building a 1000 gal concrete block monster tank

[wizzin]

no, no news. Sanitred has STILL not gotten back to me. They were supposed to call last week. I'm going to try to call today. I am seriously considering trying to strip the permaflex and go with pond armor. I've been talking to Butch from pond armor, and he said that if I could get the permaflex mostly removed, that pond shield would stick to the exposed concrete. It just sucks that I'm this close and can't finish because of (in my opinion) a poor material. Or at least a poor material coverage statement. I may have to suck it up and buy another gallon of LRB, Permaflex and a half gallon of TAV. That's another $231 plus shipping I'll have to shell out to make the grand total for sealing the tank = over $600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

If I would have gone with pond shield, it would've cost = $320. If I can get Sanitred to give me more product, I'll still be at $369, which would be acceptable. I'll keep you posted.

Phil

 

[rghoneim]

SOUNDS LIKE A INTERESTING PROJECT!

 

[Viverr]

Pity about the Sanitread. The pictures they supply of the wicker basket holding a bathtub duck looked so promising.

How about shooting the whole thing with FSP, since the FSP coating isn't really relying on concrete adhesion to provide a watertight seal? Sort of like spraying another tank into your existing tank, and you'd get a Sanitread backup to boot.

Great looking build too, btw.
-V

 

[wizzin]

Pity about the Sanitread. The pictures they supply of the wicker basket holding a bathtub duck looked so promising.

How about shooting the whole thing with FSP, since the FSP coating isn't really relying on concrete adhesion to provide a watertight seal? Sort of like spraying another tank into your existing tank, and you'd get a Sanitread backup to boot.

Great looking build too, btw.
-V

I'm intrigued. What's FSP?

 

[kfisher]

You are using glass not acrylic? Just cusrious because the local guy in my area pushes me towards 2" acrylic? Pardon my ignorance I am new in mega tanks. I want to design and push the envelope once I have all the pieces...

 

[wizzin]

I am so fed up with Sanitred.

Their support is horrible. They just want to prove that for some reason this is my fault that I didn't use enough material, even when it's clear that I used way more than was suggested and what their calculator suggested.

The tank doesn't leak at 50% full. Only at 100%. Which leads me to believe that there are bubbles or holes that are closed under no/low pressure, but open under high pressure. Which is a failure of the product as far as I'm concerned.

They want me to try to patch to fix it, but I keep telling them "how can I patch a hole I can't finde?!!!!!"

First, I've had NOTHING but problems with this product. In my opinion, it's expensive latex paint. They say that permaflex is a One part solution. IT'S NOT!!! It has a hardner that you have to mix in. So that's a lie.

Next, I didn't recieve ANY documentation with the crap. I had to call repeatedly to make sure I was doing everything right, and even after following their instructions and over doing it, it still leaks.

Now they wont tell me how to remove the stuff, so I'm stuck with it.

DO NOT USE SANITRED!!!!!

Stick with pond armor or some other product.

If for no other reason, their support is total rubish. They make all these big claims about the product, which I think are hyped up, and not true, or are exagerated. I'm going to post a general thread in the DIY forum about this too.

It looked like a good product. Horrible mistake on my part.

 

[wizzin]

You are using glass not acrylic? Just cusrious because the local guy in my area pushes me towards 2" acrylic? Pardon my ignorance I am new in mega tanks. I want to design and push the envelope once I have all the pieces...

yeah, it's glass. The glass was free, so that's why I used it. If I were designing it from scratch, and had the money, I would have used a thick piece of acrylic (say 3") and done it "Topless" so you could lean on the top edge of the glass. A la public aquarium style.

BTW. Welcome to MFK!!!

 

[TheFishGuy]

I'd agree with you that their support is horrible. I was told I'd have a ton left over after sealing my tank and I barely had enough. I bought enough to do my whole structure so if you took away the area of 36 square feet (glass) I should have had plenty. Then I was furious to find out they wanted me to clean my tank with SOAP?!?!?! WTF. If I was to do it all over again I'd still go with drylok. The drylok was doing fine until I decided to dance around in the tank and break a silicone joint.... I currently Have three small tanks running that are just plywood and drylok. two are about 50 gallons and one is over 110 gallons. Haven't had a problem with the drylok since....

Sorry to ramble on your thread, and sorry for all the BS with sanitred...

 

[Viverr]

Wizzin,

FSP is Pond Armor's trade name for Polyurea (stands for "Fish Safe Polyurea"). It's a 2 part spray-on, applied to "raw" surfaces (dirt holes, often). My understanding is that it hardens after spraying to form a sort of custom pond liner, akin to a spray-in truck-bed liner. Since you have a really thick coat(s!) of Sanitread down already, my thinking is you might be able to rough up the Sanitread a bit to get decent adhesion during spraying while still retaining enough of the Sanitread to act like a mid-wall membrane. Not sure if it's a cheap or practical idea, but it has it's benefits in the mental brainstorming stages.

Won't be using Sanitread for any of my projects in the future, that's for darn sure.

-V

 

[wizzin]

I'd agree with you that their support is horrible. I was told I'd have a ton left over after sealing my tank and I barely had enough. I bought enough to do my whole structure so if you took away the area of 36 square feet (glass) I should have had plenty. Then I was furious to find out they wanted me to clean my tank with SOAP?!?!?! WTF. If I was to do it all over again I'd still go with drylok. The drylok was doing fine until I decided to dance around in the tank and break a silicone joint.... I currently Have three small tanks running that are just plywood and drylok. two are about 50 gallons and one is over 110 gallons. Haven't had a problem with the drylok since....

Sorry to ramble on your thread, and sorry for all the BS with sanitred...

hind sight... No rambling. I'm looking for support here Yeah, the soap thing is just retarded. they don't have any knowledge of fish habitats. I get a kick out of them suggesting using Xylene in between coats. Um. It's a fish tank.

Wizzin,

FSP is Pond Armor's trade name for Polyurea (stands for "Fish Safe Polyurea"). It's a 2 part spray-on, applied to "raw" surfaces (dirt holes, often). My understanding is that it hardens after spraying to form a sort of custom pond liner, akin to a spray-in truck-bed liner. Since you have a really thick coat(s!) of Sanitread down already, my thinking is you might be able to rough up the Sanitread a bit to get decent adhesion during spraying while still retaining enough of the Sanitread to act like a mid-wall membrane. Not sure if it's a cheap or practical idea, but it has it's benefits in the mental brainstorming stages.

Won't be using Sanitread for any of my projects in the future, that's for darn sure.

-V

I asked pond armor about applying their product over top the sanitred coating, and they didn't recommend it. I guess because sanitred is flexible and pond armor isn't, the pond armor "could" crack.

My latest thought is that sanitred actually says right in their online docs that you can paint permaflex with a high quality epoxy paint. SO, now I'm thinking that a coat or two of a good marine epoxy might fill any holes in the permaflex and create a final coat. It might also make a nicer seal at the glass.

Stay tuned.