Plywood Tank Build 300 Gallon

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
wheat i cant seem to find that product on ebay nor on google. do you have a link i can look at, thanks.
 
with the max arc do you have to use cloth? compared to something like liquid rubber.
 
bretthogan said:
with the max arc do you have to use cloth? compared to something like liquid rubber.
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I haven't used Max ACR but from what I've read on this site the company does recommend fiberglass cloth but only on the outside of the tank. If their reasoning is anything like other epoxy companies (that I have used) it's because they feel improper fiberglass work can increase the chances of water migrating into the cured epoxy layers. This is what one of the tech guys at West Systems told me. Heard the same thing from one other epoxy company but I can't remember which one that was.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. All of my plywood tanks have had fiberglass on the inside if they had any at all. I do feel that if you're shifting large rocks for aqua-scaping it should make the epoxy more durable.

I would call or email them and ask. They seem to have very good customer support from everything I've read.
 
Looks like a great tank! I was wandering why you did not use glued dado and rabbit joints, seams like they would be stronger.
 
i am using the max ACR resin on my 300 build. it is real easy to use. i first put a layer of thinned epoxy (used denatured alcohol) down then i put a layer of 8 ounce cloth in the corners and a layer of 6 ounce cloth over the rest of the inside. i then put two layers of epoxy over the fiberglass. i still have have a gallon of epoxy left over
 
i added the cloth to the whole inside of the tank to give the epoxy something to hold onto to prevent cracks. in my last post i meant to say i have half a gallon left. yea bubbles in the cloth are not good. if you get them it is best to sand through the bubble then add more resin to fill the void
 
So quick update...

Just after I built my 300 gallon aquarium out of plywood (still haven't fiber-glassed it yet or order glass), I was offered a 300 gallon acrylic tank with an established setup (skimmer, pumps, reverse osmosis, chiller, lighting, etc.) and an assortment of 10 year old, beautiful coral for $1,500. Everything is in good condition. Tank is 8 years old, but no leaks or noticeable scratches.

I think it's a great deal, but I'm worried about transporting the tank (It's about 1.5 hours away) and not killing all the coral in the process. While I was able to successfully keep fish alive when I had a 75 gallon tank in college, it's been a few years.

Any tips for moving or ideas for the coral? Definitely need some advice. Maybe it's not worth it? Any horror stories taking over someone's existing system?

And just for sake of conversation, I was about to purchase all my fiberglass/epoxy last week. Below is my breakdown. If I still decided to do the plywood tank, do you think this would cut it...

1 Gallon Black Sweetwater Epoxy Paint for final coat: $78.00 (http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3048/Epoxy-Paint-1-Gallon) — planned to apply 2 coats after after fiberglass & 3 coats of epoxy
2 Gallons 635 Thin Epoxy & 3:1 Hardener (EPOX-635315): $128.00 (http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html#epoxhard) — should be enough for 3 coats
1 Pint of Black Pigment (AC-BL032): $12.25 (http://www.uscomposites.com/pigments.html)
4" 50 yard roll for corners of 8.7oz Fiberglass Cloth Tape (FG-C04R): $27.60 (http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html) — for corners
15 yards of 7.5 oz Fiberglass (FG-C0750): $94.40 (http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html) — for rest of the tank

THANKS everyone for your responses so far!!! Definitely helped!
 
andy8383 said:
And just for sake of conversation, I was about to purchase all my fiberglass/epoxy last week. Below is my breakdown. If I still decided to do the plywood tank, do you think this would cut it?

1 Gallon Black Sweetwater Epoxy Paint for final coat: $78.00 (http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3048/Epoxy-Paint-1-Gallon) — planned to apply 2 coats after after fiberglass & 3 coats of epoxy
2 Gallons 635 Thin Epoxy & 3:1 Hardener (EPOX-635315): $128.00 (http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html#epoxhard) — should be enough for 3 coats
1 Pint of Black Pigment (AC-BL032): $12.25 (http://www.uscomposites.com/pigments.html)
4" 50 yard roll for corners of 8.7oz Fiberglass Cloth Tape (FG-C04R): $27.60 (http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html) — for corners
15 yards of 7.5 oz Fiberglass (FG-C0750): $94.40 (http://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html) — for rest of the tank
Click to expand...

I don't have any advice about transporting the other tank but that does sound worth looking into.

As far as the plywood build, is there a reason you want to use both the 100% solids epoxy resin and the epoxy paint? If you tint the epoxy resin the epoxy paint seems redundant. And unless you live near Aquatic Co. you'll need to pay hazmat shipping on the Sweetwater.

As far as the amount of epoxy resin, in general 10 mils of cured epoxy are needed to waterproof bare plywood. But that assumes a perfectly smooth surface, doesn't account for waste and doesn't leave any left over for thickening and making fillets along all the interior edges. So instead double that and plan for 20 mils, especially since most people prefer overkill anyways.

A gallon of epoxy will cover 80 square feet at 20 mils. Two gallons would cover 160 square feet.

You'll also need extra resin to wet out the fiberglass cloth. The old rule of thumb there is it takes an ounce of resin to wet out an ounce of cloth. If I remember correctly, roving takes a bit less, mat takes a bit more. But you didn't mention those so let's not worry about it.

You're ordering the 50" wide stuff. 50" divided by 36" means your roll is 1.4 yards wide. 1.4 x 7.5 = 10.5 so each lineal yard of cloth will weight 10.5 ounces. 15 yards x 10.5 means the whole roll will weigh 157.5 ounces. So in theory you would need about 160 ounces of resin to wet out that entire roll of cloth.

You can apply similar math to the corner cloth.

I assume that corner tape is 4" by 4" so it's really about 8" wide. 8" divided by 36" means it's 0.22 yards wide. If you used the entire 50 yards that means 11 square yards with each square yard weighing 8.7 oz. 11 x 8.7 is 95.7 so another 96 ounces of resin are needed.

96 + 160 = 256 ounces of resin required to wet out ALL of the cloth reinforcement you plan to order. Of course you may not use it all.

And remember you still need another additional gallon of epoxy for every 80 square feet of tank you need to coat. I don't have your dimensions handy nor do I know if you still plan to coat both the inside and outside so I won't calculate that part.

Now, I don't recall if that is ounces of resin by weight or by volume nor do I remember what an ounce of epoxy resin weighs. I'm getting over an illness and my brain is a bit fuzzy this morning. So you should look into that and you should certainly check my math.

I think it's by weight.

I hope this helps. I have used Sweetwater on plywood tanks in the past and I have dealt with US Composites on other projects. I haven't dealt with Sweetwater in a long time but the product was excellent back then. And US Composites has always provided good customer service and technical support.

I am curious to hear more about why you plan to use both epoxy resin and epoxy paint, however.
 
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