you say its starting to bow more than you like though? brilliant that there is no leaks, how did it work with sealing it did you seal it then put the paint over the top or .. . ?
Build Avice Please!
- Thread starter L~C~G
- Start date
I am not to experienced with bowing but I am sure someone will chime in and help out, I have read the whole build this morning and Love it! can not wait to see the tank up and going, you do really good work!!! I can tell you are truely professional in your trade keep up the great work and looking forward to more pics.
bonesb66;4177310; said:
The whole tank was painted with a locally made pond sealant rubber paint called durapond. The stuff is incredible. I then sealed in the acrylic panel with a product from 3M, its a 560 sealant that bonds to acrylic and to the pond paint. I gave that about 5 days to cure.
I then sealed the acrylic again around the exposed edges with a thick beading of the 560 sealant again, I then allowed that to cure for 3 days.
Then I painted over the 560 sealant with pond paint, overlapping the acrylic where you cannot see it and over lapping the previous coats of pond paint by about 3 inches. This pond paint even sticks to the acrylic like crazy!
Its bowing by about 7mm across the total span. I used 8mm thick acrylic. I doubt it will actually fail but it is pretty obvious when you look at it.
Wow great job, it looks so easy if you look at the pics, it is good you took that corner out will give you a lot better vision.
Really like the stand as well
Really like the stand as well
yeah i agree with everyone else it does look great good choice putting in the acrylic with a 90 bend. how much did all the stuff cost to build this tank ?
Not sure how our local prices compare to yours but ill give you an idea.
Wood screws and glue came to R1500 / $200 / Euro 160
The fibre glass / Epoxy (Total over kill and not really required) R1700 / $226 / Euro 180
Acrylic - R900 / $120 / Euro 95
Pond paint R200 / $27 / Euro 21
Sump R200 / $27 / euro 21
Gripseal (wood sealer) R200 / $27 / Euro 21
Total for the tank without any equipment - R4700 / $626 / Euro 495
Im sure I could do it cheaper but this was a first and a lot of learning went into it. Is I have said, if I did another one I would only fibre glass the seams. I recon the pond paint is more than capable of sealing the wood.
Labour wise it was a HUGE job!!! If I was going to put this tank in my garage it would have been a third of the work but this is going in the middle of my living room so it had to be perfect.
If the panel is still holding by Friday it will be taking it home on Saturday morning and setting it up, i still have a bit of work to do on the out side but that will be done by the end of the week.
A tank of this capacity sells locally for around R9000+ / $1200 / Euro 950 so it was still half the price to build myself.
Wood screws and glue came to R1500 / $200 / Euro 160
The fibre glass / Epoxy (Total over kill and not really required) R1700 / $226 / Euro 180
Acrylic - R900 / $120 / Euro 95
Pond paint R200 / $27 / Euro 21
Sump R200 / $27 / euro 21
Gripseal (wood sealer) R200 / $27 / Euro 21
Total for the tank without any equipment - R4700 / $626 / Euro 495
Im sure I could do it cheaper but this was a first and a lot of learning went into it. Is I have said, if I did another one I would only fibre glass the seams. I recon the pond paint is more than capable of sealing the wood.
Labour wise it was a HUGE job!!! If I was going to put this tank in my garage it would have been a third of the work but this is going in the middle of my living room so it had to be perfect.
If the panel is still holding by Friday it will be taking it home on Saturday morning and setting it up, i still have a bit of work to do on the out side but that will be done by the end of the week.
A tank of this capacity sells locally for around R9000+ / $1200 / Euro 950 so it was still half the price to build myself.
well if it is still half the price then thats great isnt it im looking at building one myself but its harder to gather unformation cause im from the united kingdom most people talk about prices and products from america =\
