Braceless ply tank, ply thickness vs height ??

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I was talking about the length, standard ply sheets here are 2.4 metres long, but 2.7M sheets are readily available too, if ordered in (hardware places generally don't stock them).

I know what you're saying about the glass providing strength, I have a friend who is a fibreglasser by trade and am planning on talking to him about how much to use etc (will actually try to rope him in to doing it for me...)
 
if the tank will be built in place i dont think external bracing is required. i went with the bracing becasue my tank has to sit in the garage for at least a week full of water before it can go in the house. then to get it in the hose it must get flipped on end then slide through doors and a hallway and then into my bedroom then flipped back over and set on the stand so i decided the extra strength from the bracing would help prevent cracked seams during the the move
 
I take it you are referring to external bracing? I am not a lover of the external bracing look too. Although it is a plywood tank, I still want it to look aesthetically pleasing on the outside too. 25mm ply would be more than strong enough for the 650mm height you want especially if you make a sandwich board out of it with a layer of fibreglass on each side. I have used 32mm ply for my build with no external bracing(see sig below). The tank height is 1032mm. That's around 3.4' for those used to imperial measurements and it has never even looked like bowing.
 
yes i was talking about external bracing. here is a pic of how my tank is built

DSC00930.jpg
DSC00932.jpg


this is befor i filled in the seams in the 2x4's
DSC00840.jpg
 
Hey Brenton, yours was the very build that got me thinking about doing this!! I'm not a fan of the 4x2 bracing, unless the tank is going to be built into the wall, which mine isn'r, not to mention the extra width they take up as I only have a 2.9M wide room to put it in. I think I need to re-read your build and look into fibreglassing the outside too. Did you reinforce all/some of the joins with a double layer of ply?


rotccapt thats a good looking tank, have you got a linkt o a build thread or any more specs/info?
 
the build is on cichlid-forum in the diy section under 300 gallon tank build. the dimensions are 76" long 36" wide and 29" tall. with the 2x4 frame and the 1/2 inch glass and plywood liner that gives me a total interior space of 72" long 32" wide and a water height of around 26 inches. the tank is lined with epoxy and fiberglass using Max ACR epoxy found on ebay the out side of the tank is coated in kilz primer and a coat of latex paint will go on the front. i got the driftwood localy from a river
 
rotccapt said:
yes i was talking about external bracing. here is a pic of how my tank is built
Click to expand...
Haha... My response was to David R but nice tank. ;)

David....Thanks for letting me know about the sig not standing out on the forums light skin. I have made it a shade darker so I hope that helps?
As for the reinforcing of the joints/corners? Yes I did do internal bracing. Mainly due to the 40" height. Plus I wanted to be able to move the tank in the future. The internal bracing combined with the fiberglass has made the tank very stable and unlike many other ply builds, it can be moved with out fear of doing damage, cracking or creating a leak etc.
 
Yep its readable now!

I'm not planning on going any more than 70cm high, but will still look at incorperating bracing around the bottom seams where the pressure will be greatest. I'm not planning on moving the tank often/at all/ever, but better to make it sturdier just in case! There will obviously be some moveing during the building process though, I take it you had to flip yours over frequently when fibreglassing to get the bottom done?

I'm also thinking about using a steel frame for around the front to allow me to make more of the front glass, like this build (the other one thats really inspiring me to try the DIY thing!).

Unfortunately I just worked out that a 2.7x1.2M footprint makes the tank too long diagonally to spin around in the room I'm making it in (2.9M wide), I was planning making it in the centre of the room to allow easy access to all sides then spin it 90* and push it into the end of the room, but I guess if the 2.7M sheets arent too much more expensive I could go for 2.6M long.
 
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