# roll on truck bed liner for water proofing



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

has any body tried using roll on truck bed liner as the water proofing on diy plywood tanks. It seal the bed of my truck. It turns into a pond every time it rains. It is also super tough and not all that expensive. think ill try it.


----------



## ClearMud (Nov 6, 2010)

oh, tell us if when you put fish in if it kills them at worse or if the fish get sick. because, if i make a plywood tank i would use that if it is cheaper than pond armor. first make a small 10g plywood tank to test it.

(this makes me want a giant 300-900G plywood tank)


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

the fish health was what i am concerned about. but i think it will be ok. i took some heavy duty cleaner that i got from work and soaked a rag in it and scrubbed a spot in my truck bed and i couldnt even get enough off to discolor my rag. that stuff is solid! so what im gona do is take a sheet of plwood and a couple 2x4s and rip the ply wood into 4 six foot long by 1 foot wide strips and make a six foot tall by one foot square tank. Then ill coat the inside with a gallon of bed liner and fill that sucker up. six foot water line should test the water pressure plenty. then ill put some golds inthere for a while and see how they do. stay tuned folks.


----------



## ClearMud (Nov 6, 2010)

u mean 3 6 foot pieces and 2 1 foot pieces.


----------



## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

no he is going to make it 6 feet TALL. That tall column will not be a very good test of strength. The weakest point of any tank is the top center of the longest (not tallest) wall.


----------



## uarujoey (May 20, 2011)

What brand are you thinking about using?

It would come down to if it is non-toxic or not, as well as if it is rated for pooling water or not.. how it reacts submerged, etc...

I've used liquid rubber with great success, as an alternative.


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

my cousin used liquid rubber on a small tank and it looked brown when it dried. like the hole inside of the tank had been smeared with ****. ill either use rustoleum or dura liner. i threw away the can I used on my truck so i dont know what the ingeredient are. we will soon be finding out how it does.


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

i dont intend this to strengthen the tank only to make a durable water tight seal. i have no intention of relying on it for strutural stability. im using a 6 foot tall column of water to test it against water pressure which will be highest at the very bottom. im gona build my tank out of three layers of 3/4 inch plywood laminated together with alternating overlaping corners, with an 36X84 inch viewing window made of 1 1/8 inch annealed glass. gona use two 4000 gph submersible pumps in a dual sump and a 1200 gph sebersible to run a ugj setup. havent decided how im gona heat it yet. im not keeping the whole room at 80 degrees. i wana be able to hang out in there myself comfortably. probly use a hottub heater.


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

Ok folks I got me a 6 foot tall 1 foot square fish tank built in my basement. I built it friday morning and it took me about two hours. first I went to lowes and got a 3/4 inch piece of plywood. Then I had lowes cut it for me into four 6x1 foot pieces and two 12x12 inch pieces. Then I got it home and before I screwed it all together I coated the pieces with about 2 quarts of duplicolor black truck bed liner that I got at auto zone. Then I let it dry for about ten hours. Next cut an 10 inch hole in the top, then used 3 inch deck screws to assemble the hole thing and I overlapped the out side corners with 2x4s. Then came the hard part, putting the bed liner in the bottom. It is 6 feet deep and one foot square so i couldnt reach the bottom. So I had to tape a piece of pvc to my brush handle so I could get to the bottom corners. I then used another quart and a half of bed liner to coat the corners and one more entire layer on the inside. I had about half an inch left in the bottom of a one gallon can. That was three coats on the inside and one on the outside. So it has been drying since friday afternoon and now its sunday morning and my buddy just gave me 30 fantail guppies that are gona go in. I filled it up about two hours ago and its holding water. no leaks. so imm gona ad the gupps and wait I figure ill give the gupps thirty days and see how things go.Stay tuned.


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

well its been three days and all is well. I can detect no staining of the water and all of the guppies are doing good. I have been doing a very simple test every day that consists of me sticking my hand in the tank about 12 inches down and trying to dig into the bed liner with my finger nail. Its like trying to scratch concrete. this stuff is tough. and constant submersion in water is having no effect. I guess ill have to see how it does over time.


----------



## coltion (Jan 12, 2011)

I can tell you I used this same brand roll-in bed liner on my truck twice. Due to what I can only can assume is the sun over curing it making it dry out and lighten to a gray and now whenever it rains it leaves streaks on my truck. Also when I wash my truck it comes off on the shammy while drying.

Please give this alot of time before putting quality fish in it.


----------



## uarujoey (May 20, 2011)

Whats are the VOCs like in this? is there any?


----------



## Chunkanese (Feb 4, 2011)

So this tank is 6x1x1? 6ft high? That's what I got from reading this. Maybe I'm confused. However if so, would this pose a high risk of toppling over unless built into another structure? Anyhow good build and good luck. Glad to hear guppies are still in the game. Curious did you have cycled filter media? If not it may interfere with the fishes health and not show a true representation of your experiment.


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

well it has been a month and all is going well. Have lost six guppies but I got two while siphoning water doing a water change, so four out of thirty. I think its safe to say that roll on truck bed liner is safe for fish. And oh is it durable! So its what im going to use on my 1000 gallon project. I am only undecided as to how to seal the corners of the tank. The bed liner worked fine, but im considering using silicone to seal the corners just like in an aquarium. I wish i would have tried silicone on two corners and bed liner on the other two corners of my test tank. i may build another one just to find out which is better. But anyway this will be the last post to this thread by me. It worked for me so it should work for you too.


----------



## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

Thanks for the report, could see a lot more DIY tanks here in the future, including mine!!

Try glassing the corners, the extra strength might let you sleep at night. :thumb:


----------



## newguyinillinois (May 1, 2011)

two and one quarter inches of plywood with over lapping corners is going to be plenty strong i think.


----------

