18' x 9' x 3.5' catfish tank build in progress.....

[tall.jay]

Oh the wife has a guppy 10 gal now, and it's doing really well. Was thinking of taking her overstock and just making this a 4000 gal guppy build?!? hehe

Which begs the question, how many guppies can fit in a 4000 gallon tank? Followed closely by, how long would it take your fish to decimate the guppy population?

 

[crenipterus svenagalus]

i hate you out of jealousy, but i love you out of envy. want an albino asian redtail for that tank?

 

[Onion01]

3rd most awesome tank ever!

 

[AquataHolic420]

now thats dedication.

 

[cvermeulen]

Having a shop do it would give you a nice result, but then if there are any imprefections you'l be super upset. If you do it yourself, it'll take a long time, but it will be worth it in the end - you've demonstrated that you are the kind of guy who can go slowly and do it properly without rushing, which is the #1 thing you need to hand lay nice FG work. I'd recommend getting or borrowing a die grinder and some roloc discs for sanding out any imperfections. You are planning to gelcoat over all the FG anyway, so it ought to be fine.

Another thing you might want to consider though is just how much fiberglass you're going to lay - it's not that cheap. Resin alone will cover a lot of square footage, but if you start laying down chopped strand mat over the whole tank, you will need about 5x as much resin. Brushes, Acetone, mixing buckets gloves, respirator cartridges, buttloads of sandpaper, filler, MEKP, and so on really adds up, and you don't often thing about those things when pricing out a FG job (speaking from too many experiences here). I think you might be really hard pressed to do it for under $1k.

 

[Verbosity]

Having a shop do it would give you a nice result, but then if there are any imprefections you'l be super upset. If you do it yourself, it'll take a long time, but it will be worth it in the end - you've demonstrated that you are the kind of guy who can go slowly and do it properly without rushing, which is the #1 thing you need to hand lay nice FG work. I'd recommend getting or borrowing a die grinder and some roloc discs for sanding out any imperfections. You are planning to gelcoat over all the FG anyway, so it ought to be fine.

Another thing you might want to consider though is just how much fiberglass you're going to lay - it's not that cheap. Resin alone will cover a lot of square footage, but if you start laying down chopped strand mat over the whole tank, you will need about 5x as much resin. Brushes, Acetone, mixing buckets gloves, respirator cartridges, buttloads of sandpaper, filler, MEKP, and so on really adds up, and you don't often thing about those things when pricing out a FG job (speaking from too many experiences here). I think you might be really hard pressed to do it for under $1k.

I agree.

 

[CJH]

In their own words it would only costs me around $1500 for them to do the rest of the work to my tank besides fitting the actual acrylic panes. I told them I can do it myself for about 1/3 that price. One advantage is it would be professional, and I wouldn't have to do it. lol, but I would have to rent all the equipment to get it out of my garage and over to their shop about 6 miles away from here.

Have you asked them about doing it on site? That is an amazingly low price. I would want to know exactly what products they were using. Moving that thing would be a nightmare, however.

I would not consider renting a chopper gun and doing this yourself, even if you could find one. Spraying polyester is supposed to be very difficult, which is why many shops still do all of their work by hand.

What products will you be using exactly to do this for $500?

 

[Caoboy]

Which begs the question, how many guppies can fit in a 4000 gallon tank? Followed closely by, how long would it take your fish to decimate the guppy population?

I second this.

 

[cvermeulen]

Which begs the question, how many guppies can fit in a 4000 gallon tank? Followed closely by, how long would it take your fish to decimate the guppy population?

Well if we follow the 1 inch per gallon rule with 2" guppies... (I prefer the 1 guppy per gallon rule, but let's be conservative here, we have lots of space!) You're talking about 2000 guppies. I bet it would take a LONG time for a bunch of 3 foot catfish to hunt down so many of such itty bitty treats. You may wind up with a self sustaining guppy community in your minster tank!

 

[basslover34]

Odd... I thought it should be hard to get INTO the AirForce than to Leave it!! LOL

I hear what your Saying about being Busy Necro... Kinda in the same boat... What is it with Wives and the Whole "stop spending so much time in the garage!" Song that they sing? LOL Mine's been singing it as well


I'm not going to "modivate" you today... I think that your fish giving you those puppy dog eyes is more than enough LOL