Saturday Plywood Tank Build - Advice Needed!!!

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brianhellno

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 30, 2008
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USA
I'm building a plywood tank using pond liner and acrylic sheets for the windows. I'm going to use the bolt up method to hold them in place and GE Silicone 1 for the "gasket." I have almost everything together except for I'm at a stand still as far as the engineering side goes. First some information on the tank and materials used:

The tank is a 96 long by 30 wide by 24 high
The acrylic sheets are two 4' by 2' by 1/2" pieces (which now that I have them seems like complete overkill as far as thickness goes)
The pond liner is a 10' by 13' 20 mil. thickness liner
The plywood sheets are 5/8" thick (also feels like overkill at this point)

Now the question is I'm not too sure how much plywood I should leave to hold the windows in place. Right now I have a 3" border of plywood around both windows and that seems excessive. Should I bump it down to 2 inches of border? Maybe even less? At 3" inches of plywood border that gives me two 42" x 18" windows. At two inches I'll have two 44" x 20" windows. That would be a little nicer but keep in mind because the sheets of acrylic take up one entire side of the tank the plywood border will be 3 inches wide total all the way down the 8 foot stretch of tank across the top bottom and sides. I guess my main question is, with bracing across the top and possibly the bottom if necessary could I get away with two inches or should I play it safe and go with three? All thoughts and opinions are welcome.

If needed I'll get pics or any other information that's needed.
 
basslover34;2783979; said:
You can never go wrong with pics :D

But to answer your question, 1.5" boarder is all that is really needed...personally thats as much as I would go. but the wider you make it the easier of a time you will have sealing the window in place
Click to expand...

lol I'll put up some pictures later. You sir were the little push I needed to go for it. I'll drop it to a two inch border on the top and sides and leave the bottom at three and get it bolted up. I'll update on how it works out later.
 
Tank is almost done I just need to bolt up the other window and allow time to dry. Here's some fun facts I learned during the build. Hopefully they will help others who want to build plywood tanks.

- have all of your measurements taken and lines drawn before taking place in recreational activities (for example drinking)

- having the right tools for the job helps immensely. I tried getting by on the bare minimum and its very obvious.

- in a somewhat enclosed space silicone will burn the hell out of your eyes if your wearing contacts

- don't "guestimate" you'll guess wrong

- before going to the hardware store write down everything you'll possibly need and get extra. Making a trip back to return unused things is one thing but going back three times for more stuff is another.

- wear clothes you don't like

- a quarter of an inch does matter and is very noticable despite what the guy at the hardware store tells you

That's all for now. While a lot of this stuff seems like it should be obvious unfortunately I ignored certain things because I wanted to get to it. Anyways if I get a chance later ill get some pics.
 
Is the tank 8' left to right with 2 pcs 4' wide Plex for the front viewing area? Is there a 2" or 3"center strip of 5/8 plywood ? You would want a brace at that point as the ply and plex joints would be the weak point. Pic would help.
 
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