plywood tank 600 gallons

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weissenfluh78

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 10, 2010
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castle rock wa
okay first of all i am new on here and hello

no i have not built my own tank but i am more then willing to and i have lots of tools and know how

i have to rtcs and its time for a little bit larger tank

i would like a list of everything i need to pick up at the home depot besides plywood

i also would like to know glass thickness and where i can buy it

and what epoxy is best used

i also know alot about rtc behavior and how big they get

any info would be nice and i would like to start this build asap and can post pics the whole way

thank you for your time
 
your best bet is to go over many many many threads on here and decide yourself. Building a plywood tank isnt like building a table where its pretty much the same way to build them all. everyone has a way they think is best. I braced diffently then someone else might. i used a different product then some people.

there is glass thickness calculators. no one can tell you the thickness of glass without demionious.

figure out how much of each sheet youll use before you buy. Do yourself a favour build something along the line of 10 by 5 by 5 and give the rtc a home for life. the cost would be around 1 or 2 sheets more of plywood.
 
I agree with nes999, to house a rtc for life you should do the fish a favor and go with a bigger footprint unless of course you are limited on space. Check out the article section and read through the multitude of DIY plywood and glass tanks. Also the glass is best bought locally to save on the shipping which can kill you $$ wise. The thickness depends a lot on the height of the tank and not so much on the length. When you buy glass the cost is calculated using square inches or feet then the cost to grind/sand the edges is an additional cost which you will need to have done. As for supplies it all depends on how you want to build it, there are many different methods you just need to research whats best and most cost effective for you.
 
I have a huge shop to put the tank in so space isn't that big of deal its the custom pump systems you guys build with 55 gallon barrels and bio ball confuse me and I can't find a thred on here that's like 101 pumps for dummys lol
 
I had a book on Catfish and they showed this type of catfish being bigger then a eight year old kid in that they had two fishermen holding it.

I have asked several acylic places about the cost of a giant sheet of a acylic for my dream tank and came across something odd about them. A good eight foot long four foot high sheet that is two inches thick is $1300 from A&C Plastics.
A & C Plastics, Inc.
6135 Northdale
Houston, Texas 77087
800 231 4175
Direct 713 358 6318
Fax 713 640 2541



Ridout Plastics Co. Inc Gave me a qote on the following size sheets of a Clear Acrylic sheet

A Two inch thick sheet of clear cast Acrylic would be $2234 dollars
A Three and half Inch sheet of Acrylic that is six feet tall and ten feet wide would be $21.449.09 dollars while a monster four inch thick sheet that is eight feet high and 14 feet high would be $40,543.08

The reason why I asked them about these clear sizes is that I've kind of woundered at what point would building a dream tank be feasble under the types of resources I could possibly offer to build a dream tank and find out at what size a fish tank would be only a dream and what could be do able so I'm planning on maybe having a fish tank that could have say two of the eight foot by four foot sheets next to one another.
Ridout Plastics Co. Inc.

Clear Cast Acrylic
2.00” x 48” x 96” -- $2.234
3.50” x 72” x 120” -- $21.449.09
4.00” x 96” x 168” custom cast sheet -- $40,543.08
 
If you plan on using acrylic then you need to do some serious research into mounting that thing in a plywood tank. Acrylic and silicone don't work together well at all. YOu'll have to prep the edges of the acrylic with something that will bond with both the acrylic and the silicone. Not saying its impossible but its not as easy as glass. Not sure how many people have attempted it but sanding the edges of the acrylic and then painting it with epoxy should work. The epoxy will bond to the Acrylic and the silicone sticks quite well to epoxy. I made this sketch up a while ago when someone was asking about using acrylic for the window of plywood tank.
AcrylicEpoxy.jpg
 
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