DIY Stands Template and Calculator

[morleyz]

Getting back in the game after a several year lay off. I'm about to embark on building a stand for a new 150XH. Glass tank, dimensions are 48Lx24Dx30H. Will have a 30-50gal sump in the stand as well, depending on what I can fit into the reduced area.

Is this design sufficient? Any changes you would make? See sketchup below.

- Top frame is 2x6, all other supports are 2x4. Based on reading much of this thread, I assumed 2x6 would be sufficient for the open span given the tank is only 4'. All frame joints will be pocket-hole type. The little squares in the corner were just to give the base a little more support in the corner, not as part of the structure.
- skinned with 1/4" plywood on all 4 sides.
- Interior base is 1/2" particle board.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ElmoC]

- Interior base is 1/2" particle board.

I would suggest either a solid pine panel or plywood rated for outdoor use. You need something that can stand up against water. Particle board can be like a sponge.

 

[morleyz]

Easy enough. Thanks.

 

[desjardinii]

This is an open stand I'm making for a 4x2x2' tank. The top rails are 4x2" with 2.75x1" timber trim glued and nailed along the front and sides forming a recess for a plywood top. It's quite high at 36" as I want to be able to house a tall skimmer comfortably. The legs are dowel jointed into the top rails for extra strength and also have 2x1" inserts to help support the side top rails. I weigh around 200lb and can stand on it in the middle and it feels very rigid with no noticeable flexing. Do you think I'll need to have central legs for extra support or can I get away without them?

 

[morleyz]

I'm not an structural expert, but my biggest concern with the open design is what would happen if your tank was bumped on the side or wasn't perfectly level. There's not a lot of lateral stability in that design. If you put something heavy on top and rock it side to side, does it flex at all (specifically at the corners)?

 

[Rhodophyta]

I'm not an structural expert, but my biggest concern with the open design is what would happen if your tank was bumped on the side or wasn't perfectly level. There's not a lot of lateral stability in that design. If you put something heavy on top and rock it side to side, does it flex at all (specifically at the corners)?

Good point. The top will be held by the recess for plywood. The back and the sides need that same recess so they can't flatten like a cardboard box that's been opened.

 

[AkoAung]

Earthquakes and stand rigidity

Earthquakes and stand rigidity

This isn't going to apply to most people. I live in Toronto, not a known earth quake zone. However there's been five earthquakes in the region between 3 and 5 in richter scale in the last five years! there's been one every year since 2011.

While it isn't felt on the ground, I live on the 16th floor of a building and have worked on 33rd floors where it caused enough movement for water to slosh around and make some people dizzy.

Yes most of the older buildings in this part of the world likely has no design compensation for that. So my concern is for 75 gallon + tanks the weights of the tanks are going to be 750lbs. I'm not a rocket engineer but that's going to put a lot of stress on these frames. Will they hold up the side to side or back and forth swaying?

Is it possible to add strength for it without making the stand into a plywood box?

thanks

 

[Rhodophyta]

This isn't going to apply to most people. I live in Toronto, not a known earth quake zone. However there's been five earthquakes in the region between 3 and 5 in richter scale in the last five years! there's been one every year since 2011.

While it isn't felt on the ground, I live on the 16th floor of a building and have worked on 33rd floors where it caused enough movement for water to slosh around and make some people dizzy.

Yes most of the older buildings in this part of the world likely has no design compensation for that. So my concern is for 75 gallon + tanks the weights of the tanks are going to be 750lbs. I'm not a rocket engineer but that's going to put a lot of stress on these frames. Will they hold up the side to side or back and forth swaying?

Is it possible to add strength for it without making the stand into a plywood box?

thanks

How about half a plywood box? Use this structure as the frame and trim it into a cabinet if you want. The idea here is to frame plywood in a two by rim that ties everything together. It is like a plywood box top, bottom, and sides. But the back is half open and the front can be completely open. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_stand2.php

An acrylic tank is more likely to withstand the swaying than a glass and silicone sealant aquarium. At least that is the assumption I make to explain why acrylic seems more popular on the West Coast. You can make the stand oversize and put a large Rubbermaid livestock tank beneath the tank as a sump. http://www.rubbermaidforless.com/ru...ity-stock-watering-tank-product_info-150.html

 

[AkoAung]

How about half a plywood box? Use this structure as the frame and trim it into a cabinet if you want. The idea here is to frame plywood in a two by rim that ties everything together. It is like a plywood box top, bottom, and sides. But the back is half open and the front can be completely open. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_stand2.php

An acrylic tank is more likely to withstand the swaying than a glass and silicone sealant aquarium. At least that is the assumption I make to explain why acrylic seems more popular on the West Coast. You can make the stand oversize and put a large Rubbermaid livestock tank beneath the tank as a sump. http://www.rubbermaidforless.com/ru...ity-stock-watering-tank-product_info-150.html

Hi Rhodophyta, this confuses me a bit. I'm no carpenter (was my civil engineer father's dream lol) so this looks quite complicated for me. are you saying, a bunch of small long sheets of plywood framed by 2x2 wood pieces be used in place of the 2x4 here and it'll achieve the boxed plywood strength?

the other thing is, he's using triangles on the back side of the tank only. as a layman I'm not sure what that accomplishes.

 

[dustinc]

I just ordered a 14 gallon biocube for decoration on a table I built while back. Below are the plans I used for the table and my plan would be to place the biocube in the center of the table where the 2x4 reaches the ground. Will this table be sufficient for the aquarium or do I need to look at building a stand for the aquarium? Thank you

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[RocketEngineer]

iDestroya, the plans on cichlid forum are more complicated than necessary but they do work. They are also outside of the purview of this thread as they require tools that most woodworking beginners don't have access too. Attaching plywood to the basic frame will significantly increase its strength/rigidity even if it is done by simply screwing the plywood in place.

dustinc, if this isn't built already I would place the top horizontal boards above the legs. You want the top to sit above the top boards which sit above the legs so the load goes straight down into the floor.

 

[AkoAung]

rocketengineer, my original question was, to achieve the same stability as a plywood box, what other options can I do to add strength to the current design WITHOUT using sheets of plywood on the outside?

Someone suggested I could add a diagonal beam across three sides.

I'm thinking of making it an X across the three sides instead of a simple beam for aesthetics as well.

Would a 6" or 8" plywood boards running on the outside of the table at the top and bottom do the same job?

 

[dustinc]

dustinc, if this isn't built already I would place the top horizontal boards above the legs. You want the top to sit above the top boards which sit above the legs so the load goes straight down into the floor.

Below are pictures of the table. It is already built. I believe it was built as you describe though. Can you confirm and let me know if this will be sufficient for the aquarium or if I would be better off building a separate stand? Also, should I use a piece of foam or something under the aquarium to make up for slight bows in the top pieces of wood? Thank you for the quick reply.

<iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59587022@N02/13594335594/player/" width="500" height="375" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

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[Greysoul]

Hi all, first off HUGE thanks to RocketEngineer for this thread, and even bigger thanks for keeping it alive and helping us for so long!

Ever think about doing an FAQ and "best of" thread to compliment the master (2 split) threads?

So here's my question:

I have a 180gal AGA tank I wanna do as an inwall build, and I'm working out how to get flush with the sheetrock on the viewing side of the tank. It's 5/8 MBlock (waterproof) and the stand can go flush against the back side (in fact I plan to attach the sheetrock to the legs)

So I was thinking of this: Make a normal 180g stand w/ 2x8 top frame, knock 5/8" off the depth, screw a board planed to 5/8" thick (probably plane down a 1x6) to the front face of the stand, put a 3/4" plywood on top, and that would let me support the 5/8" over hang with a solid safety factor (figure the remaining 23 3/8" of the tank will cantilever the overhang)

Does that sound like it would work? Has someone here already figured this out? (I spent half the day yesterday with the search engine and reading everything I could find, nothing really fit what i was looking for)

I sketched it up real quick here's a not-quite-dimensioned-right drawing of what I wanna do:

The red board is the 5/8" thick facing board that would be screwed on with probably 18 or so wood screws, some glue, and spit.

Look ok?

Thanks in advance!

-Doug


Notes: The sketchup drawing is of the original 180 stand I came up with w/ a 2x8 top frame, I didn't change it to reflect the offset of 5/8" forward. Also, the plywood is cut away for viewing sake, the actual top will be a full top with the back cut out for the drilled overflow plumbing, also not shown. Obvioulsy I haven't made it yet and would account for that in the build, also the legs are longer than I want them to be... but anyone enterprising could probably follow the image link back to my site where I have the .skp files for my build, so if you do that just keep in mind this isn't a properly dimensioned drawing. Also: the link to the .skp file if you don't wanna be a 'net detective: http://www.greymatter.org/fish/180/180_stand_mod.skp

 

[AkoAung]

rocketengineer, my original question was, to achieve the same stability as a plywood box, what other options can I do to add strength to the current design WITHOUT using sheets of plywood on the outside?

Someone suggested I could add a diagonal beam across three sides.

I'm thinking of making it an X across the three sides instead of a simple beam for aesthetics as well.

Would a 6" or 8" plywood boards running on the outside of the table at the top and bottom do the same job?

So this is what I did - 2x2s on the sides, and used a left over 2x4 piece to brace the back to make the stand stronger in lieu of sheathing with plywood.

 

[hobbzz]

I used this design to make a stand for my standard dimension 75g fuge. The 75 leaks, so I'd like to make an addition to the stand and add another six inches to the width so I could use a 120. The stand has no center brace but the top was made with 1x6. Could this be done or would I have to just completely redo it?

 

[RocketEngineer]

I used this design to make a stand for my standard dimension 75g fuge. The 75 leaks, so I'd like to make an addition to the stand and add another six inches to the width so I could use a 120. The stand has no center brace but the top was made with 1x6. Could this be done or would I have to just completely redo it?

For best results I recommend starting from scratch.

 

[hobbzz]

Thanks.

 

[Rhodophyta]

iDestroya, the plans on cichlid forum are more complicated than necessary but they do work. They are also outside of the purview of this thread as they require tools that most woodworking beginners don't have access too. Attaching plywood to the basic frame will significantly increase its strength/rigidity even if it is done by simply screwing the plywood in place.

dustinc, if this isn't built already I would place the top horizontal boards above the legs. You want the top to sit above the top boards which sit above the legs so the load goes straight down into the floor.

Actually the most complicated tool required for the cichlid forum plans are a circular saw and a electric screwdriver. You could even use only hand tools if you wanted, but parts of the job would then go faster with a helper at times. I have heard people say that you would need a router or table saw to follow those plans. I'm really disappointed Rocket would repeat that unthinking absurdity.

Years ago I would have thought like Rocket that just screwing plywood is enough to make a stand more rigid, but by building early stands with that false belief, and seeing many other equally deluded hobbyists' fish room stands sagging and twisting under the weight of water, I realized that even with clamping and glue in addition to the screws and carriage bolts, that plywood eventually shears loose as the stand twists under unrelenting weight. Even though the glue seam is strong and does not crack, the wood still cracks.

Having the plywood framed by the lumber is a necessary "complication" if you want to exceed the average two year life expectancy of an interest in the aquarium hobby. I've built aquarium stands for over forty years, and only used this "complicated" method for a little over ten years. I have five of the first stands I built this way over ten years ago and they all still are very straight and true.

 

[turbo2oh]

Would this original design built at 36'' L x 24'' W with a 24'' x 24'' tank in the center need any additional bracing in the middle? Like most people I'd like to avoid having a support in the middle of the front but was curious if it 'd be needed since my tank won't be sitting on the 4 corners of the stand.