Encore's ~550g plywood tank

Encore

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Soooo. I'm a little late to make a build thread because it has been running like 5 1/2 years or so now. I had a 90g in my bedroom and a 135g in my dining room and a 40b in my living room a 75g in my spare bedroom... It was a lot of work and a lot of unnecessary pumps, heaters, and power in general. So I had a really horrible bad idea.... Consolidate them all into one tank.

I had the perfect wall for it so why not? I am a automotive bodyman/painter by trade but I worked at a boatyard when I was younger. I did a little of everything but got plenty of fiberglass practice along the way. I have a buddy that had built a couple plywood tanks and without his information and input I would have missed several things that I believe are going to make a huge difference in the longevity of my tank. Only time will tell how long it last but I feel like it will make it as long as a glass tank will.

I regret this at least once a week for all the extra stuff I have to do but I guess its still a hobby. Seems like a part time job I don't get paid for... I would suggest to everyone not to do this but talk your neighbor into doing it. I'm not even going to try to figure how much it cost me to build...

The tank is a 4x8 sheet of plywood for the bottom and its 29" tall. Screwed into the back of it is a coast to coast overflow box that itself is about 45 gallons I think. It used to have my old 135g display as the sump and a 40b tied in as a frag tank. I had a 38g refugium hanging above it gravity feeding back in.

So I'm going to make a long, long, loooong story short because I should prob be working on it right now but I had huge humidity problems in the room during the winter months. summer I had a window fan sucking the air out all the time and had no problems but when winter would come (north Carolina) I had to remove the fan close the window up to just cracked because it would make my tank temp drop so bad. Every ac return vent in my house rusted and the air handler of my ac had mold in it... I had to figure a new plan, so like the stupid person I am I said "I could just knock that window in this room out and add about 400 sqft off my house" So that's what I did. I have another friend that is a house builder that helped me get going with it. I did all the sheetrock and electrical and stuff myself so it didn't cost me that much compared to hiring someone (it still costed me a lot). I had a 18x22 slab poured and and spent the whole winter working on it. The shettrocking was easily my least favorite part but as a bodyman I figured it would be easy... So the room got built and I cut off the ac to what was my spare bedroom and put an exterior door leading into it. I put a smoke detector and closet into my addition to make it technically a bedroom since when I put the fish tank in I effectively made my house a 2 bedroom instead of 3 by cutting out the closet.

Its been so long I don't have a lot of pics from the build but I dug up some. I'm going to just throw some pics up if anyone is even still reading at this point. Ill get actual fish/coral pic up tomorrow or something. I have some green beer to go drink (st patty day). Ill throw some pointers as to stuff I learned along the way also. Its been a lot of DIY and a lot of reworking and a lot of natural light along the journey for sure
 
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Encore

Encore

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Encore

Encore

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this is from when I was building. this sump was so loud in the dining room I had to make a cardboard cover to hear the tv. I had to throw make my own chiller too...
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Encore

Encore

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my skimmer became a whole other HUGE issue.... Ill get into that at some point too.. one more round of photos real quick before I have to go do other stuff. I will get some actual fish videos up soon. Ill shoot a whole youtube and embed it over the weekend

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Nice! I am in process of thinking about a 93 cube upgrade and in this spot. Maybe I'll think about a plywood tank in this spot

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Encore

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Nice! I am in process of thinking about a 93 cube upgrade and in this spot. Maybe I'll think about a plywood tank in this spot

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Id try to talk the neighbor into doing it instead but i have tips if you decide. Ill break down what i used

Raka resin to coat the plywood and build the corners thick and i topcoated with sweetwater epoxy. Its a potable water epoxy i think sea world used it on their concrete tanks but dont know for sure. They have blues too. Anyways if you decide to go for it ill put a list of tips together


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Oh yeah criticalencore is my instagram

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