Thinking of doing a 600 gallon plywood tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
N

Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
333
80
46
43
As some of you know my 300 glass tank split a seam and all the water leaked out. I have most of the tank taken apart. My front panel is 8' by 30" tall and .5" thick. After finding out this would work as the viewing panel for the 600 I really started researching, watching videos and reading alot of threads on here. I also already went over board on the filter, 3 55 gallon drum setup, so I am already good on that. Its looking like for about $500 or less I can build a 600 plywood tank. I would just be doubling the width of my 300 from 2' to 4'. So 8' long, 4' wide and 30" tall. I am actually going to put this in the middle of a wall and drywall the front. The back 2' will be in the filter room. Just looking for any advice like what wood to use and bracing. Not going to see much so looks are not important. Biggest question I have is about the joints, do I use fiberglass mat with the pond shield? Ive seen it done a few different ways so just trying to see what all I need
 
3/4 birch is what D davenmandy and I used for his build. I would double up the plywood so it is 1 1/2 think just for solid structure and do a top brace with 2 openings for feeding/cleaning. Yes you use fiberglass mating on all the seams, do one coat first and on the second add the fiberglass mating
Check out king of diy he did a complete build of exactly what you want
 
His video is what I was basing this on, so just use plywood bracing instead on 2X4? Was thinking since looks are not important I would gain strength with 2X4 bracing over plywood. I am talking about bracing the joints and not the top
 
How many coats of pondshield did you guys use? Im going to research about the bracing. Does anyone know if I can use Momentive rtv 100 series clear silicone to glue the glass to the plywood, reason is I bought a bunch cause I was going to reglue my glass tank
 
Im not 100% on the pond shield im open to any suggestions, the liquid rubber looks like its a great option. Im going to start tearing out the wall and building the second stand for the other side of the wall so got time to decide. I am just cutting the hole in the wall for the tank to fit. I already built the stand for my 300 so im going to build another on the other side and just connect the top
 
I feel as tho Pond shield being epoxy will help make the tank more solid and last longer, I have seen a few plywood tanks that formed water filled bubbles where the rubber met the wood after only a few years. I also did a little test with both sealants and the first coat of epoxy soaked into the wood making all the layers of pond shield more solid with the wood. the rubber never soaked into the wood and was more of a top layer which i did not like. I am currently doing a 600 gallon build and will be using the pond shield its some pricey stuff tho
 
thanks for the input, the one part I dont want to be cheap on is the epoxy, what dimensions are your 600 and how are you going to brace it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom