Willie's plywood adventure

[Willie McDaries]

thanx sambrinar,
its heavy,but so far I did all the work by myself,I'm to stubborn to ask for help moving it around

[Basile]

Hey Willie; awsome man; i'm worried about a wooden tank. I'm, tagging along for this one.

[Willie McDaries]

Originally Posted by Basile

Hey Willie; awsome man; i'm worried about a wooden tank. I'm, tagging along for this one.

thanx basile,
after you fiberglass the inside of the tank,the wood is safe from water,the wood is basically there to hold the fiberglass until it sets up,if you use enough fiberglass,it alone would hold the water.

the fiberglass seals the tank and makes it incredible strong,then you paint over that with the Sweetwater epoxy paint,that also waterproofs it,and makes it safe for the fish.

the epoxy paint is what they use to paint the inside of residential water towers.

[Basile]

Originally Posted by Willie McDaries

thanx basile,
after you fiberglass the inside of the tank,the wood is safe from water,the wood is basically there to hold the fiberglass until it sets up,if you use enough fiberglass,it alone would hold the water.

the fiberglass seals the tank and makes it incredible strong,then you paint over that with the Sweetwater epoxy paint,that also waterproofs it,and makes it safe for the fish.

the epoxy paint is what they use to paint the inside of residential water towers.

Oh cool, make lots of sense, where do you get that kind of fiberglass.Is it sheets or rolls, i saw what look like plastic that must be it. Is it the same they use for boats?

[Willie McDaries]

Originally Posted by Basile

Oh cool, make lots of sense, where do you get that kind of fiberglass.Is it sheets or rolls, i saw what look like plastic that must be it. Is it the same they use for boats?

I ordered mine from www.fiberglasssite.com most people use the West systems,I couldn't find that brand,so I got the stuff that I used,hoping it would be good too,it seems to work pretty good but I have never used any other brand.

the fiberglass mat is in a roll,looks like cloth,you spread the epoxy resin out like painting,than you embed the fiberglass into that,then you cover it with the epoxy resin,the cloth soaks the epoxy up and it sorta disappears,

the epoxy,when done right,looks like glass,but mine isn't that smooth.
it is used for boat building,thats basically what we are doing,building a inside out boat

[Basile]

Cool thanks for the info and your time.

[lcstorc]

thats basically what we are doing,building a inside out boat

I never would have thought of it this way but you are absolutely right. How interresting

[yungreefer2410]

you can use epoxy or polyester resin. epoxy is much $$ but stronger.

[Willie McDaries]

I think that the polyester resin is less resistant to chemicals and more prone to leach out bad stuff into the water also,but when you paint over it with the epoxy paint it doesn't matter,it also has an extremely bad smell as best as I could understand from what I've read on here.

the epoxy that I used had hardly any smell to it

the epoxy paint smelled like an automotive paint,very strong odor

[JoJo]

hey Willie, its looking real good bro. looking forward to the next set of progress pics.

[Willie McDaries]

thought I might try to work on the top some this weekend,may be add some more bracing to the stand,and try to figure out my sump tank

[Willie McDaries]

well I got a start on my sump today here are some pic,its 44Lx22Wx16D...about 60 gallons

[Jeremy0322]

looking very good

are you going to be making the baffles out of plywood aswell?

[Willie McDaries]

Originally Posted by Jeremy0322

looking very good

are you going to be making the baffles out of plywood aswell?

thanx Jeremy,
thats something I haven't figure out yet,I'll need a bubble trap of some sort for sure,I thought may be doing a bubble tower like Marc melevsreef.com does in his sumps

the box on the right side,with the holes in the bottom,you place some rock rubble in there and the water flows in from the top,over the rocks,the bubbles are contained in that area,the water flows out through the bottom,bubble free

the sump I have now I use a piece of 4" pvc capped on bottom with holes drilled in the sides next to the bottom,it works the same way as his bubble tower.

[Basile]

That look good man, could you glue accrylic panel on wood. wouldn't they sway after a while. I Red that somewhere.You can glue accrylic on accrylic but accrylic on glass or other medium, it bends after a while. can't remember where i red it though. Maybe i'm wrong. just a thought.I'd go with plywood since you got the fiberglass material for it.