tunerX;1231961; said:
Yep yep...
Also if you use a countersink bit you can make the screw heads flush...
my plywood tank build
- Thread starter laura65536
- Start date
Yep yep...
Also if you use a countersink bit you can make the screw heads flush...
just wanted to update this, even though there isn't much to update. It got cold up here in Nebraska, and cold weather means everything takes FOREVER to dry/cure/whatever you call it. We're still waiting for the liquid nails and drylok to fully cure. Not sure if we're still going to stick with the liquid nails or hit everything with epoxy paint after it's fully cured or not, my brother-in-law has been really sick and we haven't even had a chance to look at it in almost 2 weeks, but last time I checked it the drylok was still trying to flake off like crazy, which worries me, so we may end up getting epoxy paint after all (plus then the tank could be black like we had wanted it in the first place). Hopefully this weekend we will get working on finish wood for something to do, so I don't feel like they are just sitting there and we've wasted a perfectly good weekend 
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The drylok quite honestly seems like it has stuck to plywood better than the hardi board. We put it straight on the plywood in the sump, and that won't come off if we wanted it to, but the hardi board is another story...I'm hoping it's just cause it hasn't fully cured yet as TFG stated, and it may be better now, like I said, we haven't really looked at it in awhile, but hopefully we'll work on it some tonight and then this weekend also. If this takes too much longer we'll have to wait til spring to test fill them or they'll freeze....sheesh
.....I'm from missouri, and for only being a 6 hour drive, it's freaking cold up here!
. The drylok quite honestly seems like it has stuck to plywood better than the hardi board. We put it straight on the plywood in the sump, and that won't come off if we wanted it to, but the hardi board is another story...I'm hoping it's just cause it hasn't fully cured yet as TFG stated, and it may be better now, like I said, we haven't really looked at it in awhile, but hopefully we'll work on it some tonight and then this weekend also. If this takes too much longer we'll have to wait til spring to test fill them or they'll freeze....sheesh
.....I'm from missouri, and for only being a 6 hour drive, it's freaking cold up here!If you're going to do epoxy paint, I'd pull the hardiboard out first - one less crack to fill that water might get into. I also would be wary of putting epoxy over a latex based coating like drylok.
As for the drylok not sticking... it looks like it's soaked into the OSB/pressboard, which would account for the stickage. I kinda want to try a tank with just plywood and drylok, this reinforces my belief that it would work just fine. Many paints will not adhere to non-porous surfaces below a certain temperature for any variety of reasons. That may be the cause of your woes.
Go to HD and get a 500w worklight or two (like $12 each). I use them to help cure fiberglass projects when it's cold. Just set one up inside the tank a good distance from any surface and throw a blanket over top.
As for the test fill freezing - just fill it with warm water. You might be thoroughly amazed at how long it takes a large tank of water to change temp. You can alo just pop an aquarium heater in there. You only need to raise the water temp 10deg above ambient to keep it from freezing, so whatever heater you're planning on using for the tank when it's finished should be adequate.
Oh! and one last thing, if the drylok does work out, and you have your heart set on black - you could probably paint over the drylok with some black krylon fusion - it's known to be fish safe, and would probably stick OK. I would do a test area first though, and it would definitely need to be applied where it's a bit warmer!
As for the drylok not sticking... it looks like it's soaked into the OSB/pressboard, which would account for the stickage. I kinda want to try a tank with just plywood and drylok, this reinforces my belief that it would work just fine. Many paints will not adhere to non-porous surfaces below a certain temperature for any variety of reasons. That may be the cause of your woes.
Go to HD and get a 500w worklight or two (like $12 each). I use them to help cure fiberglass projects when it's cold. Just set one up inside the tank a good distance from any surface and throw a blanket over top.
As for the test fill freezing - just fill it with warm water. You might be thoroughly amazed at how long it takes a large tank of water to change temp. You can alo just pop an aquarium heater in there. You only need to raise the water temp 10deg above ambient to keep it from freezing, so whatever heater you're planning on using for the tank when it's finished should be adequate.
Oh! and one last thing, if the drylok does work out, and you have your heart set on black - you could probably paint over the drylok with some black krylon fusion - it's known to be fish safe, and would probably stick OK. I would do a test area first though, and it would definitely need to be applied where it's a bit warmer!
well it was 70 degrees when we started the drylok, it's just being a pita. But I like the work light idea, we have some of those in the garage already, we just need to turn them on I guess. You can ask TFG about the drylok on plywood, he had stated that he has some tanks like that up and running, but they were test tanks and he doesn't know how it will turn out. And I don't think we will ever be able to get the hardi-board out of there, that liquid nails is some serious stuff, and we used a ton of it. The krylon fusion is a great idea though, and if we stick with the drylok, I will certainly be trying that out! Doesn't look like we will be working on these this weekend though, as I just found out my brother-in-law passed away this morning, but I will check on the drylok at some point in time and see how it's doing.
cvermeulen;1260965; said:
I have three drylok on plywood tanks, all in service. 45 gal, 60 gal, and a 110.
As for painting over drylok, it most certainly can be painted over
Also wanted to add that the warmer the air, the faster drylok will cure. Is there any way to bring the pieces inside?
nope, we both have very small houses and 2 small kids each, I don't think it's worth the risk of having to start over if the kids get into it. We just have to wait and wait and wait and then wait some more....*huff* 
TheFishGuy;1262043; said:As for painting over drylok, it most certainly can be painted over
Paint is one thing, epoxy is funny stuff though. No specifics were given on the type of coating to be used, but regular epoxy may have a hard time bonding to latex paint. That aside, if the paint has a crappy bond with the substrate, and you're putting epoxy over top, no matter how well the epoxy bonds to the latex, it'll still have that crappy adhesion between it and the substrate.
not straight epoxy, epoxy paint if that makes any difference. I do understand what you are saying though, about there still being the crappy bond with the drylok and the hardi board. I think it just wasn't fully cured, it seems to be a little bit better now, just a waiting game...and we are going to try to figure out how to heat up the tank area this weekend as well so we don't have to wait quite as long for this to all dry....
here is a link to the epoxy paint we are thinking about using:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/11733/cid/3035
here is a link to the epoxy paint we are thinking about using:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/11733/cid/3035
well it's been snowing and below freezing this whole weekend, but since it was a 4 day weekend I wanted to get something done....we got the last of the drylok on and I decided to go with the krylon fusion to change the color of the drylok first, then if it just completely fails when we test fill it, we'll get some epoxy. So...now it's going to be gunmetal grey. I think that will look a lot better with the paroon's and the black colorquartz than the blue would have. We'll get the last coat of spray paint on tomorrow and hopefully it'll be a little bit warmer tomorrow and we can get the finish wood cut out....I'll post some pics tomorrow night too so you guys can see the progress, even if it is slow...
