I’m looking into building a plywood tank, and was just wondering if anyone had any tips on building, preferred type of lumber, screw lengths or types, sealants and inner coating type, or anything else to add. I’d like to build a tank with the inner dimensions as 72X36X36. It’ll be holding just over 400 gallons of water. I won’t start on it for another few months but definitely will be building this year. Still have a couple of other projects to do to the room that it will be in before I start the tank. I’ll be going with a 75 gallon sump as filtration. Just wanting others opinions on it before I start it. I want it done right the first time haha. One question I do have is what thickness in glass do I need for the front screen (that’ll be the only viewing screen)?
Tips on building a plywood tank
- Thread starter RicardoLopez567
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You can find more info using search above.https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/plywood-build.701173/#post-7902359
yea tons of threads to read up on for info. My sig has my 500ish gallon build 6ftx4x3 so similar to what you are doing. It was up for over 5 years with not a single issue before we sold our house and moved.
I will be putting my 2 bichirs in it, but am looking into getting a black ghost knife, spotted gar, and an ornate bichir. Still looking into more fish but those would be the ones I'd like to have. I just thought 36 high so the knife and gar would have plenty of open water to swim in. Now that I think about it should the tank be wider for the gar? I've read that they get around 3 foot long.
If you go nose around in the gar forum you will see that gar have to be grown to their full tank, so PLEASE keep that in mind before you get a 4" gar and put it in a 6' tank. I would say 6'x3'x2' is a solid tank for gar, BGK, bichirs. Ornate and other large upper jaw species if you are only going to do a couple. But, 1st thing is nail down a design before you start and ask as many SPECIFIC questions as you can before you start. I big sweeping question such as your title is hard to get traction/discussion on because lots of plywood tanks have been built. We need further details on what you are wanting and we can help you from there.