Chemcast Acrylic Experiences

[revance]

So I have heard a couple complaints about chemcast not bonding well and the seams failing. I have also seen others say it works flawlessly.

I have a tank made of Chemcast that is not yet setup but after hearing horror stories I am a bit freaked out. If you have a tank made of chemcast that has lasted a long time or has failed, please share your experiences.

Thanks!

 

[sumphead]

First of all sorry for the delay in e-mail response. I have been out of the loop. Secondly, prior to my being out of the loop there were a few leary manufacturers of Chemcast mainly because of it's newness to the market with a couple of fear of inconsistency in resins because of it being an import. None of which were substantiaed to my knowledge. Also I have never heard of a failure because of the chemcast. Now if there have been since I have been away, please e-mail or post a link to this information.

At the moment I have at least 5 Chemcast tanks that were made near or around the time your tank was made that are running fine and well to this day. Also, your tank is a 150 Gallon 60X24X24 is memory serves which is made in 1/2" material with the back and bottom at 3/4" (which too was Chemcast BTW). Industry standard on most 150s is 3/8". I doubt very seriously you have anything to fear.

HTH, and feel free to call or post anymore questions.

R-

 

[revance]

Thanks Ronnie, My concerns first arose when someone (acrylicman) mentioned he wouldn't build a tank out of it. When I asked them about it he mentioned that he had built several tanks to experiment with the new material and all of them failed 6 months after being filled.

A few others mentioned that this used to be a problem and has since been fixed. It also turns out that acrylicman tested the material many years ago (I think 6-8 years ago). The tanks he made were also much larger and still using 1/2" (making mine more overbuilt than his). So while I can understand his reluctance to use the material... I am a bit more comfortable knowing that this is hopefully not an issue anymore.

I was just hoping to get more reassurance by getting other's experiences.

 

[sumphead]

No sweat Russ, in my expereince chemcast works out just as nicely as GR, G, or PolyCast except for a few slight variations in thickness out of the casts. As a matter of fact Kyle has a 40G fuge out of 1/4" that has water in it since before your's was built and was propbably one of the best pieces I've made. Ask him how it's holding up. How did all the finishing work you wanted to do turn out?

R-

 

[revance]

I've got the structural part of the stand done and ready to go. Need to get the plumbing all done and get water in it. After I get it running, then I will start on the cabinetry for the stand and hood.

 

[sumphead]

YGPM