Practice 80G plywood tank

[maxumis]

I just typed out this whole post on how far I got today and what not... Added the pics, and then closed the windows Lost all that typing...
Any way, here are the pics; that's we all want to see any way.
Will update again on Monday. Parents don't have the net at their place... Savages!
PS. Fiberglass resin STINKS!!! don't use it in a well ventilated area. USE IT OUSIDE! I can't get that smell out of my nose

 

[skillzdatkillz]

Nice, Im going to be building a woodie here pretty soon.

 

[importracer]

Being a carpenter myself, I respect the effort put into this project...But, is building a plywood tank saving any money as compared to buying a new one???Sure, the knowledge gained from building yours/mine first plywood tank is priceless...But peep this, I buy brand new 100g glass tanks in my city for $114, will I be saving any money if I built my own???In other words, how much did you spend on your materials Maxumis???Eventually I will be build a plywood tank, just might be a lot bigger though, more like a 250-300g...Excluding the power tools needed, if you spent less than $80 on materials, then ....

 

[ozz465]

good job man , im planing to build a tank myself in the near future.

 

[ethnics]

he said it was practice. didnt plan to save a penny on it. it was practice. im sure he already knows he'll pretty much only save if he builds a big ass tank. which is why i assume he called this a "practice" tank.

 

[timbo08]

Being a carpenter myself, I respect the effort put into this project...But, is building a plywood tank saving any money as compared to buying a new one???Sure, the knowledge gained from building yours/mine first plywood tank is priceless...But peep this, I buy brand new 100g glass tanks in my city for $114, will I be saving any money if I built my own???In other words, how much did you spend on your materials Maxumis???Eventually I will be build a plywood tank, just might be a lot bigger though, more like a 250-300g...Excluding the power tools needed, if you spent less than $80 on materials, then ....

Wow, 114 bucks for a 100g... I wished i lived in your city. A 29 gallon cost almost 60 bucks around here.

 

[maxumis]

These price questions are bringing tears to my eyes so far I've spent about R1600(that's South African Rands) +- US $225. ouch... But keep in mind that's for every thing. Lumber for stand and tank AND canopy, glue, silicone, screws, plumbing bits and pieces, epoxy, polyester resin and chopped strand mat, a pump, glass, wood sealer and stain.
I wouldn't say I saved much... A store bought tank setup of more or less the same dimensions would go for about R2500 ($350) and would look nicer, BUT I didn't build the store bought tank, now did I...
So all and all, this is my $225 practice tank. I've done the financial planning for the future +-330G tank and that's gonna be like R7500 ($1050) for the whole setup... So I’d rather spend $225 and have it fail, than spend $1000 and have that FAIL! If this practice tank gives me any s&%t, then I'll build my self a nice little 220G all glass.

Enough of the morbid money talk.
I made some progress this weekend. The stand frame is done, now just needs a couple more layers of wood sealer and then it can be skinned in ply and stained(and sealed again).
Canopy is 80% done structure wise. I need to still add support for the structure and then coat the inside with epoxy. I'll just stain and wood seal the outside...
And the tank it self is probably about 50% done. The individual pieces need 2 more coats of epoxy(at least). So for now its wait time.

From the pics you'll see I probably picked the worst pieces of lumber and ply from the lumber yard... Reason being; if I can get it working with this POOR quality materials, the big boy will definitely work with the good stuff

 

[Dr Joe]

Lookin' GOOD Maximus

And , education is expensive and you've chosen a good way to handle it.

And as far as resin smelling bad, that's not the have of it.

I remember a couple of dopers a freind used to hang out with that would inhaled the fumes to get high, they were pretty much dain bramaged last I saw. But that was years ago...makes you wonder if they're still alive... Idiots.

Are parts hard to get over there?

Like all of it...

Keep up the good work.

Dr Joe

.

 

[maxumis]

The polyester resin stinks to high hell, but at least it applies fairly easy. The 2 part epoxy I got to cover the fibreglass doesn't smell at all, BUT is a nightmare to apply. Tacky as you would not believe! Now if they could just make an epoxy that was odourless, easy to mix and apply, and that is fish safe, that would be a true miracle substance to work with.

Dr J, we have a couple of hardware superstores around, but they are the reason I didn't start on this venture earlier. The mark-up on their products are shocking. So what I did was to find suppliers that are willing to sell to the public. If I attempted to do this project using all hardware superstore materials, I would have spent $400 easy. So, yes and no. You can find parts easy if you're willing to spend the cash. If you want specialist materials like the acrylic epoxy or you don't want to spend too much doe, then you have to hit the net and yellow pages, and push that phone bill for a day or two.

 

[kev82]

Looks good!

I'm gonna have to do something like this, if I only had the space to keep the damn tank after making it