120g Stand Build

[JammyBirch]

Ok nano tank here...looking to go to a 120g. I have a friend with one and i'm jealous.

Anyway my question is around the stand...i want a big stand. Room to keep supplies and an electrical cabinet for control wiring and power cords, away from the sump.

What is the correct way to support the tank? Do i need the pillars of the stand to be on the corners of the tank? Do i need a subframe the same size as the perimeter of the tank for full support?

The stand is giong to have a 3/4" sheet of harwood on the top and braced.

Here's a pic of the design.

 

[sleepydoc]

What size sump are you putting under it? What other equipment? ATO Tank?

Several critiques on the plan you posted:

1. you should have vertical supports directly under the tanks. As designed, you currently are cantilevering with ¾" plywood. That will not adequately support a 1000+ lb tank.
2. You appear to be using 4x4s for support; in addition to being overkill, they may be worse than 2x4s because of a greater tendency to twist and split.
3. With *proper design,* you can eliminate the center support in front to give yourself more working room
4. Make sure you allow adequate height. The original manufacturer stand I bought with my tank was only 28" high and was very cramped underneath. New stand is 36" and is much better. Higher stands also give better viewing, but you have to balance that with the ability to get into the tank when you need to.

If you want a 2x4 - framed stand, check out rocket engineer's thread. It's a solid frame design, but is overbuilt does compromise internal space a bit.

If you have a bit more skills, consider making a stand from plywood. Still pretty easy to do and eliminates the bulky framing that takes up space.

Below is a plan of the stand I'm just finishing - It doesn't have the extra space on the end you're thinking of, but you can look at the design for ideas. It's designed for a 40b sump with a 10 gallon ATO reservoir at the end.

 

[Jeremym99]

3/4" plywood?

 

[m1k3]

3/4" plywood?

Yep. Which will technically be 23/32" these days...

 

[JammyBirch]

there are cross members at the pillars but i see what you're saying, especially if the wood top would ever get wet.

I'm going to run a 40B as the sump and have all of the usual equipment.
skimmer, ATO, external return, grow light, 3 heaters and a GFO reactor.