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Lone Reefer

This is a bad idea 2

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I really like talking about this project but I'm going to do my best to keep this simple along the way. After failing to find the product I wanted last night and spending about an hour reading on my iphone I was able to find sealants and epoxy that will work. So I'm hoping to save the next guy some reading time.

Wood is cut. Need to coat it in something to waterproof it that’s reef safe.
First product I got is Bondo all-purpose fiberglass resin

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The small 18.00 container gave me enough to do 3 coats today. I skipped putting actual fiber down with it since I won't have any large rock to ding the sides in which could expose raw wood. I could have done 2 coats but decided to use it all. I had 2 hours of dry time for each coat in sunny warm weather. Cold weather will take much longer. Glad it hit 63 today. I'm going to let it cure out for 48 hours.

I found a build where someone used 1 part garage floor epoxy and had no issues with a reef tank but the brand was not posted. I picked up home depots behr brand. WARNING if you’re reading this please skip ahead to my future posts to make sure it’s safe.

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This will be the second product I use. After that I need to stain the outside and at the same time drill the 2 inside baffles and put bulk heads in.

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Categories
Tank Entry , ‎ DIY projects

Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    Nice to see it progress.

    (Feel free to title your blog entry to what matches the content. This will make it easier to follow as well as to look up previous content.)
  2. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    I'm pretty sure that Bondo product isn't epoxy, it's polyester resin. I've used it before, and it doesn't harden up the way epoxy does, and seems to have a waxy finish when done. No idea if it's reef safe, but the fumes from it are even worse than epoxy. Use plenty of ventilation.