Questions about a future plywood build.

[CanaryTanks]

People with experience in building plywood tanks,

I'm planning on building a plywood tank. It will measure 220 x 60 x 60 cm. That's roughly 7x2x2".

Will 20mm thick plywood suffice for this build?

The glass panel would be 200x50 cm. Would 12mm thick glass give a good safety ratio?

Also, do you guys use regular glass or tempered glass?

Lastly, for the European people. Are there any good alternatives to Pond Armour? It's really hard to find black pond armor that can be shipped to my location. Checked ebay, Amazon etc. Could you use regular epoxy resin? Does it really leach once cured?

My first tank build so I'm thankful for any good advice!

 

[Milingu]

12mm glas should be fine. The standard for glas tanks that size is also 12mm. You just need proper cross bracing.
I would not use pond amor. I have too often heard of it failing. In most cases it started to develop bubbles. I would only use aqurium safe epoxy. The best in my opinion is Bredderman.

 

[jjohnwm]

I've built a number of 8x3x2 foot tanks over the years out of 3/4-inch plywood and 1/2-inch regular glass. You do need proper bracing around the top and 1 or 2 front-to-back crossbraces.

I used Pratt&Lambert Palguard epoxy paint for the first few builds with no problems, but the fumes were difficult to deal with. Did a few with Pond Shield/Pond Armour with good results, and much less in the way of toxic fumes. My last few have been made using a product called Interseal and it's my favourite epoxy, almost as low-VOC as Pond Shield but it seems to mix more easily, go on more smoothly, comes in a much better variety of colours and is much less expensive.

I also recently did a build using EPDM pond liner to waterproof it. Jury's still out but it looks promising. I cut individual panels to fit the walls, floor and ends and overlapped the corners, adhering and sealing them with Geocel roof sealant (which was expensive and difficult to find in Canada).

Good luck on your build, keep us posted!

 

[tlindsey]

People with experience in building plywood tanks,

I'm planning on building a plywood tank. It will measure 220 x 60 x 60 cm. That's roughly 7x2x2".

Will 20mm thick plywood suffice for this build?

The glass panel would be 200x50 cm. Would 12mm thick glass give a good safety ratio?

Also, do you guys use regular glass or tempered glass?

Lastly, for the European people. Are there any good alternatives to Pond Armour? It's really hard to find black pond armor that can be shipped to my location. Checked ebay, Amazon etc. Could you use regular epoxy resin? Does it really leach once cured?

My first tank build so I'm thankful for any good advice!

Welcome aboard

 

[CanaryTanks]

12mm glas should be fine. The standard for glas tanks that size is also 12mm. You just need proper cross bracing.
I would not use pond amor. I have too often heard of it failing. In most cases it started to develop bubbles. I would only use aqurium safe epoxy. The best in my opinion is Bredderman.

Thank you for that! I will go overkill on bracing and silicone due to newbie paranoia for sure.

What is best to work with, the low viscosity variant or the "syrupy" kind?

 

[CanaryTanks]

I've built a number of 8x3x2 foot tanks over the years out of 3/4-inch plywood and 1/2-inch regular glass. You do need proper bracing around the top and 1 or 2 front-to-back crossbraces.

I used Pratt&Lambert Palguard epoxy paint for the first few builds with no problems, but the fumes were difficult to deal with. Did a few with Pond Shield/Pond Armour with good results, and much less in the way of toxic fumes. My last few have been made using a product called Interseal and it's my favourite epoxy, almost as low-VOC as Pond Shield but it seems to mix more easily, go on more smoothly, comes in a much better variety of colours and is much less expensive.

I also recently did a build using EPDM pond liner to waterproof it. Jury's still out but it looks promising. I cut individual panels to fit the walls, floor and ends and overlapped the corners, adhering and sealing them with Geocel roof sealant (which was expensive and difficult to find in Canada).

Good luck on your build, keep us posted!

That´s great! Seems that my initial research hasn't been for nothing then

Got some great alternatives for epoxy here! Thanks!

Will try to do a build thread once I get to that stage.

 

[CanaryTanks]

12mm glas should be fine. The standard for glas tanks that size is also 12mm. You just need proper cross bracing.
I would not use pond amor. I have too often heard of it failing. In most cases it started to develop bubbles. I would only use aqurium safe epoxy. The best in my opinion is Bredderman.

And some follow up questions, this seems to be a clear epoxy? Is there any way to color it black?

Also, is one coat of epoxi enough or should 2 be applied?

 

[Milingu]

Yes, you can colour it with special pigments. I have only tried brown and beige but black is also available.

 

[CanaryTanks]

Yes, you can colour it with special pigments. I have only tried brown and beige but black is also available.

Great! Awesome information here! Thanks!

Last questions: Did you use the low viscosity or high viscosity version and how many coats do you apply?

 

[Milingu]

Honestly I can not exactly remember how many coatings I did. I guess at least 3, and more on the critical parts like corners. In the corners you normally want to have 2 or 3 coatings with fiberglass mats before you start coating everything.