Sealing a cheapo fry tank

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suds1421

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 18, 2010
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Midwest
Hey everyone, I'd like to make like a 40 gallon 4 foot long fry tank for Demasoni. I get as much plywood as I want for free from work and Glass is nearly free from a buddy so the main cost is the sealant.

So, what's the most cost effective sealant for a small plywood tank?
 
sweetwaters pretty expensive isn't it. i would say fiberglassing it or using a pond liner would be the most economical options. fiberglass is fairly labor intensive though.
 
If glass is nearly free I would build all-glass tanks and use the plywood for stands. Silicone is cheap and easy to work with.
 
it took,for my 900 gallons 3 gallons, but i spilled one whole gallon on the bottom of my tank. so that being said i could have done it in 2 gallons, so about 140bucks, try to get a liner the size of my tank for that.
 
I'm looking at like a 10, 20 and 50 gallon tank.

I know that the cost won't be that much savings, but I like DIY and I'd have the info if I build a bigger tank in the future :)
 
suds1421;4864668; said:
Hey everyone, I'd like to make like a 40 gallon 4 foot long fry tank for Demasoni. I get as much plywood as I want for free from work and Glass is nearly free from a buddy so the main cost is the sealant.

So, what's the most cost effective sealant for a small plywood tank?
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Assuming you mean something around 48x14x14 and with one of the long sides for viewing glass, that would only require about a pint of epoxy resin.

You can get small epoxy kits pretty easily but they cost a lot more on a per volume basis. If you order a gallon that's a lot of leftover material.

There is polyester resin which can be bought almost anywhere but the stuff that comes in quart kits almost certainly will require fiberglass reinforcement which adds cost and increases the amount of resin required.

I guess if it were me and I just had to use plywood instead of glass I'd pick up a quart of polyester and some fiberglass cloth and use that. I recommend cloth because it requires less resin to wet out than mat.

But I'm the type of guy that doesn't like having a lot of leftover material after a project is done. If you don't mind that then you have a lot more options.

I would also check and see of you can get any of the rubberized pool paints in one quart kits. I'm pretty sure I have seen chlorinated pool paints in quarts.

Muni used the Insul-X product on his build. That's a commonly available chlorinated pool paint.
 
suds1421;4872230; said:
I'm looking at like a 10, 20 and 50 gallon tank.

I know that the cost won't be that much savings, but I like DIY and I'd have the info if I build a bigger tank in the future :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't notice it was you who posted this. I guess having a gallon of epoxy or whatever won't be such a big deal if you're planning three small tanks plus a bigger tank.
 
I'm looking into the pool paints. I have a friend that works on a public pool and paints it each year and another that works for a pool company.

He always seems to have leftover "stuff" ;0
 
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