I have never seen a plywood tank, does the wood ever get satuarated or does the paint prevent it 100 percent? What do you think you saved in costs by doing it this way? you are one hell of a DIYer! its fun to see. I love that about this hobby is if you want it you can most of the time just make it. Fun! Those sharks swiming down there? you have a fish list?
I wouldnt ever say 100% when it comes to plywood, but 99.99% sure, theres always a case where something happens that shouldnt. I actually have it layered like this:
Plywood - resin - paint - silicon
So there are 3 barriers before water can actually get to the wood. Marine plywood is supposed to be water tight/proof. But i applied a layer of resin to be extra safe. But with resin, it dries hard, semi flexible but can crack if its too thick or if the wood bows too much. So i applied the paint only for the color i wanted and put a thick layer (about 1/8") as a flexible water barrier. I dont think that i should have any water issues unless something crazy happens.
This tank cost me about 900 at most including the stand so far (still need the paneling and doors), last i checked, on petsolutions, they wanted a 250g tank with stand for around 3grand. Not sure if that came with pump and everything, but even then (not including lights) i may be up to around 1200-1500. So 1/2 price with some elbow grease.
Yes, i love to do DIY stuff because of the amount you learn from it. If something goes wrong, you pretty much know how to fix it with having built it and learning what everything does. Liek my LED build for instance.
yeah, they are called "sharks" but they are brackish catfish...
Hmmm, fish in my tank:
2 flower anemones
1 rose tip anemone
3 yellow damsels
3 3stripe damsels
6-7 domino damsels
2 yellow tailed damsels
2 bull shark carfish
1 sea grass wrasse
1 sailfin tang
1 powder blue tang
1 tomini tang
1 blood red fire shrimp
2 purple firefish
2 twin spotted signal goby
1 pink spotted shrimp goby
1 bali damsel
1 maroon clownfish
2 Ocellaris clown fish