DIY Stands Template and Calculator

[Dustin1300]

I made a quick drawing of what I'm thinking. Let me know if you have any questions or need any explanations:

***Red, blue, yellow are 2X6s
***Purple, orange are 2X4s
***Green is 4X4s

 

[Dustin1300]

C-Rad,

Thanks for the ideas and I'll try to get the design drawn up tonight so I can ensure I understand everything outlined here but like the idea of just extending the base for the sump and narrowing the top two shelves.

Clarifications:

- I'll be anchoring the stand to the concrete walls in multiple places so they should increase the structures stability and rocking.
- The 75 Gallon is glass with plastic bands, the two 40 gallon breeders will be glass with bands too, but the sump is a DIY glass sump with no bands and I was mixing up the dimensions somehow when I did the calculator. After all is said and done the glass sump will most likely only have 65-75 gallons...Still ironing out that design!

 

[Dustin1300]

Disregard post...The stand would be 72" wide!

 

[C-Rad]

With a yellow cross member every 12" like that, this design could work, because the load is spread out over so many butt joints. Each joint will need to support 100-200 lbs, so be sure to make those joints strong. Three screws in each end would probably be enough, or you could use joist hangers (and again, 2x4's would be fine for the cross members). You'll still need to do something to prevent wracking, but I think that design will work, if you make the cross member joints strong enough.

 

[Dustin1300]

Would the wracking problem not be resolved by anchoring the stand to the the concrete wall?


Here's where it is to be installed and I could anchor to the back wall as well as the column on the right.

 

[RocketEngineer]

I made a quick drawing of what I'm thinking. Let me know if you have any questions or need any explanations:

***Red, blue, yellow are 2X6s
***Purple, orange are 2X4s
***Green is 4X4s

Dustin1300,
A few small tweeks I would make:
1) Change the Green pieces to 2X4s and that should be plenty strong enough.

2) If you put plywood across each shelf, you could probubly center them every 18". Most of the strenght is in the long beams anyways. And like C-Rad said, make them 2X4s.

3) I would honestly make the stand 74" wide to account for the plastic surrounds on the 40b tanks.

4) A pair of anchors in the two upper rails will be plenty to hold it in place. All your really doing is keeping it from moving too much.

Don't be too surprised if I steal those images for future questions about double decker stands.

RocketEngineer

 

[Dustin1300]

RocketEngineer,

No worries about stealing the images Your input is greatly appreciated and hopefully I have some better images to illustrate exactly what you mention is best. Do you agree on the larger base and smaller upper shelves as C-Rad mentioned?

 

[C-Rad]

I agree with Rocket that a couple of anchors into the concrete should be fine to keep the thing from wracking, or falling forward too easily.

If you make the base come out 26" while the top two shelves only come out 18" (as I suggested) you need to decide if the sump will stick out in from 8", or in back. If in front, then cleaning the 75 gallon on the center shelf might be a pain, and/or you might step in/on the sump when climbing up to work in the 40 br's. if it sticks out the back, you'll want to extend the top side beams 8" back to reach the wall for anchoring, or rig some brackets or something.

 

[C-Rad]

I agree with Rocket that a couple of anchors into the concrete should be fine to keep the thing from wracking, or falling forward too easily.

If you make the base come out 26" while the top two shelves only come out 18" (as I suggested) you need to decide if the sump will stick out in from 8", or in back. If in front, then cleaning the 75 gallon on the center shelf might be a pain, and/or you might step in/on the sump when climbing up to work in the 40 br's. if it sticks out the back, you'll want to extend the top side beams 8" back to reach the wall for anchoring, or rig some brackets or something.

 

[bruce 1]

I am starting on a stand and canopy that will fit a tank that is 72x27x27. I need the stand (inside hight) 42 inches. The tank will have a bean animal overflow. (so the plumbing will stick out the back of the tank about 3 to 4 inches)

How can I hide the plumbing from viewing (but have access to) from the sides?


Thank you Bruce.

 

[Dustin1300]

Stand V1.2

Stand V1.2

I've recreated the the stand in Sketchup as promised so you have it for reference to your suggestions to ensure that I am understanding everything correctly. I also just love playing with Sketchup

1) I understand that the 2X4s are not needed as frequently as I have them but I'd rather have it overbuilt than underbuilt
2) Per Rocket's suggestion on widening it a bit for the 2 40s...I just tacked on the ends so it would make it 75" wide. Does this effect the structural integrity and should I just use a solid horizontal run of the 2X4s/2X6s?
3) Because of most of the weight bearing on the horizontal 2X6s in the front/back, could I use 2X4s for the vertical runs on the sides to make it more accessible to the tanks from the sides?

Still not sure on whether I want to do the extension for the front or back for the sump dimensions. Having it in the back makes it less convenient when working in the sump but makes it easier for working in the fuge/QTs and vice versa. (Both designs are a simple modification so I'll have to make a decision...)

Modified to anchor to wall should I want sump to go over back....

 

[bruce 1]

I also just love playing with Sketchup

Well could you draw me up a stand and a canopy? Or anyone. Thanks Bruce

 

[C-Rad]

I suggest that you measure the tanks you plan to use along the bottom rim, so that you will know exactly what size the stand should be. There's no need to guess "75" if you can measure.

It looks like you are using 2x6's for the legs. If you want more access on the side, use 2x4's for the legs. They are more than strong enough. Yes, you can use 2x4's for the short side horizontal beams, but that will complicate things a little because the two pieces that make up each leg will no longer be the same length. That's not a problem, it's just not as simple.

 

[Dustin1300]

I suggest that you measure the tanks you plan to use along the bottom rim, so that you will know exactly what size the stand should be. There's no need to guess "75" if you can measure.

It looks like you are using 2x6's for the legs. If you want more access on the side, use 2x4's for the legs. They are more than strong enough. Yes, you can use 2x4's for the short side horizontal beams, but that will complicate things a little because the two pieces that make up each leg will no longer be the same length. That's not a problem, it's just not as simple.

I did not make myself clear I meant using the 2X4s on the sides for the legs for access. That's good to hear!

As far as dimensions of lower tank I've measured that and the 75. I don't yet have the 40 gallon breeders but those will be the common size and agree with Rocket that I should give it a couple more inches wide....

 

[Dustin1300]

I also just love playing with Sketchup

Well could you draw me up a stand and a canopy? Or anyone. Thanks Bruce

I chopped up my drawing quickly and that's all you get Bruce! I've got lots of designing myself

This design would be for the stand portion and would allow you to skin it further back and put cleanly against the wall (I'd personally cut the baseboard and mount trim directly to stand/wall so it looks like it's built in.) Then you'll just need to build the canopy and make sure you have good access from the front.

 

[czwannabe]

Hey so how much do different types of wood vary in the actual strength of building a stand? I have a stand that is being built right now out of Cumaru which is supposed to be one of the strongest woods out there and I was wondering if you had any way of calculating what needs to be used on a 75 gall stand. Btw Rocket I love your design.

 

[hobbzz]

marineland 45g cube

marineland 45g cube

I'm building this stand for a 45g cube, 24 x 24 x 18. I would like the stand to extend beyond the edges of the tank by about 2-4 inches on three sides so I can fit more equipment underneath. So the tank would be flush with the stand at the back, but the stand would be larger on the remaining three sides. Can this be done using this design or making a few easy modifications if I topped it with 3/4' or 1" plywood? Maybe add cross braces using hanging braces?

Also, from their website, Lowes looks like they sell planed but untreated 2x4's. If the inside would be painted anyways, would it be beneficial to get the untreated but planed 2x4's and glueing as well? I'm not even positive if they are planed, the description is kind of vague.

 

[hobbzz]

Maybe one of these joist hangers?

http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogD...Id=10151&N=0&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&rpp=24

 

[TheFishMan65]

I would run a board at the front and back even with the tank. Then joist hanger for the sides. This is not rcommened, but then this is a small tank 45 gallons)

 

[C-Rad]

Hey so how much do different types of wood vary in the actual strength of building a stand? I have a stand that is being built right now out of Cumaru which is supposed to be one of the strongest woods out there and I was wondering if you had any way of calculating what needs to be used on a 75 gall stand. Btw Rocket I love your design.

What are the dimensions of cumaru wood that are available to you? I need that info to answer your question, but if you use lumber that is 3/4" thick, you can build a stand for a standard 75 (48x18x21) using the design in this thread, using 1x4's (.75"x3.5") for the legs and the beams (use cheaper wood for the tacking strips). I assumed a weight for water (and rocks, sand, canopy) of 12 lbs/gallon, green wood (not kiln dried), a maximum span between legs of 41", and got a deflection of 0.1" for a cumaru 1x4.

Details:
I did a little digging and found that cumaru is about three times stronger than Ponderosa pine (yow!) In this post, RocketEngineer gives the formula he uses to calculate the deflection of a beam under a load. It gives links to the places he looked up the "modulus of elasticity" (ME) for various species and types of wood. The deflection of a beam is inversely proportional to the ME of the wood, which means that as the ME goes up, the amount of deflection goes down. He uses 1.0 * 10^6 in his calculations, which is the ME of green Ponderosa pine. For reference, if a type of wood had a ME of tripple that (3 * 10^6) then it would deflect 1/3rd as much.

According to a datasheet I found on Cumaru wood, it has an ME of about 23000 MPa when it is kiln dried (12% moisture). When it is green, that would be about 18730 MPa, which is about 2.71 * 10^6 lbf/in^2. In other words, a green Ponderosa pine beam deflects about 2.71 times farther than a green Cumaru beam of the same dimensions, under the same load. Wow, that's strong stuff. Dried Cumaru would have an ME of about 3 *10^c. It also has a much higher breaking point than pine, so it is strong, not just rigid.