wood qestions, glass

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njackson

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 12, 2007
1,203
1
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york, uk
hi

iam thinking of building a tank outside , becuase i see a lot of threads , were a lot you build your own tank , so i got thinking of building my own , the reason iam building outside becuase i have space and no space inside.

the qestion i got is what is the cheapest wood i can use for a tank build, so i can work out the cost and would i able to buy 3ft tank or 4ft and use the front and back of the tanks for the front of my new tank and use the side for the sides.

the tank size will be 8ft x 3ft x 3ft or 10ft x 3ft x 3ft and would i need planning permisson in the uk.

what is the cheapest why of building a tank.
thanks
 
i found out plywood is cheap so what plywood would i need , wood i need marin plywood becasue of the tank or Exterior grade plywood becasue it going outside ,

could i buy marin plywood and varnish to protect or should i put marine plywood and exterior grade plywood togehter.
 
Plywood is cheapest way to do it, but you are going to need to build walls to support the plywood for a tank this size. There are a lot of things that go into building an indoor tank and quite a few more for an outdoor tank. From time to time on the web I have seen some people that have done it and documented it you might want to search MFK or google and see if you can find a step by step description of what others have done.
 
there will be one wall at the back of the tank , were the shed is , will that be ok. and does anybody know how thick the arylic or glass and the plywood need to be
 
There are stickies I think for the acrylic and glass thicknesses needed. For plywood I would use 3/4.

One wall for that tank will not be enough. I am going to guess that if you are using an existing shed wall that will not even be sufficient for that side. You need a very solid box with almost no flex for the plywood to sit in.

Again I would really recommend reading a lot of the posts on this site there is a wealth of information from people who have built plywood tanks and you will learn have a lot of questions answered (many of them you would probably never even think to ask).
 
iam going to make a plan and do far a have a list ,

screws
wood glue
slicon
sandpaper
arylic/glass
super glue
plywood marine 3/4
pond liner

for the stand i thnking of using brick because i got some in the garden and the sump i could use my two ft glass and my other small tanks.

what do you think , hope i haven't miss anything

more plans soon.
 
Brick should work for the stand if you design it right, I would consider digging out the area a bit, packing it down, leveling, building a form, and then pouring a concrete pad for the tanks stand. Or else the weight may sink your stand into the ground setting it off level.....then anything could happen to it.

As you are laying down morter for the bricks, keep a level with you at all times, after you set each new brick down, level it, and go the next.

get a grout tool to smooth all the grout you see, I forget the name of the tool offhand (been a few years since I've done brick work) but it does a really good job, just a little metal tool.

You will need acid to wash the bricks down after everything has dried up.(this is what we used it always worked good) Don't forget gloves and goggles !

If your going to have the tank by your shed, you could keep your sump in the shed, with everything hooked in there and away from the conditions.

sound like you have a nice project ahead of you, have fun!
 
chemicall;2636504; said:
Brick should work for the stand if you design it right, I would consider digging out the area a bit, packing it down, leveling, building a form, and then pouring a concrete pad for the tanks stand. Or else the weight may sink your stand into the ground setting it off level.....then anything could happen to it.

As you are laying down morter for the bricks, keep a level with you at all times, after you set each new brick down, level it, and go the next.

get a grout tool to smooth all the grout you see, I forget the name of the tool offhand (been a few years since I've done brick work) but it does a really good job, just a little metal tool.

You will need acid to wash the bricks down after everything has dried up.(this is what we used it always worked good) Don't forget gloves and goggles !
Click to expand...

the bricks will be on concrete floor in the garden. thanks
 
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