Hello my name is dan

Danno · Post by **Danno** » 29 May 2007, 06:20

I realize that i really haven't introduced myself before so here it is folks I am a contractor from Michigan and have had a thing for exotic cats since i caught my first bullhead as a little boy. When i was first married I ended up living in one of the houses i bought to fix up and sell and due to the poor conditions of the house heating system ended up losing my origional tank. I was so distrought over the event that i didn't set up another tank for 17 years, I studied biospheres in college as part of my engineering my favorites were of course aquatic. 10 years ago I bought a pontoon boat and totally redid it I rekindled my love for fishing and have been mentoring troubled neighborhood kids for just as long I found I like to fish but I love to teach childeren to fish and respect nature even more. But their was somthing missing so I set up a new tank and There it was completion I didn't mean to be rude and not introduce myself sorry if I offended anyone I do not normaly take part in forums but i have followed this one for several years any way i dont know if this is the proper place or not but I did come to you folks for a little help see other post but after reading some of the thins in tank talk i might be able to afford to build a ply wood tank i thought i would have to do it out of concrete too exspesive thanks all Danno
P.S. any suggestions would be appreciated and welcome

Richard B · Post by **Richard B** » 29 May 2007, 12:19

Welcome to the site Danno

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 29 May 2007, 18:05

Welcome along to the site Danno, I don't have much experience of DIY projects, but maybe someone will advise.

Jools

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 May 2007, 10:08

Welcome to Planet Catfish, Danno.

Building plywood tanks have been discussed several times. It can be a pretty useful way to create LARGE tanks relatively inexpensively. But for "normal" sized tanks (upto around 8ft/300g/1200 liter) there is very little difference between glass, acrylic and plywood. If you search in Tank Talk, you'll find some "paper napkin"[1] calculations on the cost of building a "marine ply" tank.

Also bear in mind that the tank cost is only a small part of the equation. You also need filtration, heating and perhaps lighting. These will cost about 2x the cost of the tank (no big difference between a small tank and a large one, really).

Finally, since most supplies of plywood go to about 8 x 4ft, it's increasingly difficult to reach sizes above the size of 8 x 4 x 4ft (950 gallon/3400 ltr), and even at that size, you really have to know what you're doing structurally, as there will be a significant weight when that is filled with water. I wouldn't do that, but that's just me.

[1] You know, when you sit in a restaurant discussing something, and the only piece of paper available is a paper napkin or a cigarette packet, and you use that to do your calculations - meaning very basic, not completely thought through.

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Mats