Habitat - Outdoor :: Indoor/Outdoor Hybrid

[ellman605]

Well, thing is, i'll be using very thick wood, and if i build the sides up i don't see how it could give out, and with the support beams/metal plates. I'm not sure :-p

[DavidY]

Yea, use 3/4" thick plywood and brace it like every 18". Do you have the wood already? 'Cause 3/4" plywood is like $25 for a 4'x8' sheet.

[Tertule]

When I bought my 3/4 "veneered" plywood, it was $36 a sheet.

As much as I love doing wood work, I strongly recommend doing a stock tank and some kind enclosure....time = $cha ching.

[ellman605]

well i'm not talking about plywood, i'm talking about maybe 2-3 inch thick 2x4's nailed together. That would be for the 4 sides to make a square shape, and most likely i would use plywood on the bottom just to keep it from being an open square.

[DavidY]

Would the sides just be an open frame? I would think the liner would just bulge outwards between the 2x4's. Hmmm, I'm having a hard time picturing your design. Well, you could always experiment and see how it goes. Post pics of your progress if you do go that route.

[ellman605]

Yay for photoshop!

Give me 10 minutes to get up some blueprints

[iac637]

I would use a stock pond then build a nice enclosure

[ellman605]

DOUBLE POST!!!



As you can see, the side is formed by 3 or 4 2x4s with metal support braces on the side. The square it makes will have a flooring of plywood, and the pond liner goes inside of the box to take the form of it.

(oh, all squiggly lines in the bottom right picture is the "pond liner", and the bottom right picture is the frame from the top view)

[iac637]

thats going to be heavy as hell

[ellman605]

Not when it's empty, it'll only weigh a couple hundred pounds, and i am planning on finding a way to make it easy to move

Aren't I an amazing artist?

[iac637]

a couple of hundred pounds is a lot........ why do you want to use a pond liner so badly?

the picture was great

[ellman605]

Well i want to use a pond liner because my blueprints will end up being a 350 gallon tank or so, while a stock tank of the same price is $200. The pond liner is only $40, and wood is like $9 for a 10 foot piece or something like that.

[DavidY]

I don't think the pond liner will be strong enough to stay formed on the sides. It will definitely bulge through any space between the 2x4's and will most likely tear or rip at the edges of the wood. I still don't think it will hold together either. 350 gallons of water is going to weigh 2800lbs, that's over a ton. And that's not just dead weight, that's going to be pushing out against every surface.

[ellman605]

Ah. Well then, looks like i'm going for a stock tank! Do you think a 150 will be good for 2 male turtles or should i save for the 300 gallon?

[DavidY]

I would think it would be good as long as the turtles get along and you have an big enough filter. The 300 would be way cool though! Anyway, I just saw a 100gal stock tank that's been used for 3 years on craigslist for $75 locally. How much are they new I wonder?