75 gallon plywood tank and stand

[cpr_mike]

Nice set up. I really like how it turned out. Congrats. This is the first time I have seen light switches on a stand. It would have to be done very well not to look cheesy and I think you knocked it out of the park.

 

[truck_317]

I have 38 bucks in plywood that's for both tanks. 5 dollar in screws. the drylok and glass was free. I traded my friends some cichlids so he helped me make the big tank and hes going to buy the glass for me and put it in then for free. I have close to 100 bucks in the stand and hardware. I used 1 gallon of drylok for both tanks. 4 to 5 coats in each tank. Lowe's and home depot carry drylok. cpr_mike said about he never saw using light switches in the tanks. I build another 75 gallon stand here a few months ago and put 3 of them in. they work great and I live them. I first started out with 110v toggle switches and they worked great also but kind of pricey. Well today i'm building the canopy and will have some picture of it up later today sometime.

 

[john73738]

my buddy has built these tanks before so he is helping me out on this tank. He has a 240 gallon tank thats 8 ft long. he used white drylok in it and its holding up very well. The only problem with drylok is that when you put it in it has a rough surface to it and the alage grows in it and the plecos wont eat it off. I came up with a idea is that you put more coats of drylok into the tank and then you sand the last coat to make is smooth. We are going to try in on a smaller tank to see how it works,

http://www.ugl.com/drylokMasonry/masonryWaterproofer/extreme.php

Drylok Extreme. It goes on smooth. and has a 15 year warrentee.

 

[rasa92re]

Very nice build truck. I want to build a small plywood tank just to get a feel for it before moving on to grander dimensions. I have a question: Does drylok-silicone-glass hold well? I ask because I checked "Drylok Extreme" and it said it resists mildew which could leech into the water or cause some other failure.

 

[truck_317]

I dont use drylok extreme I just regular drylok. Like I said before my buddy has a 260 gallon that has been set up for 5 months now with no problem. So its pretty much trial and error. I will let you guys know I have any problems. Also I got the canopy build today and its complety done expect for some touch up paint left to do. i used 5/8 plywood to build the canopy and put it together with nails. Then I used pine 1x1 inch boards to rest on the top of the tank to hold the canopy up and i did the same thing on top to hold the lid. I still need to cut out the back of the canopy for the power filters. The paint is still a little bit wet when I took the pictures so dont worry about the different shades of blue. Also tomorrow we are putting water in the 76 gallon to see if it holds and also be putting glass in the 38 gallon tomorrow.

 

[Valous]

coming along nicely. keep up the good work.

 

[imusuallyuseless]

Very nice craftsmanship

 

[Valous]

Can you show us a diagram of how your wire the switches? Wondering if you wire it into a plug on the other side or do you splice the wires and wire it directly to the switch.

 

[Kainn]

Very nice, really like how it's turning out and the tank under it.

 

[Jkessler623]

what are the dimensions of the tank?