200g Plywood Build

[Speakerman]

whatever you chose, good luck. I know I've had T5HO's and metal halides, I like the look of MH 10x more, heat is the only issue.

If you were to build your canapy with a dado (daytow) top that way all edges had contact and could not slide off, the egg crate would absolutely have all the support you'd need for any pets jumping/walking on it.

Anywho, feel free to PM me if you need any ideas

 

[Flake]

Thanks for the ideas, though. I'm just overly paranoid about one fat cat in particular.

 

[partypalooza5]

Thanks for the ideas, though. I'm just overly paranoid about one fat cat in particular.

Cat's seem to love aquariums! Use reinforced steel

 

[Flake]

Steel might work. I think they'd only manage to bend that.....

 

[fishmonkey]

beleive me, eggcrate is a lot stronger than you may think flake... im guessing that you could put 30 pounds up there no prob

 

[Etunes]

fishmonkey is right. And if you want to be safe put a support beam out of wood under the crate in the stand.

 

[JPKeenan]

I'm not sure. I've been tossing the idea around, but I don't really see a need for one. I think if our cats see a lid, they'll try to spend more time on top of it, which i'm not too keen on. If they see water, they're less likely to hop on it.

My cat isn't a jumper. Might want to angle the lid like the roof of a house and/or use a slippery surface (tile or such).

Just my 2 cents.

Also if you have pics of your assembling it all the way through shoot me a PM.

 

[Flake]

Problem is, There's a bookcase next to the couch that 3 20lb cats like to sit on, which translates to 3 20lb cats now sleeping on eggcrate. I don't trust it. >>

More pictures ho!
I'm laaaaaazy so there's not too many more new ones. ;;

Everythings been sanded (wheee), the extra screws have been put in, and the top got jigged out. Most of my time has been spent watching B Movies on Netflix during the day, so not too much progress. I was trying to figure out lighting before I progressed and got price quotes from my LFS. So i'll be ordering all my equiptment from them today.

Here's the top!

Ignore the really crooked part dead center >> the jig makes divots when I try to turn it >>

 

[Speakerman]

do you already have the glass installed to the tank? if not I'm just sitting here wondering if your going to be able to get it installed with the top already glued and screwed in.

 

[Zer0]

I was really skeptical of this build at first, but you are making this look pretty dang proffesional, if i do say so myself. Very good work and i am excited to see what the outcome of this will be. Luck be with you! Keep us posted!

 

[Flake]

Haha Speakerman, we did the same thing. We got the top in and just went d'oh. It will fit, we tested it, just going to be snug. Moving it around once it's in the tank is the only hard part.

That top has 2 bars across it, rather than the one, so it's pretty stable. I don't think it's going anywhere.

Thanks linksyz! I'm impressed too, I can't lie. I'm no carpenter but I think we've all done a pretty good job.

 

[Speakerman]

do you have a qoute or an itemization of your cost on this build?

 

[InfernoST]

I was really skeptical of this build at first, but you are making this look pretty dang proffesional, if i do say so myself. Very good work and i am excited to see what the outcome of this will be. Luck be with you! Keep us posted!

It looks great so far, but I'm curious about the fastening of the plywood together because there really anything for the screws to grab onto when going straight into the 3/4 inch part because plywood is layers of thinner pieces of wood glued together with the grain of each layer alternating to give the plywood it's lateral strength. I hope I'm wrong and it will hold but 200 gallons is a lot of water, weight and pressure.

 

[Flake]

Yup. I kept all the reciepts so later I can do a full cost. Right now we're looking at:

wood for tank and stand: ~500$ (plywood alone was 400. my boyfriend demanded we buy the best of every wood so this is an unusually expensive build)
Equipment is looking about 1300$ (having to get two of everything to be certain. Most work up to 150g, so I need double to make up the difference. I like overkill in my filtration)
Misc other homedepot items (screws, glue, whatnot) probably 200$
I haven't heard back from the glass place yet.

So roughly, all in all we're looking at 2000$ without the glass. (yeow) Luckily, it's still cheaper than a glass tank built to my specifications. Everything is a lot more expensive than it could be because we're investing in the best we can get. This tank is going to last so we've quadrupled the screws, and waterproofing. This should be fairly impressive and incredibly stable when done.

 

[Flake]

It looks great so far, but I'm curious about the fastening of the plywood together because there really anything for the screws to grab onto when going straight into the 3/4 inch part because plywood is layers of thinner pieces of wood glued together with the grain of each layer alternating to give the plywood it's lateral strength. I hope I'm wrong and it will hold but 200 gallons is a lot of water, weight and pressure.

Between as many screws as I could stuff into this thing, fiberglass and pond armor, this should distribute pressure fairly evenly. Surprisingly with the other build I looked at to make this, it doesn't seem to take much.

 

[InfernoST]

Between as many screws as I could stuff into this thing, fiberglass and pond armor, this should distribute pressure fairly evenly. Surprisingly with the other build I looked at to make this, it doesn't seem to take much.

Ok, I can't wait to see the finished product. Other than my 1 question it really does look very good.

 

[Flake]

I haven't really seen many that aren't just very simple boxes. The garf builds are even simpler than mine. I think it's a bit shocking, but apparently they hold.

 

[InfernoST]

Yup. I kept all the reciepts so later I can do a full cost. Right now we're looking at:

wood for tank and stand: ~500$ (plywood alone was 400. my boyfriend demanded we buy the best of every wood so this is an unusually expensive build)
Equipment is looking about 1300$ (having to get two of everything to be certain. Most work up to 150g, so I need double to make up the difference. I like overkill in my filtration)
Misc other homedepot items (screws, glue, whatnot) probably 200$
I haven't heard back from the glass place yet.

So roughly, all in all we're looking at 2000$ without the glass. (yeow) Luckily, it's still cheaper than a glass tank built to my specifications. Everything is a lot more expensive than it could be because we're investing in the best we can get. This tank is going to last so we've quadrupled the screws, and waterproofing. This should be fairly impressive and incredibly stable when done.

You could of gotten a 240gal for $695.

 

[Flake]

I know that. The thing is, the building is worth the extra cost. It's worth it to me to pay more and have really clear glass (i'm going with starphire for my photography) and have it built exactly to my specifications. The stand is the exact heigh of the sofa, so laying on the couch the fish will be exactly eye level. That's going to be awesome. This tank had been a barrel of fun to build. I have pictures of my friends and I captain morgan posing to test strength and having plywood sword fights. That's stuff I dont get to do very often.

The stand is also included in my costs, so it's about even with buying one. The equiptment would've been the same cost either way.

 

[Speakerman]

It looks great so far, but I'm curious about the fastening of the plywood together because there really anything for the screws to grab onto when going straight into the 3/4 inch part because plywood is layers of thinner pieces of wood glued together with the grain of each layer alternating to give the plywood it's lateral strength. I hope I'm wrong and it will hold but 200 gallons is a lot of water, weight and pressure.

If glued properly, plywood joints are very strong. Plywood acts like kevlar, or some other similarly woven material. I used to build furniture for new homes, there have been times where 2 weeks later we have to go back and change something, a lot of times the only way to get a joint apart was with a good sized hammer and some coaxing and the glue would hold, but you'd rip the plywood apart.

I'm still slightly worried about the plywood bowing on the back side and the bottom, if it were my tank I'd have a couple supports there, if the wood starts bowing outward, the forces have a mechanical advantage that will exert multiple times the force on the joints. It's really in your best interest to not allow bowing on the back and bottom.