75 gallon plywood tank and stand

[truck_317]

Ok so this weekend I got all of my wiring done for the main tank lighting and moon lights as well as my power filters. The Water is perfect and I started to put some larger rocks in the big tank and noticed that my center support on the top the tank is pulled away from the back side because the plywood started to bow. There's are 3/4 of a inch if gap so now I have to drain all of the water out of the tank and make a bigger center bracket. This just pissed me the hell off. We after that I got the smaller tank in place and filled with gravel and used water from another one of my tanks. I have a few pics that I will post too. For the lighting I made up a temp piece of wood for now and I will eventualy build better braket for it and paint it as well. For the lighting I am using these lights there is 2 for the big tank and 1 for the smaller tank WHICH IS A LINK TO LOWES. For the moon lighting I am using these 2 on the bigger tank and 1 on the smaller tank THE LINK DOES TO EBAY FOR THE LIGHTS THAT IM USING.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_296884-371-...ght+Effects_4294935558 4294961192_4294937087_
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250586880244&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

 

[imusuallyuseless]

Definitely need a more substantial center brace. Sucks that you had to find out the hard way. Nevertheless, your project looks really good

 

[wow]

So freaking awesome, great build!

 

[Valous]

like it now fix that brace and get the fish in there.

 

[kallmond]

The brace seems plenty sturdy.. It just needs to be more strongly attached to the plywood. I think i'd notch the plywood, and set the brace into it (flush with the outside edges) and then screw downward into the ply (and liquid nails), so the weight is on the sheer strength rather than the "pull" strength of the screw.

 

[truck_317]

what im going to do is I am putting a 2x4 in the tank for a center brace. But I will be ripping it down to 3 inch's wide and I need to cut a dado at the one end for the glass. Then I will put 2 2.5 in screws on the front side and 3 or 4 2.5in screws on the back side. I cant cut out the modified 2x4 like kallmond said because I have glass sitting on top or to and the 2x4 needs to be down into the tank 3/16th of a inch so the glass lines up on either side. I will post pictures as I go for the repairs.

 

[truck_317]

so here is the piece of wood that i removed and here's the new support. I put a coat of drylok on it so 4 more to go then i can put her in

 

[gulosis]

man that's awesome. i love well crafted ply tanks. good luck with that brace, i think a 2x4 will def take care of that issue. looks great keep the pics coming

 

[kallmond]

In a 3" block you can get a couple of screws in, so that should help a good bit. You may still want to add some sort of liquid nails/waterproof glue to add extra tensile strength to the joint, since all the force is trying to rip it apart.

 

[truck_317]

i will have to try that so i put water in my smaller tank of sunday and the water was clear so i got home yesterday and the water was cloudy and the ammonia was high. so i treated the water again and the water is still cloudy and the ammonia dropped a little bit so now what?