Alternative tank building materials & ideas - Your thoughts

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R

RBE17

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 2, 2007
492
12
18
Coopersburg, Pa 18036
This is all sparked by the possibility of me building a tank in a corner of our gameroom. In order for me to take advantage of the space I would need to use 1"x1" steel for a frame w/ plate steel for the walls. I would like to employ the methods Dimfer utilized in his monster tank build. However, me being a huge DIYer, I do not have the means to weld SS, but I can weld steel. If I were to weld the frame work and plate steel to make the walls and bottom and then have it sandblasted and powder coated, would that be fish safe? Another option would be to cover the whole thing in Pond Armor? What are the thoughts on utilizing this type of method and these materials?

Thanks,


Steve.
 
I think it would be a good build. I am not sure on the powder coating, but I think you could use the potable water sealer paint we use on ships. I forget the name but it is sprayed or rolled on to about 1/8" thick and is good for several years we used it on my old boat(nuclear carrier). We replace it every yard period(3-4yr), but it still looked good so you should be fine.
 
The powder coating was just suggested as a method to keep the steel from rusting. I don't know how fish safe it is. I did some research on Pond Armor and it will adhere to steel. If I get clearance for this build (have to convince the wife) I'm just going to coat it all in Pond Armor (inside and out).

What ship were you on?
 
sound cool keep us updated.
 
Thanks for the positive feedback. Progress will be slow. I have a million things in front of this, but it's nice to dream. This tank will only be 150g, so the size is not that big. I haven't done the design work to see what thickness plate I would need or the spacing of the supports. If it's too much I won't do it as the footprint is small.
 
For a 150 gallon I'd recomend buying one or building out of acryllic.
 
Wolf3101;1228199; said:
For a 150 gallon I'd recomend buying one or building out of acryllic.
Click to expand...

I agree. acrylic will be about the same cost as steel, look nicer, be waterproof, light, etc. Steel tanks have been discussed at length here before and unless it's a prefab container like a shipping container or a dumpster or something, the value is just not there. If you're going to coat the thing with epoxy anyway, you might as well do plywood with a glass front.

Plecos CAN eat through epoxy coatings... but it's a one in a million plec that'll rasp away till he breaks through. It's happened, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have a footlong gibby in my plywood tank and he hasn't done any damage; heck he won't even touch a potato unless I skin it for him.
 
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