my plywood tank build

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
the hardiboard we used id only available in 3x5 sheets, we looked at both lowes and home depot. it's almost time to start on the sump...so if anyone has any advice on "what they'd do if it was their tank"
it'd be appreciated. I'm also still wondering if anyone knows how large of bulkheads/pvc we will need to only have 2 returns/overflows in the tank, and be able to push 2000gph out of each one....or do we need to be putting more smaller ones, instead of 2 larger ones? To me, less plumbing sounds better, but I've never done this before so I"m hoping someone will chime in....
 
Not too much to update, we're still trying to get everything dryloked and the rest of the backer-board put in the tank, we only had 13 clamps, so it's been going slow, but we got 30 more today, hopefully that will be enough get it in today, if not we'll be done getting it all in tomorrow at the latest. We're going to have to buy 2 more cans of drylok, and 2 more cans of polyurethane Thursday so we can finish up all of that as well, hopefully this weekend we'll be able to start with the finish boards! It's going faster now it seems like because it's getting to a point where we can do paint and such during the week (no heavy lifting involved :))

I also picked up a free 55 today so we're not going to have to tear ours apart for the glass now (thank you freecycle.org!), we also are going to be picking up free acrylic for the drip tray in the sump and overflow covers in the tank later this week (also from freecycle).

For those who are wondering what this has cost so far, I'll get a list together and let you know here shortly, a lot of the lumber came from freecycle, that site has saved us a ton of money on this project, but I'll let you know the total cost here in a bit.
 
we're not doing silicone until it is all cured for a week...as of right now we're liquid nailing the heck out of it, we'll go over all the seams with silicone after we drilok the tank again, but right now the seams are filled with a bunch of liquid nails, and we will silicone over that later, we were trying to figure out how to be able to throw another coat of drylok on the tank after it was all put together so that we'd be able to cover up the liquid nails smudges and make it pretty again :)

as for the price list here it is
(keep in mind this is building TWO tanks):
lumber for tank and stands were free!
2x6x8 for supports inside the tank: $5.50x10=$55.50
Hardi Backer Board (3x5 sheets): $8.95x8=$71.60
Drilock (lowes custom tinted this for us): $22x4=$88
Polyurathane gallons: $24.95x2=$49.90
Liquid Nails: $2.27x16=$36.32
GE 1 Silicone: 3.96x6=$23.76
Finish plywood 4x8's: 9.95x6=$59.70
4# 2" drywall screws: 6.95x2=13.90
4# 2" finish nails: 7.50
2# 4" wood screws: 8.99
Stain: 6.54x2=$13.08

for a grand total of : $428.08 (so far)
we still have to buy stuff for bulkheads and to plumb the sump, and everything that goes in the sump (ie bioballs, floss, pumps ect.) and we still need to get trim as well. We're also going to have to buy at least 2 more gallons of drylock and poly and most likely more silicone as well. I priced trim today and it's going to be about $50 for that (I'm not getting anything fancy, saving money to get the sump done up really nice :)) plus the $44 for more drilok, and another $50 for more poly, and another $25 for more silicone, and $25 for hinges and cabinet hardware, brings this project up to about $622.08, being $311.04 a tank, not bad for the size of this monster if you ask me.
Keep in mind that is not including the stuff for the sump or the lighting, that's just the building costs. Also that doesn't include tools we've had to purchase (those don't really count do they?) and my friend bought her glass so she would only have one viewing window, and that was $184.
 
also, do you think if we did 4 returns/overflows with the 2" shower drains you mentioned it would be enough to push the 4400gph we're going want to pumps to be able to do?
 
brent65536;1220203; said:
also, do you think if we did 4 returns/overflows with the 2" shower drains you mentioned it would be enough to push the 4400gph we're going want to pumps to be able to do?
Click to expand...

Definately. That'd be more gph than my 800... why so much?

Also with that amount of water rolling do you think your sump tank is going to be large enough?

I had a problem with that with mine, I ended up have to add another 44 gallon drum. Although in my filter there's roughly 50 gallons through the plumbing at any given time if not more.

I hope the seams turn out ok with the liquid nails coming through... I'd might be inclined to cut the liquid nails away instead of dryloking over it. I'm not to sure how well silicone will bond to the liquid nails.

When I did mine I kept the liquid nails a few inches away from the edges and siliconed the edge of a side piece to the bottom and corner to corner like a glass tank is built...

tankcrosssection.jpg
 
how much do you have pushing through your 800? I was just wanting to make sure it's over-filtered, as that is always better in my book than under-filtered, what do you think would be sufficient filtration for that size of a tank, I asked that question before we started this project and I don't think I really had a specific answer.
 
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