Looking for feedback on a potential solid hardwood build.

[anthony0303]

Hardwood is more expensive, more difficult to work with and handles moisture worse than plywood. I build my first fish room racks from hardwood and despite sealing them well, they would warp - twist and bow especially if weight changed.

If your set on making a hardwood tank, the best advice I can provide is to make a much smaller version to test out your materials and techniques on. Your the only person who will know if the extra effort required is worth the end result.

Most of the experienced tankmakers have left this forum unfortunately.

Thank you you for the feedback. Yeah i have had similar experience with certain hardwoods on my reef tank where i wrapped the welded frame with a walnut exterior on the thinner pieces of wood however I didn’t see the same issue with the boards i laminated and i only used 3 coats of poly.

 

[anthony0303]

Thank you you for the feedback. Yeah i have had similar experience with certain hardwoods on my reef tank where i wrapped the welded frame with a walnut exterior on the thinner pieces of wood however I didn’t see the same issue with the boards i laminated and i only used 3 coats of poly.

What i will most likely do is sit the wood next to one of the tanks for a month and then mill it. Clamp and cull the boards back in the same place next to a tank and leave it for another month before i laminate. Do all the cuts, joins ect, test fit. Then take it to a friends shop to plan the entire boards since they are too large to run though my planer once assembled. Assembly the tank , glue ect. Then race to seal a couple coats of epoxy inside, stain/seal the outside asap.

 

[anthony0303]

Do you happen to know where all the experience folk ended up ?

 

[fishdance]

Have you considered building an all glass tank and cladding it with hardwood? The tank size is not particularly big or difficult. That's much more reliable and faster. As your cladding, you can use smaller (joined) glass pieces and thinner simpler hardwood.

 

[anthony0303]

Have you considered building an all glass tank and cladding it with hardwood? The tank size is not particularly big or difficult. That's much more reliable and faster. As your cladding, you can use smaller (joined) glass pieces and thinner simpler hardwood.

I did actually , I actually have an old A.G.E eurobraced 240 sitting around , but it’s 26T …. One of the reasons i’m choosing to build something is the height i want the tank the water line will be around 36 but i was looking at actually having the tank much taller since Koi jump and i hate having netting, glass ect , i generally dislike that look. There’s also a great degree of customization i want for filtration ect , but i’m still open to ordering a glass tank, it certainly would be a little bit faster but in the grand scheme of all the pieces. i don’t believe it’s going to be that much quicker, I’m not exactly in a rush.