390 Gallon Plywood reef Aquarium

hey jack thanks for getting back to me. glad to hear that your tank is working flawlessly. One more question I do have. There is also a guy on here that built a massive plywood tank as well in Europe its labeled matts 5000ltr. I asked him a question about this a while back and he hasn't been able to get back to me on it yet. But anyway on his tank build he had mentioned that he didn't want coralline algae and due to having the semi plyable sides due to the rubber and epoxy sides that he wouldn't be able to scrap it off. Guess my question comes in a few parts. Are you worried about coralline algae build up? If so have you found a way to keep it down? And if your not worried about it and if someone did want to try and maintain the build up of it do you have any ideas? I asked on matts build if he would recommend applying like an 1/8" thick piece of acrylic to the sides with no glass while the epoxy is wet. so that way you would have a surface to scrap if you wanted to remove it. Any response to that would be great. Like can you not do it due to the epoxy not drying correctly or anything of that sort thanks again and gorgeous build.
 
Hi Hatcher2014 I dont dont mind the algae buildup so it has not been a concern, other then on my power heads. I went with black so it is more difficult to see the algae. You could try the acrylic i dont see it hurting anything. The rubber when it dried had a rough surface so when i applied the epoxie it really didnt smooth out the surface, but i used rollers and brushes to apply instead of pouring. I think i put six coats of rubber and three coats of epoxie. I glued a finger leather to the back wall on a ceramic disc and the leather wasnt getting enough light so i went to pull it off it didnt budge, i ended up using a screwdriver to pry the disc off the epoxie. No damage to the membrane. Hope this helps. Ask any questios you want.
 
Jack5746 said:
Nuxx measure three times and cut once. You will do fine. Hope to see how it comes out.
Click to expand...

Came out pretty good. Turned out to be more accurate when my wife helped :P

qt_tank_ready.jpg
 
Jack5746 said:
Yeah I heard about all the rain hitting Texas stay safe.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

It's weird our neighborhood always seems to get slammed, think since it's pretty high in elevation, we get very strong winds. Few trees in the neighborhood and golf course were knocked down in two storms this year. One last week.

We were pretty much left alone from the crazy storms Monday. There was a small tornado that touched down about 2-3 miles away though. Our neighborhood just got a ton of rain from the memorial day storms.

Looks like it is kind of starting up again right now. Tornado just touched down about 50 miles SW of us a few minutes ago... sunny here though...

End weather rant...
 
Love the tank! Been researching ply tanks and am realy leaning towards one. Just a question, why didn't you just use pond armor instead of the liquid rubber and epoxy?
 
Well I did some research and liquid rubber supposedly has the ability to repair itself if it gets any pin holes. To be honest it has worked great, not one single leak, granted i used a lot of rubber and epoxy and i think using ceramic floor tiles on the bottom has also helped.
 
I miss my plywood tank. It was 84x48x48
They are actually really easy, but yes never racking for the initial fill up.
My peace of mind was just overbuilding the poop out of it so there was no worry. IE 2x6 euro bracing all around the top, along with 2 or maybe 3 other 2x6 crossbraces. Sure, there was a lil showing but nothing a lil strategically placed halides angled didn't fix.
I also used a 2x4 running length wise about 2/3 of they way down in the inside of the tank on the back. I then fiberglass matted it, as well as every other corner very well. Then using fiberglass resin all topped with many coats of Sweetwater potable paint.
I will definitely do another one in my next house.
Congrats. Looks great
 
Thanks i had lots of nay sayers telling it wouldnt work i didnt have enough braces, i did add a u shaped brace across half of each side and along the front 4" wide and i pushed the back of the tank up against the wall. No deflection on the front and im constantly leaning over the front edge, never have heard a single noise from settling.
 
Jack5746 said:
Well I did some research and liquid rubber supposedly has the ability to repair itself if it gets any pin holes. To be honest it has worked great, not one single leak, granted i used a lot of rubber and epoxy and i think using ceramic floor tiles on the bottom has also helped.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer jack. Another question, you can pm me if you do not want it out in the open, what was the cost of the tank itself. Trying to get a ballpark figure, still on the fence which way I'm going, but I'm looking at about $1,300 for a glass tank and wanted to compare the prices. Thanks in advance.
 
Liquid rubber about 250.00 for 5 gallon bucket, 75.00 for roll of cloth, 79.00 for sweet water epoxy, 75.00 for wood and around 500.00 for starfire glass. And those are just estimates cause i dont remember the total price for each. All the items listed except the glass you can find the prices on the web. Sorry i couldnt be any clearer. That doesent include the wood for the stand, glue, silocone which was 10.00 per tube, i bought 10 and only used five. I think if you add it all up it will be a little cheaper then buying pre built aquarium and a stand. But big thing is time in building. I took about two to three months. Not rushing the build and allowing the coats to dry a couple days between helped in the long run. With plywood you can drill all you want and its easy, glass on the other hand is not an easy process to drill. Lastly is the pride in accomplishing a good build and knowing you have succeeded when you have no leaks at all.
 
Jack5746 said:
Liquid rubber about 250.00 for 5 gallon bucket, 75.00 for roll of cloth, 79.00 for sweet water epoxy, 75.00 for wood and around 500.00 for starfire glass. And those are just estimates cause i dont remember the total price for each. All the items listed except the glass you can find the prices on the web. Sorry i couldnt be any clearer. That doesent include the wood for the stand, glue, silocone which was 10.00 per tube, i bought 10 and only used five. I think if you add it all up it will be a little cheaper then buying pre built aquarium and a stand. But big thing is time in building. I took about two to three months. Not rushing the build and allowing the coats to dry a couple days between helped in the long run. With plywood you can drill all you want and its easy, glass on the other hand is not an easy process to drill. Lastly is the pride in accomplishing a good build and knowing you have succeeded when you have no leaks at all.
Click to expand...

Sweet, thx jack for all the info, really appreciate it.
 
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