plywood tank questions

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salty joe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 17, 2007
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medina ohio
:irked::nilly:Well I was goofing around with the smilies, and before I knew it, these guys appeared. No clue how to make them go away. :screwy: There now, at least I figured out how to put them where I want them.

Anyway, I am going to make a tank, but am a little apprehensive about plywood.
Can a plywood tank be built that is leak free for the long term?

My main concern is failure of the waterproof coating due to cracking.
This tank will measure 96"x48" and will be 33" tall. I plan on using 3/4" low iron tempered glass for the viewing panel. The rest will be 9 ply, one full inch thick, A/C plywood. (If I get over my fear of plywood) The viewing panel will be about 80" because there will be a Reverse Carlson Surge Device on each end. With an actuated ball valve, the RCSDs will alternate every 3 hours.

Every 45 seconds or so, about 30-35 gallons of water will get moved from the display into a RCSD in a matter of seconds. It is an intense surge, and is the reason I fear cracking of the waterproof coating.

I suppose the walls of the RCSDs could be made 2" thick, screwed & glued for rigidity. I can make this thing structurally sound, it comes down to the coating.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Joe
 
basslover34;1694861; said:
If your so concerned with the coating... go with Fiberglass... will outlast the wood that it's bonded to ;)
Click to expand...
i would do this to fiberglass would give a more reliable resault, nasty to work with tho.
 
use epoxy resin when youre laying up the glass,biaxle cloth is what Im using with west system epoxy.after viewing glass is in I will then coat the tank with pond liner.I dont trust just plywood and pondliner...seems weak,anyway glass that badboy up and that thing will be sooo strong.
 
Thanks all. After the biaxle cloth and West system is cured, will it withstand any movement? In other words, is it brittle? I'm not talking a lot of movement, but a slight , although constant, flexing back & forth.
 
.your tank is going tobe huge,so youre going to need all the bracing you can have.I honestly cant see it flexing with the duehickies youre going to put on it.GRP is so strong,remember its not the resin that makes it strong ,its the cloth,you can use polyester resin or epoxy,I prefer epoxy myself for the marine enviroment
 
I'm almost finished with my tank - we laid in the last view glass piece last Friday.

The way we did it was we rolled on a "bite coat" of epoxy onto the wood. You can tell it's soaking in by the way the wood grain raises - similar to how the grain raises when wood gets wet by just plain water. After it cured we lightly sanded the grain back down (also called "breaking the gloss") and added another coat. This is where you may want to lay in your fiberglass. Let that cure, lightly sand again and put on a finish coat or two.

Brittleness may come in if you add too much hardener - which also shortens the pot life. Stay with the mixing instructions and you should be fine.

I'm using MAX ACR resin but the procedure is usually the same like what happysnapper is doing with West System above.

Have fun.
 
I used Sweetwater Epoxy on my tank its made just for this purpose. I didn't use any fiberglass cloth and its really not necessary. the Sweetwater is extremely easy to work with and has a long work time compared to what I have read about west systems. My tank is only 3" shorter than your tank 96x48x30 I only used 5/8" plywood but I have a 2x4 frame around it and 2 metal braces going from the front to back to stop any bowing. I've had water in mine since December and have had no problems.
 
Or you could use one of the flexible coatings.

Sanitred & PondArmor come to mind, then you don't have to sweat it.

Dr Joe

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