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22 Posts
This is my first time contributing to the discussion board, but have read through many a thread with much interest.
I daydream much about monster fish tanks full of African Cichlids. I've built a few fish tanks, a couple all glass (a 90g & a 50g), a plywood & acrylic (about 530g), and the the latest, a steel 357g with a glass front. Inside dimensions are 108.25"x28"x27.25"
I scored on the sheet of 1/2" glass for free from a construction buddy, I weld, & have built a couple of steel water tanks out of 12 G galvanized sheet metal, and got the idea to build a steel fish tank. Not galvanized, but epoxy coated steel. I actually built the tank about 15 years ago, kept it in a greenhouse and mostly housed native fishes in it. The tank is not in use at the moment, but I am wanting to get it going again, which brings us to what this topic is actually about.
The tank is built out of 12g steel, back, sides, & bottom, with an 1/8" x 2" flat frame around the front and top. I had 3 equally spaced (removable) cross braces on the top. Overflows built in similar to bulkhead fittings but welded in. Interior was coated with 3 coats of epoxy paint, exterior metal primed & painted, then glass sealed in with silicone.
Tank worked great, simple to build, strong, reasonably light weight, not too much expense. Trouble is, soon epoxy paint started peeling off the interior. I noticed blisters about 1/2" to 3/4" forming in the paint. Tore tank down, spent brutal hours removing paint and re-doing with another product, and it happened again. Tank has actually been sitting for a couple years and most of the paint has literally fell off the inside. Now it is rusted and will have to be wire wheeled down to bare clean metal again.
Anyone have any ideas on a product I should try? I researched products before and followed instructions on the application. Paint store actually gave me the epoxy I used for the second go around along with much apologizing & head scratching.
There has to be a product that will stick well, hold up to UV light, be waterproof, and non toxic. I know steel water tanks are coated with some type of epoxy. Any ideas?
I daydream much about monster fish tanks full of African Cichlids. I've built a few fish tanks, a couple all glass (a 90g & a 50g), a plywood & acrylic (about 530g), and the the latest, a steel 357g with a glass front. Inside dimensions are 108.25"x28"x27.25"
I scored on the sheet of 1/2" glass for free from a construction buddy, I weld, & have built a couple of steel water tanks out of 12 G galvanized sheet metal, and got the idea to build a steel fish tank. Not galvanized, but epoxy coated steel. I actually built the tank about 15 years ago, kept it in a greenhouse and mostly housed native fishes in it. The tank is not in use at the moment, but I am wanting to get it going again, which brings us to what this topic is actually about.
The tank is built out of 12g steel, back, sides, & bottom, with an 1/8" x 2" flat frame around the front and top. I had 3 equally spaced (removable) cross braces on the top. Overflows built in similar to bulkhead fittings but welded in. Interior was coated with 3 coats of epoxy paint, exterior metal primed & painted, then glass sealed in with silicone.
Tank worked great, simple to build, strong, reasonably light weight, not too much expense. Trouble is, soon epoxy paint started peeling off the interior. I noticed blisters about 1/2" to 3/4" forming in the paint. Tore tank down, spent brutal hours removing paint and re-doing with another product, and it happened again. Tank has actually been sitting for a couple years and most of the paint has literally fell off the inside. Now it is rusted and will have to be wire wheeled down to bare clean metal again.
Anyone have any ideas on a product I should try? I researched products before and followed instructions on the application. Paint store actually gave me the epoxy I used for the second go around along with much apologizing & head scratching.
There has to be a product that will stick well, hold up to UV light, be waterproof, and non toxic. I know steel water tanks are coated with some type of epoxy. Any ideas?