Plywood Tank

Has anyone here had any experience with building a plywood/glass tank?  I am thinking about building one and wanted to see if anyone had some pointers.  Any input would be appreciated!!

    -=J=-

 

P.S.  Also anyone know if using countertop laminate would bypass the need for the epoxy?  I would assume being it is safe for humans that it would be safe for aquarium inhabitants.

 

Edited by jbruse

Went to Kevin house and saw his Tanks i didnt think a wood tank could look good but i stand corrected Very impressed!!!!!!

pics pics pics

I'll second what Fireshrimp said.  Kevin's done a great job on putting that system together.  Very impressive, imo.

I was going to build a plywood tank and researched it quite heavily a month or 2 ago.

The whole thing hinges on how well-sealed the inside edges are. The best way of sealing the plywood I found was to use a pond liner. It's flexible and won't crack like epoxy no matter how much the plywood box itself flexes when filled.

I'll build one eventually, so I'm interested in some pics and more info on the subject.

-Tom

Wow only $10 for a 4x8x1/8 sheet that is allot cheaper than the $45 a gal epoxy or for the countertop laminate!  This may be even less expensive than I had prevosiouly thought! Any one know where to get acrylic or glass for a good price?   If I can get all this for fairly “cheap” I might be able to get my better halve's permission to buy everything this month.   As Homer Simpson would say aaahhhh 300 gallons. (drool)   

 

 

Kevin, In the "Post Reply" box on the right you should see a camera with an arrow. That's the button to hit to upload them from your computer. But first make them only 6-8 inches wide or about 500 pixels at 72 per inch for web use. After they are uploaded and appear in the body of the post, be sure to hit enter at the end of each link or else they will line up horizontally and make the screen a bugger to read.

BTW - I wonder if www.garf.org still has the plans for a plywood tank on their website.

Edited by Mark Peterson

Kevin - If you send me the pics, I'll host them for you on one of my domains.  Email them to me @ [email protected]

 

Thanks for posting those for me Mark. I don't know why it didn't work for me. The first picture is of my 72g bowfront that has been set up for about 18 months. The 300g has only been set up for 5 months. The light you see comming from around the doors will soon be eliminated by using some neoprene rubber strips. The bottom pic is the left third of the tank. I did not use any live rock in the big tank. All I have used is about 3 cups of sand from my 72g and a few small pieces of Utah rock that had been in the 72g for about 6 months. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the coraline algae is really starting to kick off now. I would be interested in getting some more sand from other peoples tanks to add a little more diversity. I have sand I could trade (either live or base) if anyone wants to help me out.

Thanks. The 300 is in the basement. The equipment is in a small room to the right which also houses my furnace. If I can ever figure out how to post pics, I will show more.