Plywood Tanks For Fish Room - Build Log

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Luc said:
You're not used to starting anything small eeeh...wow.
You've been put on the watch-list...
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I was always taught, "Go BIG or Go Home!"

I'm still wrestling with the space issue in my current fish room. It was originally set to be a workout room, so the arrangement isn't that great. The garage is looking like a better idea more and more. It's just where do i put all the stuff that's in it. I wish I had gone with my gut after Katrina when I had to have it rebuilt. I was going to widen it from 2 car to 3 car and make it 2 story. Instead, I just had it rebuilt as it was before the storm knocked it down.
 
Nope, the tank was running for about a year and a half before I emptied it to repaint it, no problems, and thats was with weekly 50%. And, it actually has a plywood top that I walk on (the tank sits on the floor) to do feeding/water changes on the tanks above it. Its pretty bombproof.

If you have ever worked with fiberglass, you know how flexible the epoxy can be. I.e. take a single strip of cloth about a foot long and soak it in resin, and let it dry flat. You will be able to bend it almost into a complete circle before it starts cracking.
 
Well, this just made a turn for the interesting. Ever have an epiphany?

epiphany - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
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I was reading what I wrote in my last post (I was always taught, "Go BIG or Go Home!") and realized that I was completely missing the boat on the opportunity in front of me. That coupled with MonsterFishResc's thread on his tank expansion got me to thinking.

Last year when I was visiting my friend Jack, he offered me one of the big pieces of glass that he doesn't have in use right now to build a big plywood tank of my own. I never thought I'd be able to take him up on that offer, but now is the perfect time. He and I have been discussing coated plywood (epoxy or otherwise) vs. lined plywood tanks. He switched over to lined plywood and swears by it after having troubles with coated tanks.

So, that said, if his offer still holds for the glass, I'm going to go in a different direction here. Instead of building these tanks and doing my other project of building my 210 into the wall shared by the fish room and dining room, I'm going to build one BIG plywood tank viewed from the dining room. I'm going to target minimum of 1500 gallons and shoot for a goal for 2000.
 
sick....i want to see construction pics as I would like to do this eventually as well..maybe not quite so big, but something along the lines of 12'x24"x24" or something.
 
And the winner is:

Internal dimensions 118 x 98 x 60 = 3000 gallons!

The room is 190 x 140 and I need 66 clearance on the 190 and 36 clearance on the 140. Allowing for 2x6 lumber all around and 1/4 plywood with plumbing tucked inside the studs and outside of the open radius of the room's doors.

The boring phase 1 begins:

Clear area in garage to receive current contents of fish room.

Empty current contents of fish room into garage.

Possibly open up ceiling and raise it to have exposed 4x6 beams and allow for more room about the tank. I'll have to give up some attic space, but I don't use it anyway.
 
This is going to be interesting indeed. Make sure you're heavy on the pictures.
I want to see a picture of every screw, hole, brush and everything around it!

You are so iCal'd....

Good luck, look forward to see it growing..
 
This is going to be interesting indeed. Make sure you're heavy on the pictures.
I want to see a picture of every screw, hole, brush and everything around it!

You are so iCal'd....

Good luck, look forward to see it growing..
 
wow you married? I'd guess no cause my wife would smack me in the head for an idea like that. I guess I'll to live through you for a while!
Def sounds interesting and i'm subscribed.
 
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