Here are some of the drawings for a plywood tank I'm planning.
Stand without plywood top
Stand with plywood top
Plywood tank without glass
Plywood tank on top of the stand in the it's potential location, it'll be behind a wall when done.
Outer dimension is 8x4 and internal dimension will be around 86.5"x38.5"x30 or 32" but I will only fill to the glass window height. window will be 76"x28"x0.5", with 2" over lap all around will give me a viewing size of 72"x24". will most likely use Sweetwater Epoxy to seal the tank (will two gallon be enough? each gallon is said to cover 250 ft² area at a 4mil thickness and I'm hoping to get 3 maybe 4 layers or should I aim for more?), unless someone used pond armor directly on plywoods before with good results then I might change my mind. (was told to add concrete board to plywood then apply pond armor to concrete board.)
in the drawing I have to layers of 3/4" plywood on top of the tank as brace, think that'll be strong enough or bolting few 2x4 across the tank would be a better way? (will be cheaper for sure I think)
few questions I have, one is what should I use to seal the gap between the plywoods? can silicone work or I need to use something else? or that's not even necessary cuz the epoxy will seal it good enough?
for the window, should I cut the plywood opening big enough so the window recesses into the frame or should have the window just overlap on top of the plywood?
the top frame of the stand is 2x6 (is that over kill? will 2x4 be enough), the rest are 2x4. then a layer of plywood sits on top and there will be a layer of styrofoam between the tank and stand. are the extra layer of plywood and styrofoam unnecessary? also do I need to add more vertical support or the way I have it will be fine?
sorry with all the questions but I've never built anything this scale before and will probably have more questions later.
oh, one more question, roughly how much time would something like this take?
I plan on work on it couple hrs every night and maybe more time during weekend. just want to get an rough idea. my neighbor is a carpenter and has a shop and he said he could cut everything to size for me so I will only be doing assembly.
any suggestions and comments are welcome, especially the ones can help me save some cash on the build (if I over done on something)
Stand without plywood top
Stand with plywood top
Plywood tank without glass
Plywood tank on top of the stand in the it's potential location, it'll be behind a wall when done.
Outer dimension is 8x4 and internal dimension will be around 86.5"x38.5"x30 or 32" but I will only fill to the glass window height. window will be 76"x28"x0.5", with 2" over lap all around will give me a viewing size of 72"x24". will most likely use Sweetwater Epoxy to seal the tank (will two gallon be enough? each gallon is said to cover 250 ft² area at a 4mil thickness and I'm hoping to get 3 maybe 4 layers or should I aim for more?), unless someone used pond armor directly on plywoods before with good results then I might change my mind. (was told to add concrete board to plywood then apply pond armor to concrete board.)
in the drawing I have to layers of 3/4" plywood on top of the tank as brace, think that'll be strong enough or bolting few 2x4 across the tank would be a better way? (will be cheaper for sure I think)
few questions I have, one is what should I use to seal the gap between the plywoods? can silicone work or I need to use something else? or that's not even necessary cuz the epoxy will seal it good enough?
for the window, should I cut the plywood opening big enough so the window recesses into the frame or should have the window just overlap on top of the plywood?
the top frame of the stand is 2x6 (is that over kill? will 2x4 be enough), the rest are 2x4. then a layer of plywood sits on top and there will be a layer of styrofoam between the tank and stand. are the extra layer of plywood and styrofoam unnecessary? also do I need to add more vertical support or the way I have it will be fine?
sorry with all the questions but I've never built anything this scale before and will probably have more questions later.
oh, one more question, roughly how much time would something like this take?
I plan on work on it couple hrs every night and maybe more time during weekend. just want to get an rough idea. my neighbor is a carpenter and has a shop and he said he could cut everything to size for me so I will only be doing assembly.
any suggestions and comments are welcome, especially the ones can help me save some cash on the build (if I over done on something)
