Stacked Lumber Method for Smaller DIY Wooden Tanks

[cvermeulen]

works every time.

Not to be a jerk about it but you can say that when your tank finally holds water Pete.

The stacked lumber design is something I've never been a fan of. It's wasteful, heavy, expensive, extremely labor intensive, leaves you with the need to sheath the inside of it unless you want the log cabin look... I could go on.

You're right, there's no "right" or "wrong" way, but I find the stacked lumber method questionable at best on giant tanks, nevermind a relatively small one. The suggestion to use 1x2's is almost ridiculous - I don't know about the lumber you have there, but I usually have to pick through half a lift of lumber to find a few straight 1x2's. Using this method would take forever, and leave you with tank walls shaped like potato chips, when you could have a few sheets of 3/4 ply cut up and banged together in one evening. Oh and also, stacked lumber leaves you with hundreds of seams in every wall. Each seam is a potential leak and stress point for your coating (unless you fiberglass or sheath).

As for overkill being insurance - well sure, but there are limits here. If there wasn't you would have built yours with concrete. You can achieve a comfortable design margin for even the largest tanks without going this far off the deep end.

Anyway, I apologise if this comes across the wrong way, I just really am not a fan of this design.

 

[wrslrcichlid]

I will simply mention cvermeulen that you skipped nolapete's disclaimer about the Max ACR. I have never built my own tank, but hope to in the future. I haven't done the necessary research to offer anything here, but just wanted to make sure nolapete's comment wasn't taken out of context and misapplied.

 

[cvermeulen]

I will simply mention cvermeulen that you skipped nolapete's disclaimer about the Max ACR. I have never built my own tank, but hope to in the future. I haven't done the necessary research to offer anything here, but just wanted to make sure nolapete's comment wasn't taken out of context and misapplied.

Well, OK, but that's not much of a disclaimer. ANY design built by someone with common sense and some basic skills then sealed with 2 part epoxy resin and fiberglass will hold water. Not to go down a rabbit hole here but using 2 part epoxy resin instead of polyester is a waste IMO as well, but I've voiced that opinion in a few other places and we probably don't need to get into it. I'm not trying to use Pete's experience as an example of why this design is bad or anything, I'm just pointing out that you can hardly say "Works every time!" when clearly it does not.

 

[Oscarum monstruoso]

I'm just pointing out that you can hardly say "Works every time!" when clearly it does not.

99% of the time it works all the time.

 

[spiff44]

I had success with using cedar 6x6's for window frames... I don't see why you couldn't make a whole box like this with windows all the way around. So instead of stacked lumber or plywood, put a window there... I just happen to use an existing concrete wall and floor to save on materials.

You could conceivably build a large tank with just 8 or so pieces of wood.

 

[Egon]

As it stands right now my tank (4300 gallons) is around .88 cents per gallon. It'll go up to around a whopping $1.04 per gallon after I coat it with Max ACR. Add the 4 Reeflo Hammerheads and some plumbing and I'm up to around $1.41 per gallon.

I could add an Aquabead 9.0 @ $3250 and 2 Fishmate FM 267s @ $1050 shipped and still be at $2.40 per gallon. Calculate any build and see what the $$ per gallon is and compare.

The stacked lumber makes up about 1/6th the cost of the tank, so it's hardly a deal breaker.

In regard to doing a tank for less, sure you can. Will you get the durability, maybe. Is it foolproof, unlikely. The thing about this design is that it is simple, solid, and works every time. I'm sure Egon will chime about mine leaking so I'll add a disclaimer that "if you use Max ACR as your coating and reinforce with fiberglass" to hush that monster.

 

[David R]

You guys must pay a very low amount for lumber over there. It would cost a fortune to build a tank with that method here.

That has always been my thought too! Even plywood here is fairly expensive, building a tank out of ply that could be built our of 10mm glass "offcuts" here simply isn't economical.