My new 2600 gallon plywood tank project

[VLDesign]

Hard to say..

When I did the bottom with full fiberglass cloth I ended up using (2) 1.5 gallon kits which included a base coat, then the glass, then a wet in coat folllowed by a final top coat. Obviously the wet in coat took up alot of epoxy.

If I am not mistaken just straight coverage (w/o fiberglass to soak up the epoxy) I think I got about 2 full coats on the tank with a 1.5 gallon kit. So about 125 sq feet per quart or resin. It might have been more but I am pretty sure that is what I remember mixing up.

How much coverage do you get per kit (1.5 gallon) with Max ACR? I'm at around 425 sq. ft without deducting the window. I didn't deduct the 32 sq. ft. for it to allow me some extra.

 

[Ramesh]

The thick epoxy is from the same company as Max ACR and it's called Thixotropic Epoxy and is super thick and great for corner joints for added strength.

The fiberglass cloth I used was the 9 ounce satin weave.

What size kit would you recommend for the Thixotropic Epoxy? I am going to fillet joint all the corners for extra strength.
The tank is going to be 14'x6'x4'.

 

[Egon]

What size kit would you recommend for the Thixotropic Epoxy? I am going to fillet joint all the corners for extra strength.
The tank is going to be 14'x6'x4'.

Be careful with the depth of a plywood tank. I don't think there's any over 3 feet deep that don't leak. I could be wrong.......

 

[VLDesign]

What size kit would you recommend for the Thixotropic Epoxy? I am going to fillet joint all the corners for extra strength.
The tank is going to be 14'x6'x4'.

I would go with the 2 gallon kit. You might be able to get by with 1 but I am not sure. I used almost 2 on mine.

You can always get the 1 gallon kit and if you need more order another one.

 

[CJH]

What size kit would you recommend for the Thixotropic Epoxy? I am going to fillet joint all the corners for extra strength.
The tank is going to be 14'x6'x4'.

Assuming those dimensions are L x W x H, that's going to be 14' + 14' + 6' + 6' + 4' + 4' + 4' + 4' = 56' or 672" of fillet. If you made the fillet 1/2" x 1/2" that's 672" x 1/2" x 1/2" = 168 cubic inches. But a fillet will be divided across the diagonal more or less so you'll only need half of 168 or 84 cubic inches of epoxy. That's about a third of a gallon. Running fillets with thickened epoxy creates some waste so you'll need at least half a gallon.

I you made the fillet 1" x 1" you'd need 336 cubic inches of epoxy, or about 1.5 gallons, not factoring in waste.

In all of my above examples the cubic inches is for the total volume of epoxy and hardener mixed together. So that's the total volume of the kit.

I have not used Max ACR but from everything I've heard they'd be happy to go over these numbers with you and recommend fillet size, etc.

 

[cvermeulen]

Glad to see you finally got this holding water. I think the lessons learned regarding the fiber reinforcement in the corners applies to smaller tanks as well actually, though less critical. I built my 600gl with fiber reinforced polyester on all seams and it's still doing pretty well. Part of me regrets not actually doing the entire tank with FRP instead of just the seams.

 

[Tor-Eriik]

If you have a weakspot in the tank, where the epoxy\fiberglass cracks, will it crack no matter how many layers you lay?

 

[cvermeulen]

If you have a weakspot in the tank, where the epoxy\fiberglass cracks, will it crack no matter how many layers you lay?

Epoxy and fiberglass composite is pretty strong and flexible stuff... I would be surprised if it cracks. More likely it would delaminate from the substrate. In that case yes, adding more layers wouldn't strengthen the initial bond between composite and plywood. The way around that is to line the whole tank with fiber reinforced composite... of course this is material and time intensive though. VLD's tank is built so sturdily that I really wouldn't expect this to be an issue though.

If you're just using resin with no fiber reinforcement it actually becomes more likely to crack the more layers you use jsut because it becomes more and more brittle and less toelrant of flexing.

 

[VLDesign]

From what I saw.. Yes when just epoxy was used it could and did get micro cracks in the corners on the back and a small one in the front. The more layers of epoxy I used to more it just kept cracking and opening up.

After putting the fiberglass down the epoxy was able to hold strong and not crack under the pressure.

 

[artfan]

Please post a picture of your basement when it's done.