Cali Kid Corals

Plywood 120G sump, about $150

Working well. No leaks, no problems. It has been full for about 2 months now.

People have commented on how pretty the wood looks. Definitely unique.

I still need a power head mount, and some heater mounts. (I don't trust suction cups)
Probably why I have neglected this thread a bit. I should get around to that, then post some more pics.

The only funny problem is the depth. NEVER drop anything in it!!
You cannot possibly reach anything on the bottom by hand.

As a bonus, I have mounted the pumps to it. Being plywood, you can easily screw things in.
One downside is that it reverberates with the pump noise a bit though, amplifying it. Might not have
been the best plan to mount pumps to it.

BTW: My old much smaller plywood sump has been running for a couple of years with no issues.
 
At only 16" tall, should be a lot easier.
No need for big stringers or other special strength supports.

Go for it!
Note that I chickened out on doing my main tank in plywood though.
 
Ya... the combo of plywood tank and glass viewing panel is a bit intimidating. I love the large tank plywood threads on RC though. Seen more than a few of them end in leaks and dead threads as people disappear from RC in failure and shame... lol. A large coral flat with no viewing panels on the sides would be much less intimidating IMO. Plywood tanks seem like they take an incredible amount of patience and attention to detail. Of course us reefers don't know anything about that... :)
 
Yes, having only one side be glass makes it far easier.
In fact, I never really understood the point of plywood if most sides are glass/acrylic.
Saving on back/bottom, and dealing with dissimilar materials, does not make sense.

Most of the failures are because people think it is simply a matter of gluing a couple of boards together.
Even my little sump had something like 1000 ponds of force on the main panels.
A few screws, into the end-grain on top of it all, will not do.

The only tricky part in your build is making sure the front rim above the glass stays very straight when full of water.
At 8 feet, not trivial. Needs some cross bracing, a decent amount of wood, or possibly some metal.
Otherwise glass will flex. In itself, not so bad, but it flexes differently from the wood, possibly shearing
loose the joint.
 
Heck if (when) I did a plywood coral flat tank there would be no sides with glass at all. I would just limit myself to top down views and have a nice viewing apparatus to float on the surface. Thankfully I have some carpentry background so I have a good idea on what and how I'd laminate, joiner and biscuit joint everything together for best strength.

This thread needs to stop now or at least my involvement in it. I am starting to have a strong urge to go scope out some nice plywood sheets. I can only handle one tank build at a time :)
 
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