Looking into building my own costom tank

[Tetra22]

I can't seem to find any tank for sale anywhere bigger than 180 gallons, and the ones that are that big are very expensive. So I'm looking into building my own big tank from scratch. Does anybody have any experience with building their own? Or have any web sites or advise that might help? I can't seem to find any prices on raw glass, how expensive is it? I'm not sure how big I want to make it...but you know the saying, go big or go home. Eventually I would love to build one at maybe 800 gallons. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a site that's NOT Ask.com. That's like all I can find latley.

 

[mfdrookie516]

are you wanting to build it out of plywood, glass, or acrylic?

 

[Tetra22]

I don't really know, what's cheapest? How would plywood be waterproof? What's best?

 

[BillD]

I think that when you price the glass you might be shocked. It is for this reason that large tanks are often made of plywood, to save money. There are lots of articles on building large tanks at Monster Fishkeepers. If you can find a source of salvage glass, it would be much cheaper. Glass is definitely the easiest to build, but big pieces of thick glass are expensive. I built a number of small tanks (30 gals) with free glass so my only expense was a few tubes of silicone.

 

[BigJim]

Plywood is probably the most common for huge custom aquariums. You have to coat the plywood with fiberglass or some other waterproof material. Google plywood tanks. I've seen several pond setups for big catfish and rays made from plywood that are pretty neat.

BillD is right. Glass is disgustingly expensive. I looked into a 10'x2'x1" piece of glass to repair an aquarium I have sitting around. I couldn't even find the 1" glass easily. A 3/4" glass panel was several hundred dollars. Glass windows in a plywood aquarium would probably be the way to go.

 

[ilostnemo]

how would you filter a tank that big well enough?

 

[mfdrookie516]

how would you filter a tank that big well enough?

with a big filter Depending on the size, either a couple nice big canisters like fluval fx5's or a sump... all depends on how you want it set up

 

[ilostnemo]

with a big filter Depending on the size, either a couple nice big canisters like fluval fx5's or a sump... all depends on how you want it set up

ah alright lol. ive always wondered about that

 

[Bige]

My friend that owns a lfs built a tank with three sides wood with front glass. I think it is some kind of pond liner. He has 2 225 gallon sumps and a 225g refugium. He has some heavy duty equipment on it. The tank started out floor to eye level. But then the floor was raised. So it is about 5 feet of glass in the front. It has one 4 foot long grouper in it. It started with 100 fish all about the same size. Grouper won. He has a tough time maintaining it. Because it is so deep, he has to get in. Something to think about.

 

[harmy4993]

check this out.

fingerlakesreef.com • View forum - The Plywood Section......

builds on some plywood tanks. some really really nice showcase ones and some basic ones. also includes a 1000 gallon plywood build. ive been looking into the same thing but not as big. maybe 220-250g range. looking around the builds seems the average cost on a 200g is between 400-500 dollars with almost half that price being the glass. and thats onlt if the front is glass. price will go up if you add glass to one or both sides.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Water all over the floor!!!