193 gallon plywood build thread

I am epoxy painting the tank, well part of it tonight.

I am waiting the 30-60 minutes for the mixed paint to "get happy" before applying the paint. That's what the directions say to do, so I will follow them.

I will post pics when I am done applying the 16 oz of paint I made up.

 

Here are tonight's pics. This is 1 coat of 16 oz. I have 7 more coats from my gallon of paint. I did not get a full coat on the right side, or any on the bottom on this coat.

It is hard to tell what is what due to the darkness outside. But it looks really nice if I do say so myself.
front

back right

back left


Yes, the epoxy paint is stinky. Even with the garage door open it stunk. Not quite like car paint, but not nice either.

Tomorrow I will paint outside in the driveway. The only reason I painted this in the garage was because it was dark outside when I started preparing for the paint.

 

looks awesome horkn. ive really enjoyed following your progress here. now its the suspense time, with glass coming soon, and we all know whats next. a big ole waaahoooo. lol. and also, thnx for your meticulous updates, much appreciated

 

I put 2 more full coats on the tank today. I will post up hopefully tonight yet.

It is getting close to glass time, so i better get that ordered. Tomorrow I will make my calls and see whether I am getting starfire or not. In a 1 side viewable tank like this, it is very tough to tell if it has low lead or regular glass.

 

I will see what the glass shops say tomorrow...

 

I ran out of time to call today for glass. That is tomorrow's job.

I did however get the lawn mowed, and another coat of epoxy paint on the tank.

I am up to 4 coats. I will do 1 more.

So I have the swap to the new tank figured out.

I will bring the stand downstairs this weekend, and get that in the wall, and leveled up. Then I will get the sump in the stand and I will fill that 75g sump with the LR from my 90g's sump, and I will take the LR I have in my rubbermaid tote and put that in the 75g sump as well. I will take the SW from water changes from my running 90g and put that in the sump. The tank needs to sit for a week while the epoxy paint cures, and this can be in conjunction with the 3 days of curing of the silicone from mounting the glass pane. I will then wash the tank out with the vinegar and water, or is it ammonia and water, then wash that out and do a FW tank test for a few days up to a week.

Once that is complete, I can take the tank downstairs, put it on the stand, and get the new sand in it, and water from the tank, with new SW, and transfer the tanks contents once I have it plumbed up, which should be pretty easy.


I have 2 55g NSF plastic drums that I will make fresh SW in, and I have a couple of smaller tanks and tubs to put the fish and corals in.

I was going to take more pics of the epoxy paint work today, but they all look the same. it is all black, LOL.

 

I thought I had my priorities backwards

 

i'm sorry if i missed it: do we have a rough total weight to this thing? how big of a weight advantage do you have over a glass tank?

 

Blame it on the epoxy paint fumes

 

As it is with no glass in it, it weighs a LOT less than an all glass type tank.

If this weighs even half as much as a glass tank of the same size when complete, I would be surprised.

Doc Frag helped my move it around the other week. He has a 180g and he said that it weighed a minor fraction of his tank.

I don't have a scale at home, so weighing it would be difficult. When we move it into the basement, I will take a guesstimate of its weight. I have dealt witha lot of shipping of parts packages over the years, so my "internal scale" is pretty good.

2 guys would be able to get this tank moved anywhere with ease. I don't think you would want to have only 2 guys move a 180g glass tank.