rollers to get the air out. OK sometimes the five or ten little fingers helped too.
With the first glass-fibre layer still wet, I brought on the second layer in an identical manner. And after that two more coatings of just epoxy. So one wall in one go. Gives a good bond, and minimises sanding.
This whole proces was rather time consuming. So I did one tank side in one day the overlap in the corners was sanded to get a good bond.
So the panels all have 2 layers of glassfibre matting. In the corners there are some extra layers (with the 15 cm wide matting). So in the corners, which take the most stress, there are 4-5 layers. That should make it all strong enough.
One tank wall finished. Those little boxes proved to be a lot of extra work with all those corners.
Those 45 degrees corners made it certainly a lot easier to get the glassfibre matting in without air bubbles. And also give the tank additional strength.
The rear wall took some time, so a little extra light was needed to spot any air bubbles and roll them out. The HQI will be used later to light the tank during the evening when there's no daylight available. Gives nice shimmering effect!
Then with the whole inner tank finished it's time to let it all dry. Then sand it all and apply the two last coatings of black epoxy.
