Is spray on bed liner ok to use for a sump tank

[Tony Gilliam]

Im in the design phase and starting to put together my system. Im considering building a sump tank inside my tank room, so in the winter i can keep things going by doing water change outs to keep the nitates in check. This tank will be about 500 gallons and also house a de-gassing chamber and a chamber for the boi-mass. My thoughts are to build it out of plywood and then have it sprayed with a spray on type of bed liner to make it water tight. Im not sure if this type of coating is fish safe. Has anyone done this in their system?

[John E Windsor]

Line-X claims to be environmentally safe and they have a phone number on their website. I'd call and ask them if it is safe for aquatic life. My second question would be do they have mobile services.

[Ken Elrich]

@ Tony. I have giving this sort of idea some thought myself. I have spoken to a company that puts in ponds. He took me to his back room and showed me a tank that was maybe 1000 - 1500 gallons. he used 4x4's over lapping the corners and lagg screws each layer to the last one. then he lined it with a pond liner. his setup was said to be 10 years old and still looked new. the pond liner cost is near the cost of what spray on bed liner would be, but it is Fish safe, plant safe and you can consume both fish and plant without worry. he uses his tank to house gold fish and Koi for the ponds he builds for his customers.

[Tony Gilliam]

Well, I guess i don't need to re-invent the wheel. I just have an odd space that i was looking at for the sump. And i was looking at placing (underflow and overflow) weirs inside. Guess i could build them out of pvc sheeting instead. I would hate to spend $500 bucks building and coating this sump just for it to kill all my fish.

[Tony Gilliam]

Well things are starting to come together quick now. My fish room is 17 feet long and 9 feet wide. I had to take the door and frame off to squeeze my IBC's through but i now have 5 = 275 gallon totes along the long wall. That leaves about 5 ft x17 ft to walk through and put in breeder tanks. I have been gathering 29 gallon aquariums, mostly from Craigs list. It is my intention to put them on the long wall opposite the IBC's and over the sump tank. This will allow me to tap a water line right off the header to the breeder tanks that will over flow (through a pvc pipe) to the sump. My goal is to have 1 pump run everything. I need to get some pics to put on here.

[Chris Carr]

The good thing with a liner is you can always take it out for maintenance on the tank. Even if a spray on liner is safe, it would be a one shot deal to get it right.

[Jim Troyer]

You could roll on thickened fiberglass resin without any problem.  Fiberglass is pretty inert, they make fish tanks, and jacuzzi from fiberglass

[Tony Gilliam]

Here are some pics. Its a mess but im kinda proud.

[Tony Gilliam]

Here is 1 more.

[Tony Gilliam]

As you can see in the pics, I have 5 = 275 gallon IBC's with a common underflow drain that will go to the sump. The vertical pipes on the front of the first 3 totes are water circulators that will have air injected near the bottom, I just dont have them installed yet on the other 2 totes.

On top I am working out how to use 5 = 10 gallon aquariums for bio-mass for the influent water to flow through. This wont be the only bio-mass that is used, but i thought it was an opportunity to do more than just drop water in the top of the tanks.

The gray box on the wall was recycled from a local factory, OK OK I went dumpster diving. But it has 2 very expensive looking air regulators in it. Im thinking it would make a nice control center for aerators and feeder timers.

Ok guys this is your chance to keep me from screwing up, Any suggestion?