Plywood aquarium experiences

[Argentum]

this was an old article I posted for one of our members.. Scott Taylor. unfortunately we lost the pics years ago when we were hacked..

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...n-Plywood-tank
[B]

Thank's Al, that is a very thorough explanation

Tank is 16' long 3' wide 30" tall

Thanks for posting the images, gives me ideas for the future.
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[Argentum]

As I am planing to use an acrylic window, so I have to use another sealer/adhesive material.

BISON has a promising solution that I am going to try

http://www.bison.net/en/products/641...-max-original/

Has anyone tried this before?! It is advertised as a polymer that will bind any material to any other material!!

[kris2341]

be extremely careful about the sealers you use, a surprising few are suitable for potable water. This product claims to be impervious to mold so that is a red flag for me as a possible use of antimicrobial stuff.


Many people wind up simply using a lot of silicone and building the front panel in such a way that the water pressure pushes the window up against its mount, aiding in the seal.

Your best bet is to browse monsterfishkeepers and look at the sealers that they use, not all were potable water rated but have a low enough toxicity to be used in our application.

[Argentum]

I actually posted a thread there in the same time I posted it here, I got no reply there till the moment.

Here there is always some or lots of interaction. This is why I am in love with this forum

[kris2341]

The thing with MFK is that all the actual big tank people are few and in between, they just make a splash loudly whenever they do stuff.

You have to search their forums and see whats up, search plywood tank and see what kind of sealers pop up and if the tank is still active.

Just keep in mind, you may or may not be able to have said sealers shipped to Saudi Arabia, good luck!

[Argentum]

I contacted BISON tech. support and they confirmed it contains fungicides and is toxic to fish. I think I can solve this by placing the Polymax on the inner parts of Acrilic then making a bead of silicone around it sealing it from contacting aquarium water.

So the Polymax will bind acrylic to the plywood and the silicone will act as a sealing gasket to prevet the water fom coming into contact with polymax!!

[Argentum]

Okay everyone ... I think this will be useful

I received this reply from a Technical specialist at BISON, when asking him about Sealants alternative to silicone that will bind acrylic.
he said:

"Acetoxy based Silicons (smells like acetic acid) indeed gives a bad adhesion to plexiglass.
Our experience with neutral (Alcoxy) silicons to plexiglass (PMMA) are good. However, there are a lot of quality differences in this kind of neutral curing silicones.
We do not have alternatives for the combination PMMA to acrylic."

In the last statement when he says PMMA to "Acrylic he is referring to line of products they sell called Acrylic.

So this means that Alcoxy silicone given they don't contain fungicides will bind Acrylic

[kris2341]

Did you ask the most important question, is it potable water safe?

[Argentum]

Did you ask the most important question, is it potable water safe?

Actually I told him it's for a fish tank and on their website they have a note on one of the common silicone that it's not fish safe because it contains biosides. So, he was answering with that in mind.

[kris2341]

Very nice information, I hope this will prove to provide you good reproducible results.

now with the sealant use pretty much answered, you have both the tank coating and potential sealant covered.

Now we just need a plywood tank design. For 225G, I dont think you will need any serious bracing and plywood that is in the 3/4 to 1 inch range should work on its own but I'm no expert on these tanks.

[Argentum]

I have just finished building a small demo tank to test everything

its 61 x 23 x 23 I Just used the available scrape wood

[kris2341]

something that size, if you plan to paint it with the sealer, you could easily use it as a water holding tank for water changes or as a sump, sounds nice either way. Hopefully it holds!

[Argentum]

something that size, if you plan to paint it with the sealer, you could easily use it as a water holding tank for water changes or as a sump, sounds nice either way. Hopefully it holds!

I have plans for it as a breeding tank for danios, then i will use the fry as live food

[siuling337]

WOW~~~Thanks for sharing!~

[Fundulopanchax]

Good luck on your plywood tank. About 45 years ago when I was in high school we built one at the aquarium shop that I worked at that was 60 inches long, 30 inches from front to back and 36 inches tall to fill a "window" in a wall. It held about 280 gallons and was a great hit with customers (and us). It was well planted but also had a lot of swimming room for wild green discus, angels, and assorted large schools of tetras. We had it up for the 5 years I worked there before I left for graduate school. The tank was still going strong at year 8 when the store closed. It went to a customer who had it for many years with never a problem. I had moved away and eventually lost track but have great memories of that tank. It was 3/4 inch exterior plywood, screwed every 2 inches with stainless steel 1.5 inch screws. It had 3 coats of epoxy - no corner reinforcement although I would do that now. The epoxy was manufactured for use in swimming pools. The glass was 1/2 inch - which we got free as salvage. It was an enormous piece that was cracked during a hurricane (Charleston SC) and we were easily able to have a nice piece cut by the salvage glass company (as well as getting enough pieces to make a 200 gallon all-glass tank). There was one 3 inch wide cross brace at the top of our plywood tank. I would do a bit more now but it held up admirably for many years. I have at times wondered how long it ultimately lasted - about 12 years that I know about with never a leak even though it was broken down and moved several years into its life.

Ron