My new tank!

Time for another local update. It's been a slow month and a half. After all that epoxy work around the holidays I've been feeling lazy I guess.

But the tank is now fully epoxied, holes drilled, everything sanded, filled, etc. And today at lunchtime, I put the last coat of white paint on the outside:

IMG00122-20100217-1321.jpg


Glass is next. Then I get to work on all the other components in the project. :) Though I have a head start on the stand - last weekend, I poured two concrete pads in the basement and installed two pier blocks and 4x4 posts under the two main beams that will support the tank. The beams are stupidly large, but also very old, so I did this as an extra safety measure.
 
jfl14609 said:
I love watching the builds on these plywood tanks I would never trust myself to build one
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I wouldn't have trusted myself without plenty of research and guidance from people who have done it before. Now that I'm most of the way through the tank itself though, it's been really fun and easier than I imagined.

brannock_16 said:
Bist du Deutscher?
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Very distantly. :) Honestly though, the name is something I stole from pop culture, not a reflection of my heritage.
 
I cant wait to see this tank up and runningthese plywood tanks are really taking off. I am suprised there arent any people custom building them locally as we have some people very skilled at making them
 
sg1838 said:
When it's finished, we are all going to be invited out to see this masterpiece, right?
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Absolutely. I'll do another frag trade or something when it's finished. It's been like 5 years since the last one I held so I'm due anyways. Probably late summer. Since I don't have a reef tank running right now, I have nothing to pull from to stock this tank, so I'll need the frags. :D

jfl14609 said:
I am suprised there arent any people custom building them locally as we have some people very skilled at making them
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I think there's a pretty good reason for that - even if you were to set up an efficient production facility, there would still be a LOT of labor for what you'd be able to charge, compared to glass or acrylic. Though it's an interesting possibility, for sure.
 
Excited about the progress on this project Dwzm! It seems getting to the point of putting water in is the longest stretch of time. Once you get that far... the fun of stocking can begin. Please keep us updated as you can. I love watching threads like this. :)
 
der_wille_zur_macht said:
I wouldn't have trusted myself without plenty of research and guidance from people who have done it before. Now that I'm most of the way through the tank itself though, it's been really fun and easier than I imagined.

What do you think total cost to build the tank would end up at? The epoxy is expensive isnt it?
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jfl14609 said:
What do you think total cost to build the tank would end up at? The epoxy is expensive isnt it?
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Counting only materials, for just the tank itself, I'm probably going to be at $700-800 or so when it's finished.

The epoxy and the glass are definitely the most expensive parts. I used cheap epoxy (but it's arguably just as good as name brand stuff for something like this). Using brand name epoxy would have added another $150 - $200 or so. Also made some decisions on this tank to keep costs down - the low height means thinner glass is OK, and the overall dimensions meant I could fit it on only three sheets of plywood, for instance. I could easily imagine a tank in this same general size range costing $1200+ in materials if you weren't as stingy.

In terms of time, I haven't really kept track, but the tank itself will probably have 80 - 100 hours of effort into it. I could imagine doing it in 50 or 60 hours, if I took the time to set up a more "production line" environment beforehand.

I was shopping around for a custom ~250g glass tank before I decided to go this route, and I don't need to tell you how expensive that would have been, much less a glass tank this size! If I paid myself what I make in my day job, the wood tank would have been vastly more expensive, though. But since the time spent is part of the enjoyment for me, I'm not counting it as a "cost."
 
dreaminmel said:
It seems getting to the point of putting water in is the longest stretch of time.
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Agreed. Though, I'm "forcing" myself to take my time on this build and not rush ANY step or decision along the way. I want this tank to be satisfying for a good 10 years, at least. The build has been more enjoyable than I'd thought, and it's given me a chance to think back on the half a dozen or so reef tanks I've had in the past - which has generated a lot of "man, I'm never doing it THAT way again" moments, mostly caused by rushing to get a finished system up.

On the other hand, I'm doing a lot of things on this tank that I've never done before and which aren't generally standard practice in the hobby, so maybe it's more risky and "out there" than I think. :D
 
der_wille_zur_macht , if you dont mind me asking in the middle of your fantastic plywood build why is it would you suppose we dont see more plywood sumps. Seems like a fairly easy build. Affordable and you could really make how you wanted it right? Thanks again for posting all of this for us.
 
Hmm, I thought I replied to this but it's not here. Must be the bugs in the forum lately.

I bet it's because most people want to be able to see into their sump. Won't be an issue for me, since I'll have tons of room around and above it.

Also, while it was relatively cheap to build, it was a fair amount of work, and slapping a few baffles into a free or cheap used glass tank is probably cheaper and easier for most people.

In the end, I built the sump mainly as a proof of concept. I wanted to be able to test each step of the build process on the sump before I did it on the main tank. And now I get a really nice sump as a result!
 
Makes sense about getting a cheap tank for a sump that would be hard to beat. Making a sump though does give one some practice before getting to the expensive stuff. Looking forward to some more updates
 
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