Plywood VS Acrylic VS Glass VS buy

[OSCARLOVER]

In the near future I want to build my own tank. A large one at that. Something between 300 and 500 gallons. There are many ways to build a tank. You have the plywood tank, the acrylic tank, the glass tank and the tank bought and shipped from a distributer.
I know many of you guys have built your own tanks and have found pros and cons during the process. Like plywood requires a lot more materials and tools than building one from acrylic.
Could you all give some input on-

*Level of difficulty.
*average cost of complete project.
*Average lifespan of product.
*Saftey/ Strength of product.
*Which one is better than the other.
*Is it really cheaper than buying one from a distributer.
*Any pros/cons or problems that you might have ran into or expirenced.
*If you plan on building one in the future would you choose to build the same type or would you build one of the other types.

 

[Dr Joe]

Not to de-rail your thread but this has all been asked & answered in the last 2 months, check the archives. Maybe you will still get some new info here too.

I'm a DIYer but I predict most are going to say 'buy it' for that size...now lets sit back and see what you get.

Good luck.

Dr Joe

.

 

[BOTR]

If its to be viewed from one side only and it's capacity is greater than 250g I reccomend building a plywood tank.

I went this route for my 450g and and very happy with it. Very easy project as long as you have the tools handy. Biggest cost was the sealent for me. I opted to go with with a 3 stage system called perma-flex.

 

[OSCARLOVER]

BOTR,

How much was the total cost for building your 250G plywood?
Out of curiousity how long did it take you to build it as well?
Thanks!

 

[BOTR]

Just to clarify.

My tank measures 84x48x24. I think that ends up around 450g. Total build cost was around $750. I overspent on the sealent, coulda saved about $200 if I had wanted to. I built and installed my tank in one weekend. And I didnt work straight through. This does not include the finish/fine work.

If you have the tools, and some small ammount of DIY skill this can be a reasonably quick and fullfilling project.

 

[will-kib1]

i have built alot of plywood tanks over the years built all mine useing fiberglass and epoxy resin this process is really hard work if you do it right but makes a well built tank bullit proof you only save money if you build tanks over 400 gallons