2 x 4 stand, worth it to go Cedar over SPF?

[WinnipegDragon]

Not a huge tank, it's 36" x 18" x 18" so only a 50g display, but for the price difference of about $50CDN, I could use kiln dried Cedar instead of Spruce for the framing material.

I don't care about looks, this will all be covered in Kilz primer, and then sheeted in ply anyhow, but I'm wondering if there is a benefit to the natural moisture resistance of Cedar in this application?

 

[mcgyvr]

I believe there is little to no benefit in moisture resistance or raw material choice when you are going to be painting the stand.. As long as we aren't talking about balsa wood or MDF... Any dimensional lumber is just fine.. Pine/Spruce whatever is just fine..

If one wanted to show off for the debate team then sure they could make a few points here and there about specific situations but there are plenty of stands built out of regular pine,etc... that have stood the test of time just fine..
A few coats of any paint is usually more than sufficient to protect from the amount of moisture a stand will see over its lifespan..

 

[WinnipegDragon]

Yeah I was looking into hardness and Cedar is well behind Spruce for both crush and flex strength which I should have looked at first in hindsight.

Less of a good idea than I initially thought

 

[lingwendil]

If building to the usual rocketengineer plans cedar is fine for strength, and it's pretty handsome too. I almost went with it but went with kiln-dried douglas fir instead, it was a tad cheaper and the only real practical benefits of cedar (rot resistance and insect resistance) were not that important in an indoor use.

 

[WinnipegDragon]

Yeah cedar was three times the cost so I went kiln dried spruce.

Thanks all for the input.