building a 500 gallon plywood tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have to agree here, you won't find many tanks still up and running that did not use fiberglass in the seams bare minimum. Epoxy is super fragile and any stress whatsoever in those joints (which you WILL get as plywood shrinks and expands with humidity, temp, as well as the water pressure etc.) the epoxy will develop micro cracks which eventually lead to small leaks which lead to bigger leaks etc..... Do yourself (and your family) the favor of fixing it while you can. The glass is very inexpensive but probably one of the most critical parts to a large build. You say it's only 2 weeks pay if it fails.....why not spend the extra .025% of 2 weeks pay and reinforce those seams!!! BTW nice build besides those seams :)
 
Exactly Stempy! I'm glad someone has some common sense here.

I just don't get the logic behind this. He spent $300 on epoxy resin. That's the expensive part. I really don't get why you would go that far, and not go the extra .000001% and fiberglass it. You already went through the pain of paying for the resin and applying it. Had you fiberglassed it properly, you would have had a tank that would have lasted you MANY MANY years.

Heed this warning: The way you have your tank waterproofed, it will fail. It might not be immediately, but it WILL happen. And 500 gallons is enough to cause flood conditions in a house. You'll have to tear out drywall, insulation, and possibly re-wire everything that gets touched with water. Leaving that tank up and running for an extended period of time in the condition it is in is a BAD idea.

And please don't take this as me hating on your build. Your wood work and everything looks great, and it should be a really nice tank. Just go that extra .00000001% and make it safe. Fiberglass those seams. You've already got resin laid down. It's not that hard to lay down a layer or two of glass on top.
 
seedubs1 said:
Exactly Stempy! I'm glad someone has some common sense here.

I just don't get the logic behind this. He spent $300 on epoxy resin. That's the expensive part. I really don't get why you would go that far, and not go the extra .000001% and fiberglass it. You already went through the pain of paying for the resin and applying it. Had you fiberglassed it properly, you would have had a tank that would have lasted you MANY MANY years.

Heed this warning: The way you have your tank waterproofed, it will fail. It might not be immediately, but it WILL happen. And 500 gallons is enough to cause flood conditions in a house. You'll have to tear out drywall, insulation, and possibly re-wire everything that gets touched with water. Leaving that tank up and running for an extended period of time in the condition it is in is a BAD idea.

And please don't take this as me hating on your build. Your wood work and everything looks great, and it should be a really nice tank. Just go that extra .00000001% and make it safe. Fiberglass those seams. You've already got resin laid down. It's not that hard to lay down a layer or two of glass on top.
Click to expand...

i got your point , thanks for the link
 
well i got stuff done to my tank , got it plum for my return , 1 went with 1 return on each side of my tank , and added 500 pds of sand
 
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