Hi everybody Joey here again and welcome back so in today's video
I'm going to introduce you guys to a new plywood tank build that I want to show you but before we move any further
I'm sure many of you are not aware with what a plywood aquarium
Even is in the first place, so let me break it down to simple terms apply
What aquarium is simply a plywood box that is waterproofed?
And it'll have a front viewing panel to see into the tank now
These are really popular methods of building aquariums because they are highly customizable
Typically they are extremely cost effective as well and when it comes to building really big tanks these tend to be a popular choice
Now the plywood tank that I'm building is going to actually go right here, and the tank is going to be 78 inches long
It'll be 38 inches front to back and it'll be 29 inches tall giving me about
370 gallons of water now
This is actually the bottom viewing panel so as you can see it basically fits this wall perfectly
I just wanted to give you a visual example now
I can also understand that a lot of you might have concerns in terms of
How long does apply what aquarium actually lasts and are they safe well to be completely honest look at it this way?
We've all seen acrylic tanks fail at some point even zoos have their front panels completely blowing off or a glass aquarium
leaks or cracks or breaks
However, when is the last time that you heard of a plywood aquarium failing
The fact of the matter is this if a plywood aquarium is built correctly using the proper materials you're looking at having an almost bulletproof
Aquarium and with a little bit of patience you can make them look really good
Now the one thing about plywood aquariums that I really like is that when you're planning it out
And you start to buy materials apply
What aquarium you can buy the materials?
Extremely slowly meaning that you don't have to throw down a whole lot of money at once with a glass aquarium
Really the most expensive thing you have to purchase is the actual glass and you have to buy it all at once
Same goes for acrylic with a plywood aquarium. There's three main components
the plywood
The viewing panel and then whatever you're going to waterproof it with and the three of those are what's gonna
Cost you the most for your plywood tank however. It doesn't matter. What order you buy them in or when so for me
I wait till I see these things go on sale so ultimately because you can buy all of this very slowly it becomes even more
Affordable to do with that said though plywood aquariums are definitely not cost effective with smaller sizes
I typically see the biggest savings when the tanks get over 300 gallons
So this build is going to be pretty unique for me for a few reasons one
I'm building it as a full plywood aquarium with only the front viewing panel
And I know a lot of you guys want to see that because there's so many aspects that we've never covered before
Second is I want to make it look
Really good so while a lot of my energy
Is going to be on making it extremely durable a lot of my focus is also going to be on making it actually look really?
nice
So let's get started now in this video
I'm going to show you how I built the shell of the tank and how I got to the point that you see here
Obviously we need to start it with some plywood I went with 3/4 inch shop grade birch
I chose birch for its strength and shop grade for its finish
Meaning that it's the cabinet quality and needs little to no preparation
Which will save me a ton of time in the long run as well as look great
The extra money that it costs is totally worth it for those reasons as for my own advice
I knew what I wanted, and I simply waited till it went on sale
I grabbed five sheets for a total of 250 dollars. This will be enough to build the tank and wrap the stand I
Cut the plywood up with my own table soft the sizes. I needed and
Cut the viewing panel hole out as well. We'll come back to that in a minute though
I decided that building the tank upside down was going to be my best option
I started with the front panel which was 78 inches long by 29 inches tall and include the side panel to it with wood glue
Wood glue is a must here the side panel was 36 and a half inches wide and 29 inches tall
with the front and back panel on this would give me my 38 inches of width I
Built this as I would any tank and place the side panels on the insides
I then used some clamps and squared the corners off before screwing it together with one and a quarter inch
self taping wood screws
While these types of screws do tend to cost a bit more the fact that I don't need to pre-drill a couple hundred pilot holes
So the wood doesn't split is totally worth it I?
Basically repeated this step for all sides of the tank
To attach the bottom piece which was 78 inches long by 38 inches wide I?
First got it into position to in short lined up
I then prompt the panel up with some spare wood and laid some wood glue down and lowered the panel in position
Now if you use too much wood glue like I did just leave it alone you can sand it down later
Then the same screws were used once again as with all of the panels
I space the screws by an average of one and a half inch to two inches apart
it doesn't need to be exact, but that is the average distance that I use to I
Then let the tank sit and dry overnight before moving on to the next step
Now waiting is something you'll have to get used to if you want to build a plywood tank
Because of the height and size of the tank, I needed some external bracing to ensure the tank didn't bow I
Could have built the frame at a two by fours and saved a lot of money however
I decided that I would build the frame at a plywood as I wanted it to look good, so
I used the same design for a frame as I would for the two by fours and screwed and glued it all into position
Ensuring that I overlapped the shell of the main tank to add extra strength
This will now act as my support frame for the tank and add a finished look to it
The bottom strip here was three inches wide and all the other strips were four and a half inches wide again
You'll notice that this frame overlaps all of the scenes of the original shell this is very important
After the external frame was on I took some wood filler and covered up all of the screw holes as well as the seams
Then I sanded it down
From there
I took my router and rounded off the top sides and viewing panel with a quarter inch rounded bit
This would give it a softer look and feel
I then took a half-inch beveled bit and ran it along the sides of the frame to give it a more polished and finished look
Roading was optional, but it did give it a more finished look and appeal
The last thing I did was on the inside of this tank
I took some three-quarter inch strips of plywood and glued and screwed them in place on the inside of the viewing panel
Well this was not really needed
I did like the idea of having something for the glass panel to sit in and act as a guide for when I installed it
the glass I will be using is six feet long by two feet wide exactly I
Wanted a one in the half inch lip all around the viewing panel for the glass to sit in
So the holy cut in the panel was 69 inches by 21 inches
With the tank together in the strips installed this would give me a space of about 73 inches by 25 inches
Within the frame. I created for the glass to sit in
Which leaves me a half-inch around the glass to make room for a fiber glass epoxy and silicone
So that's where we've gotten so far the main construction of the aquarium is done now. I have to admit
I'm getting really excited because this is coming out really nicely
However, there's still obviously a lot more to do now
It's going to be hard to imagine the overall outcome of what this is going to look like
Based on what it looks like right now, however
We still have a number of things we need to do including either painting or staining
This aquarium and that will make it look a lot better
We also still need to install the front viewing panel
We also need to install the top bracing and then we need to also
Waterproof the aquarium now waterproofing a plywood aquarium is arguably the most
Important aspect to apply what aquarium and in next week's video
I'm going to show you exactly how to do it
So until then I hope you've enjoyed this build as much as I have so far
I also want to thank you for watching, and I'll see you guys next week when we move on to the next step