4300 Gallon Plywood Build (3600+ Take 2)

[galabar]

Talked to a friend tonight who called to get some filtration plumbing advice for his 620 Titan. I showed him something I had just found today on Flexpvc.com. http://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=Barb-Manifolds. It should solve his problem and is only $7.45 plus shipping.

I asked if he knew anyone who could chop the tank for me and he's going to check with two guys he knows to see how much.

I'm done trying to figure out how to make this work. I'm sure the Permadri will work if sprayed on with the special equipment or on a brushed/rolled on a perfectly constructed tank.

After talking with my friend, I'm ready to get to what I like doing; building filtration and raising fish!

That is the absolute right decision! I can not wait to see this thing running!!!

 

[nolapete]

Hehe, trust me I've thought about actually chopping up into fire wood many times over the past 18 months!

I got a renewed motivation when I saw VL use the stacked dimensional lumber and then tonight finding JohnG's two builds that did the same with the Dow 795 and the cut outs for plumbing. Some of the things people thought I was crazy for doing. I looked back through the thread to the very beginning of the stacked dimensional lumber (2x6s) here.

Since I know nothing about fiberglass, what do I have to coat it with after it cures? Am I still going to have to put something like pond armor over it? That would seem kind of silly since I could just put pond armor over the existing coating if that's the case.

 

[Zari]

Don't have to put anything over the fiberglass as far as I know. Just coat it with marine epoxy resin and its fish safe. As for color, I know you can add gel coats but I have no Idea how that works.

That at least is my understanding of it.

 

[Arkangel77]

Great to see there is a possibility of getting water in this thing =-)

Good luck - I hope this is the final fix!!!

 

[nolapete]

I found this video of it being done. I'm thinking I can use a roller like this guy is to flatten out the fiberglass to reduce sharps.

[video=youtube_share;SeWoHe9PZTQ]http://youtu.be/SeWoHe9PZTQ[/video]

 

[TheFishGuy]

Hey Pete, for obvious resons I'm going to really push pond armor. It was my saving grace. After working with it on numerous projects now I've learned some techniques to get the most out of the product and to make it incredibly easy to work with and apply. Let me know if you would like me to elaborate. For me there is no other product. My next tank will be sealed with it, no question.

 

[nolapete]

I wonder if it can be used with a chop gun? I see that it can be sprayed. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it the least labor intensive and most consistent along with fiberglass throughout the entire tank. I may even go as far as to laying matt over every seam.

 

[nolapete]

Contacted the Max ACR guy.

Hello,
Epoxy resins are typically do not favor the use of a polyester chopper gun, as the type cure at very different speed and method. Polyester cures via a catalytic reaction , which has a short pot life or working time, while epoxy resins can take hours for it phase-shift into a semi-solid- solid consistency. The long working time will tend to flow out of place and will also cure with numerous air bubbles known as porosity. You can get a higher performance by using chopped mat fiberglass, calculating the proper fabric to resin ratio, lay the wet-lay-up fabric bundle unto the mold and allow to cure.
Using a chopper spray gun is convenient but offers low mechanical strength by comparison to an epoxy wet-lay-up approach due to 3 primary reason; 1. controlled fabric to resin ratio making the part less dense but stronger (weight to strength ratio, 2. lower void content or less porous from less bubble entrapment and 3. the base epoxy resin by comparison to polyester resin is a 10:1 strength difference.

If MAX ACR A/B was used in a chopper gun application technique, te main performance aspect of the resin system, hermetic sealing, will be greatly compromised.

Anyways, it can be done but not recommended. Thanks.
Gerald

 

[nolapete]

I have another question into Gerald about the Max ACR going over the Permadri. I'm thinking that I'll have to at least sheath the tank with 1/4" plywood before doing the Max ACR. I'm also considering putting 2x6s across the entire floor like JohnG builds his with 2x4s. It's just a matter of clearance on the intake screens.

There's a lot of things to consider if I'm going to go with Max ACR.

 

[JohnG]

I had not considered the cure time issue with max acr epoxy resin, it does take allot longer for it to start to harden than polyester resins. Usually took about 6 hours on most of my layers before it started to harden, and about 24-36 hours before it could be walked on. If you do end up doing another layer of plywood before the resin I would highly recommend using bondo to fill in all the seams, screw holes, and corners. It will make it allot easier to apply the fiberglass matte and resin.