MY 300+ GALLON BUILD
- Thread starter pengu13
- Start date
Sorry to hear about the leaks. It's a little hard to make out what's going on from the pics. A few questions to clarify the problem -
Is the big crack in the bottom a crack in the lumber or just in the Pond Shield?
Are you seeing the stress cracks in the seams or in the face of the wood?
Did you fiberglass the whole interior before putting on the Pond Shield? Are you seeing cracks in the fiberglass layer?
Is the whole bottom of the tank supported on the stand?
Is the big crack in the bottom a crack in the lumber or just in the Pond Shield?
Are you seeing the stress cracks in the seams or in the face of the wood?
Did you fiberglass the whole interior before putting on the Pond Shield? Are you seeing cracks in the fiberglass layer?
Is the whole bottom of the tank supported on the stand?
Thats right, i only used osb because i know a guy at the mill so he got the wood for free and did most of the cuts for me as well. i was hoping for something thicker like 1 inch but this is what he gave me. it is the highest grade they make it is fairly strong i soaked a piece in a bucket for fun for a week it took three days to swell and didn't break to easy after wards but it did double in size over the week
well the crack on the bottom was were the fiberglass on the seams separated from the tank in the leak so its not really a crack .
The cracks were only on the back seam in side the tank. i did fiber glass almost everything except the side walls but i did still resin them i also did all the seams on the outside
the hole bottom is supported by the stand but the problem was that somewhere the bottom of my tank stopped being flat it bowed a bit in the middle and was sitting forward with the glass weight while empty. so when the water weight pushed it down the back middle popped. or so i think
after closer inspection i realized that the cracked part had bubbled so i started poking around with a screw driver and found this. then i poked around more and found another one that had not leaked yet. so i ground and cut out all i the bubble then ground past it on all sides.
for the repair i needed to support the bottom more evenly. so i levled the stand ,framed in the top of the stand, the top had already been painted with drylock so i just taped up the seams and poured self leveling cement into it. then i placed a sheet a plastic on top and set the tank into it. i had already placed shims so the tank settled level. it pushed some of the 50lb bag i used out the sides so i hope that should support it evenly. the next day i pulled off the frame and chipped away the extra from around the sides.
so with the bottom hopefully solved. the inside i sanded everything with 60 grit then cleaned up wiped everything down with alcohol, then used a body filler that i then sanded and wiped down again. I then thinned out the last drops of my pond shield (maybe a little to much) and after 3 coats we will see when it is dry.
nice tank sorry to here about the leaks im fixing to start my 300g on the inside i think im going to solve the probem of leake im going to get the inside sprayed in speed-liner bed liner for truck beds it is non toxic it is a rubber and it will stretch
