Big tank on a small budget

hi a3aan tank really looks amazing! i am also making my background black!

 

Sorry I actually meant to say canopy, but I was considering adding builders plastic to make one of my tank backgrounds black as well, so it was still helpful.
Oh and I saw this add on a site, thought it might be of interest.

 

Morning.... Sorry. @Good_Times misunderstanding. The canopy is made of chipboard of all things. Then 3 coats resin and sanded. And again sprayed stonechip. White inside and black outside. Outside is slightly diluted with water and sprayed with a spray gun not a stonechip gun.
Hope that helps a bit more. And thanks for the add link...

And thanks again to everyone for all the good feedback.... Had some tough times with the tank the last couple of days but we will go into that next week....

Cheers....

 

Ok thanx alot. I've contemplated making a canopy with resin and I've covered a supawood tank support base with it and it turned out looking nice. Then I saw it is not safe to use for fish as the guys who build the plywood tanks on Monsterfishkeeper always cover the resin or fiberglass coated inside with acrylic paint.

Do you sand in between resin coats or after all 3 were applied, is this to make the next coat "stick" more easily?
Is normal stone chip too thick to be sprayed with normal spray gun's?

Something like this Duram 88 Stone Chip, looks like it is mostly used for bakkie mud gaurds.

 

Morning. When built the canopy for my 350l. Tank I used supawood and just painted it. So you can see 2 problems. Supawood is stupidly heavy and just painting with acrylic paint does not waterproof anything. Let's just say lesson learned. So that's why the second one I did in chip board. Much much lighter. You do need to fill it more to get n nice finish but for me its worked allot better. The resin was applied over 3 days and just lightly sanded before the next coat. But the outside was properly sanded after the last coat to give a nice smooth finish. (But yes sanding in between for better adhesion? Although in other projects I have just applied more coats with no sanding and no problems either?)
The stone chip is just the one you got there. Its all I use. Also to spray through a normal 1.4mm nozzle its way to thick but more I dilute it to give a smoother finish when sprayed. But to be honest I used it because I had it if you have a spray gun get any colour in a 2k and spray as normal. Just make sure you give it at least a week or 2 to dry properly. It will be much more water resistant inside and give a very nice finish outside.
Cheers A

Ps. Chipboard soaks up the resin really nice so it becomes part of the board and not just a layer on top.

 

So just some new pics of the tank now...

 

Looking good man
how big is the front

 

Thanks man... How is your tank coming?

He is around 15cm

 

Awesome!

 

@a3aan
Looking to go forth and gather wood for my tank, can you share and advice that you have gained on this.
Your tanks are looking amazing


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Hi. Wood is a bit of a sore subject with me. As I'm still looking for that one awesome centre piece. But its still not found. Some was bought at lfs some collected and other pieces donated by some very nice forum members. In Bloem we do not have allot of options at shops to begin with.

Some of the pieces in the tank is grape vine. Works fantastic but you need to make sure its 100% dry. This alone can take a few months if you can't get hold of some properly dry pieces. Also make sure you clean all the bark. I used a wire brush on it aswell after the bark was removed. And then the fun part starts. The soaking process. I used a big plastic tub filled with geyser water each morning to leach tannins and get the pieces waterlogged so they don't float. Some have been soaking for 3 months now and the water is still not clear. Some I have given up and just added them to the tank. So I got some staining in my water but I kind of like it and it fits good with the south american theme.
But all in all most citrus trees will work and most very dense woods. But that's a very very loose guide. Do some google searches and ask some more members aswell. Hope this helps. But the biggest thing is patience to take your time to prepare the wood.

Oh and thanks for the compliments on the tank....

Cheers A

 

looking good a3aan

 

Thanks.... How is your tank doing? No more problems with the Oscar?

 

all good, i removed my boat decor and added 2 large clay pots, will add some pictures of the new layout soon!

 

Adriaan would Olienhout also work for the tank, it is a fruit bearing tree ?
We sawed off some thick branches, but they were still growing, so how long will it take them to dry out?

 

Hi @Good_Times Sorry I missed your post totally. When I was researching how to dry wood on the web the consensus seems to be 9 months to a year for fresh wood. As for the Olifant wood is concerned, if its a dense heavy wood and the tree has no type of sap dripping anywhere I think your good to go...

 

if you ever get to Cape Town I may have a few pieces of wood for you they mopanie stumps from way back been in my tanks for at least 15 years now laying around the pond outside .

 

Thanks so much. I'm always interested. If you can spot them sometime to take a pic and upload I will be eternally greatfull. Will courier them to Bloem no prob....

 

Hi all.....

So as allot of you guys know I have been searching for a nice big decent piece of wood for my tank. With no luck i might add. Untill this week. Found 2............ Yes 2...........





So what do you guys think?

 

That piece in the last pic is wicked. Awesome man!