WP's 55gal to 270gal plywood tank conversion

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by chuukus

looks verry nice, I know i need to start a thread and im working on it. Its going to be a diy thread. The thing is im building some acrylic tanks some opent top frameless glass tanks and the monster 240 gallon plywood glass tank. When these projects are all done i will have an all in one thread.

Sounds like your are a busy person! Takes me months just to get one little project started.

Originally Posted by chuukus

To answer your questions the reason I used the sweetwater epoxy paint is because when I started this project I diddnt know about west systems epoxy so I used fiberglass resign and cloth that I bought by the gallon at the auto parts store. It worked great but then I was worried about the resign poisning my plants and fish so I put 3 nice thick coats of the sweetwater epoxy over the fiberglass resign so all together the fiberglass resign is about 6 mm thick with another 4 mm of epoxy paint over that, guarenteed not to leak and verry strong

I never thought of checking out Auto Parts store... So is fiberglass resin and epoxy two different things? Is fiberglass resin aka polyester resin? May I ask how much a gallon of that stuff costs you?

Originally Posted by chuukus

when you apply your epoxy if you buy it by the gallon I suggest only mixing up 1/3 at a time so its not setting up on you before you use it up it does stink so I opened the garage door turned on the exaust fan and used 3 other fans to blow the fumes away as I painted and I also suggest buying cheap brushes and dont try reusing them and wear rubber gloves.

I am in the final stages of applying epoxy, I went a different route (not West Systems) and we'll see how that pins out. I am going to describe the details in a separate post with some more pics.

[chuukus]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Sounds like your are a busy person! Takes me months just to get one little project started.



I never thought of checking out Auto Parts store... So is fiberglass resin and epoxy two different things? Is fiberglass resin aka polyester resin? May I ask how much a gallon of that stuff costs you?



I am in the final stages of applying epoxy, I went a different route (not West Systems) and we'll see how that pins out. I am going to describe the details in a separate post with some more pics.

Yeah I stay busy. Me and my father have a good sized shop with every tool u need for cabinet making so im verry lucky. Thanks to this wonderfull forum addicted to this hobby my goal is to get good enough at building tanks that I can build custom tanks someday.

Yes i think its a little bit different but not by much. Ive seen lots of guys use it for sealing tanks and ive heard of people just using the fiberglass resign alone with good luck. Ive also heard it can kill fish and I believe it could if u did not give it time to cure properly. the exact brand I used is BONDO fiberglass resing the can says its for reparing metal, wood, fiberglass and masonry it cost me $29.99 for one gallon and I used the fiberglass cloth in the corners for strength.

I wish you the best of luck and I cant wait to see how the filter system works. Its definetly a great idea

[Hoppy]

All I can say, is thank God I no longer have a place where it would even be possible to make one of these! I don't think I could resist the urge if I did. This is really interesting!

[FastTimes]

looking great so far. I'll stay tuned to see it filled.

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by chuukus

Yes i think its a little bit different but not by much. Ive seen lots of guys use it for sealing tanks and ive heard of people just using the fiberglass resign alone with good luck. Ive also heard it can kill fish and I believe it could if u did not give it time to cure properly. the exact brand I used is BONDO fiberglass resing the can says its for reparing metal, wood, fiberglass and masonry it cost me $29.99 for one gallon and I used the fiberglass cloth in the corners for strength.

That's cheap! I remember checking out Bondo something in HD and it was more like 50-60 a gallon. Your tank is going to be "bullet proof". I am more experimental at the moment but if I build one day a tank inside the house I'll probably go the proven way.

Originally Posted by chuukus

I wish you the best of luck and I cant wait to see how the filter system works. Its definetly a great idea

I'll keep everyone updated!

Originally Posted by Hoppy

All I can say, is thank God I no longer have a place where it would even be possible to make one of these! I don't think I could resist the urge if I did. This is really interesting!

Come on Hoppy, you must have a garage or basement that could be cleared...

Originally Posted by FastTimes

looking great so far. I'll stay tuned to see it filled.

Thanks for stopping by, and welcome to the Planted Tank!

[tusk]

I've read that the fiberglass resin is no good for fish and that it really is not water proof, more water resistant without a sealer/top coat of some sort.

You should shop around for the fiberglass resin, I use it frequently in car audio stuff and I don;' think I could bring myself to spend $50 on a gallon of it.

[Wasserpest]

I didn't get the fiberglass stuff, I went with epoxy which is hopefully waterproof for extended periods.

Seems like some go with the West System and then in addition to that paint it with Sweetwater Epoxy paint, which seems like expensive overkill. But it makes sense to paint the fiberglass resin.

I'll post some of my epoxy adventures over the weekend, just need to sit down with Mr Photoshop for a little while.

[chuukus]

any news? I cant wait to see how it turned out.

[Wasserpest]

Thanks for asking... Worked on it over the weekend, but no time for pictures yet. Possibly tomorrow I will find time to write up my Epoxy adventures.

[Wasserpest]

Honestly, I was a bit scared of epoxy. Fast setting time, almost explosive heat development, and brain cell damaging smell was what I had read. None of that was quite the case. After a while I figured out that it is just some glorified glue. I spent some time to research which epoxy would be the best for my situation, and ended up with Coat-It made by Goop.



Compared to the more obvious choice (West Systems) this epoxy comes in at half the cost, has a dark coloration, and requires only 1 to 2 coats. It has a very syrupy consistency, wetting out fiberglass mats would be almost impossible. It also makes painting vertical surfaces quite easy. The smell is very benign, I suffered no immediate brain damages besides a very light headache in my not so aerated garage. After 12 hours Coat-It starts to get less tacky, and after 2 or 3 days it feels dry.



Important things with epoxy - take the right proportions, and mix well. I got an 8lb kit of Coat-It which covers around 80sqft (about the size of my project). 7lb resin and 1lb hardener, so it needs to be mixed 7:1, which was simple enough with a little scale that otherwise weights fertilizer powders. One of the things to avoid with epoxy is to get it on your skin... can you say itch & burn? I wore two pairs of gloves, thin latex underneath some heavy duty ones. The latex ones help to get the thicker ones off without touching any epoxy.



The dark coloration makes it easier to see where the coat is too thin. I did two layers in most places. To apply it, a fairly stiff bristled brush that didn't shed hairs worked best for me. Neither freezing the brushes nor keeping them submerged in paint thinner kept the epoxy from hardening, so I just threw them out after each painting session.



Like I mentioned earlier, kept both tanks and the back separate to make painting easier. With the filter compartments, it would have been difficult to paint with the back panel attached.



After silicone-ing the front glass panels, I will screw/glue the back to the rest of the construction and paint just where the corners meet. Already drilled a hole into the garage wall for the overflow. Time to think about how to lift the whole thing up onto its concrete base. I'd like to suspend it in the air somehow, while adding some thinset, and then lowering it down into the fresh mortar to provide the most level surface.

[CL]

Great build so far! Keep it up

[chuukus]

lookin good, can I ask where you purchased the goop coat it ive never heard of it and if its halph the cost I would like to get some? Where you able to buy it locally at a home depot or lowes or did you have to order it online? In my case I ordered from aquatic eco systems that charged me a $30.00 hazmat fee on top of the regular shipping fee.

I just have one suggestion you might want to mix some more epoxy up after you screw the back on. I tipped my tank so it was kind of like balancing on the corner shim each side so it stayes then pour a nice bead of epoxy all the way down where the back and bottom meet. when I did it the epoxy leveled it self and made a verry strong seam. its just a suggestion I did mine like this on every seam. Just a little easy insurance that it wont leak. good luck and nice job

[tusk]

What is a few brain cells here and there

How thick did that go on? Going to hold up to rocks moving around and such? Just thinking aloud.

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by chuukus

lookin good, can I ask where you purchased the goop coat it ive never heard of it and if its halph the cost I would like to get some? Where you able to buy it locally at a home depot or lowes or did you have to order it online? In my case I ordered from aquatic eco systems that charged me a $30.00 hazmat fee on top of the regular shipping fee.

Here is where I discovered Coat-It first. They also have some more information about it. Here is another sheet with some information. I bought it from this place, cheapest incl shipping for me.

Aquatic Eco is nice, but for a budget conscious DIY'er like me a bit too rich. Their shipping charges are not competitive for small orders.

Originally Posted by chuukus

I just have one suggestion you might want to mix some more epoxy up after you screw the back on. I tipped my tank so it was kind of like balancing on the corner shim each side so it stayes then pour a nice bead of epoxy all the way down where the back and bottom meet. when I did it the epoxy leveled it self and made a verry strong seam. its just a suggestion I did mine like this on every seam. Just a little easy insurance that it wont leak. good luck and nice job

Most of the seams in this construction are reinforced with triangular 2x2s, which should add a lot of strength. But for those that are not, I will do that... if I have enough Epoxy left over.

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by tusk

What is a few brain cells here and there

How thick did that go on? Going to hold up to rocks moving around and such? Just thinking aloud.

Good point there... Doing several layers of glassfiber mats and epoxy will create a much stronger/better protection against falling rocks. Heavy, sharp edged rocks would probably puncture the epoxy layer that I painted over the relatively soft plywood. Knowing that, I will not use large rocks in this tank, and be careful when working with pokey objects inside the tank.

I can't say how thick the epoxy layer exactly is. I hope thick enough.