DIY Stands Template and Calculator

[TheFishMan65]

The stand look great! Just two question that are a little hard to tell from the picture.
1) What did you use on the ends?
2) Are the supports under the tank? Rather than screwed to the vertical. If you don't understand read back a few pages and it was probably brought up in better detail.

Also hard to tell from the picture put if you push it left and right is it stable? It is probably just an illusion, but it looks like a strong wind will blow if over.

You probably covered all this, but it is the dumb things that get us sometimes.

 

[project-roc]

How did you match the top trim of the tank? I see the stick on the glass says the trim was originally black.

It's basically just a skin out of the same wood as the stand. It's been dado'd back ( cut like an L shape ) so it sits on top of the trim. Then he just siliconed the wood cover up onto the trim.

 

[project-roc]

The stand look great! Just two question that are a little hard to tell from the picture.
1) What did you use on the ends?
2) Are the supports under the tank? Rather than screwed to the vertical. If you don't understand read back a few pages and it was probably brought up in better detail.

Also hard to tell from the picture put if you push it left and right is it stable? It is probably just an illusion, but it looks like a strong wind will blow if over.

You probably covered all this, but it is the dumb things that get us sometimes.

Thanks for the kind words, and no worries, from the pictures it doesn't look like much support at all! But the tank is actuallly sitting on top of the 3/4 hardwood, and in the back there is a support that goes to the bottom. As far as the ends go, they are a raised panel that sits on the floor. Underneath the tank I put boards that goes around the perimeter of the top for added strength. I didn't get any more pictures than what I have - And now I'm wishing I did, I'm not very good at explaining these kinds of things.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Yeah I wish you got a few more too. But if I understand what you are saying it sounds good.

 

[project-roc]

I told him one day he will have to upgrade his 40 breeder to a 3-sided starfire 65gal tank. But his wife, my sister, about slapped my arm and gave me that look!

 

[TheFishMan65]

Well no wonder, you can't go from a 40 to a 65. You have to a least double if not triple.

 

[C-Rad]

I've always built stands with a very similar design to that first proposed in this thread, except that I use a single 2x3 at each corner, rather then two 2x4s at each corner, and I use 2x2's for all the horizontal pieces. My design only works if skinned, and since a horizontal 2x2 can only span a short distance without deflecting (bowing) too much, I add additional vertical 2x2's as needed so that no unsupported horizontal span is greater than 24.25" (so the front door opening(s) will let me easily slide a 24" long sump in)

I'd like to ask RocketEngineer to use his equations to calculate something for me (us):
For a glass tank, with plastic frame, how long a span (between vertical support columns) can I get away with if I use 2x2s for the top horizontal pieces (red, yellow)? How about if I use 2x3s
Same questions for an acrylic tank, which needs a rigid flat bottom, assuming that I use 3/4" plywood for the top.

Thanks!

 

[renogaw]

i've secured some woodworking expertise and a basement work shop (in the form of my father in law ), and i'm thinking of building a stand, using the designs shown up above, but have a question...

I have a JBJ 28 hqi, and the stand is just so wobbly that i want to do something different. I think i'm going to figure out a way to get a 29 gallon sump onto the tank so i can put everything down below hidden. I also need a compartment for my chiller, and an area for my ballast. i'd also love an area for easy access to electrical...

so basically, i think i'm going to build about a 48" stand, and maybe put a Corian/Swanstone top on it instead of plywood, so i can have somewhere to frag. has anyone done something like this?

 

[TheFishMan65]

For a glass tank only the corners or sides need to be supported. I asked

I have a question about glass tanks. I am building a stand, and I have read that glass tanks with a plastic support frame only need to be supported in the corner. Can you please tell me the minimum and recommended support requirements. I have an all glass tank that is about 15 years old. Thanks

Sorry for the delay in response.

That is true, for tanks 48" and smaller all you really need to support are either the two ends or if you do just the corners you will want about 3 to 4 inches from each corner in either direction supported. Larger tanks are a little different as the middle of the long edge would need supported as well.

Regards,
Rob Moneyhan

Central Aquatics Tech Lead
Phone# 888-255-4527 or 414-423-8544
Fax# 800-398-0396 or 414-421-9682
Email: rmoneyhan@central.com

A 2x2 really is not very strong. The original design criteria was less than 1/8 of bow. I think you can stand on a 2x2 that is 1 foot long and it will bend more than that. So IMO 2x2 are useless as a top rail if support is needed. A 2x3 might work - I tried to work out the formula, but i think I had a unit wrong.

Sorry I am no help for acrylics other than saying they need to be supported well. I think I have read that every 2 feet and a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood is reasonable.

 

[C-Rad]

A 2x2 really is not very strong. The original design criteria was less than 1/8 of bow. I think you can stand on a 2x2 that is 1 foot long and it will bend more than that. So IMO 2x2 are useless as a top rail if support is needed. A 2x3 might work - I tried to work out the formula, but i think I had a unit wrong

Thanks for trying. I'm still looking for a calculated answer, based on the formula, for both a 2x2 and a 2x3.

 

[C-Rad]

I also need a compartment for my chiller

Chillers need a continuous supply of room temperature air, and a way to vent the warmer air they produce, back into the room. If you put a chller in a closed compartment, it doesn't work well, and can damage itself eventually. Any compartment you build for a chiller must have unrestricted inake and exhaust paths to allow cool air in and warm air out. If there's much restriction of the air flow, you'll also need to add a fan to move air into and out of the compartment.

I have a 1/4 HP chiller that I built into my stand, which keeps my temperate tank at 56 degrees (F). I installed a window fan in the stand to move air, and added sound deadening baffles, so the noise of the fan, chiller, and external Iwaki pump is only a whisper (The air flows throug a serries of 180 degree turns that sound waves have trouble bouncing around). Another advantage of housing the chiller in a cabinet with a fan, is that I could also install a replaceable air filter, so that dust doesn't build up on the cooling coils in the chiller.

 

[renogaw]

good idea, thanks! currently the chiller is in the jbj stand that has the two openings. i've got a lot of computer cooling fans laying around, i bet i can figure something out with them to keep the chiller working ok

 

[snowball2020]

I've got this same situation going on, and even though we spent ALOT of time measuring and taking time with the cuts on the legs, that I've got some gaps (some fairly large) between the gaps. I consider regular shims, but then thats just pressure. I've glued the whole thing together along with the screws so taking it apart is a daunting task.

I am considering trying to take it apart and cut all the legs again, but I was hoping I could fill the gaps with something. Some of my gaps are about as thick as popsicle sticks in some spots, so I thought that might be an option - popsicle sticks and woodglue. I know how stupid and unreasonable this might sound, but is filling the gaps with either the sticks and glue, or just all wood glue and option? This is a stand for a 180 btw. The legs on the front 2x6 spans are 2x6, the short sides are 2x4's. I also have a 2x4 verticle in the front of the stand, and another 3/4's of the way across the back for sump access. The tank will be in wall.

I really need an answer pretty quick because I need to return my friends saw.

PLEASE, ANYBODY - HELP!

-Daniel

from this post

I'm having the same problem and I've read numerous pages but no one really answer it.

I have a gap about 1mm on two of my front vertical supports. I'm not planning to use glue like my top/bottom frame, just pocket screws.

Is this ok or should I add some paper shim? I've purchased shims but they are too thick for this gap.

help! I've been at this for several days and I want to set up my tank!

 

[TheFishMan65]

Here is my $0.02. First I would try and shim as best you can.
Then this is what i did to convince myself my stand would hold. I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS AN ANSWER, but it might give you some confidence. As close to the corner as you can get place a 2x4 across one of the top boards. Now have two people balance one the board. Depending on the people that is probably 350+ pounds. Do this for each of the the board coming into the corners (8 locations). That is 3000 points (8 * 375) or a 300 gallon tank. This does not mean it will hold up long term, but if you keep an eye on it you should catch any problems.

If you hear any creaking or cracking I would start over.

 

[C-Rad]

Exactly where are the gaps? between what two pieces? Maybe you can use the colors given in RocketEngineer's first drawing. Gaps above or below the cut ends of the vertical pieces (purple) are a problem, but gaps anywhere else are not. It is also important that the tank rest on a flat square, so the top edges of the red and yellow pieces need to be in the same horizontal plane, but a gap between a red and yellow piece is not a problem. Similarly, the bottom edges of the blue and orange pieces need to be in the same horizontal plane (all rest flat on the floor), but a gap at a corner where they connect is not a problem. In other words, only gaps that run horizontally are a problem. If you have any of those gaps (at the cut end of a purple piece) then I think you should:
1) Remove the appropriate screws connecting the green piece to the horizontal pieces involved in the gap.
2) put something heavy (like a friend) on top of the stand to push down and eliminate the gap.
3) rescrew, making completely new holes. Other wise the screw will either use the old hole (recreating the gap) or have a lot of wood missing around it.

You can safely ignore gaps that run vertically; only the horizontal ones matter structurally.

 

[C-Rad]

good idea, thanks! currently the chiller is in the jbj stand that has the two openings. i've got a lot of computer cooling fans laying around, i bet i can figure something out with them to keep the chiller working ok

I assumed that my chiller would be noisy, which is why I built a ventilated sound-proof cabinet for it. I ended up using a JBJ Arctica 1/4 HP chiller, and it is so amazingly quiet, that I never needed to build a sound-proof enclosure for it. Be sure you really want the chiller encolsed before you go to the trouble.

Watch out for the extra noise generated by the computer fans.

Your chiller has its own fan to move air, so just make sure that your additional fans move at least as much air into and out of the chiller cabinet as the chiller's fan moves through the chiller.

 

[snowball2020]

Exactly where are the gaps? between what two pieces? Maybe you can use the colors given in RocketEngineer's first drawing. Gaps above or below the cut ends of the vertical pieces (purple) are a problem, but gaps anywhere else are not. It is also important that the tank rest on a flat square, so the top edges of the red and yellow pieces need to be in the same horizontal plane, but a gap between a red and yellow piece is not a problem. Similarly, the bottom edges of the blue and orange pieces need to be in the same horizontal plane (all rest flat on the floor), but a gap at a corner where they connect is not a problem. In other words, only gaps that run horizontally are a problem. If you have any of those gaps (at the cut end of a purple piece) then I think you should:
1) Remove the appropriate screws connecting the green piece to the horizontal pieces involved in the gap.
2) put something heavy (like a friend) on top of the stand to push down and eliminate the gap.
3) rescrew, making completely new holes. Other wise the screw will either use the old hole (recreating the gap) or have a lot of wood missing around it.

You can safely ignore gaps that run vertically; only the horizontal ones matter structurally.

son of a (*#$, I read somewhere (i think Rocket said it) that a 1/16 of a gap is OK... So I go ahead and put it together. I only used pocket holes so it's possible to take it apart. same with the purple pieces, no glue there's only 3 screws to join them together.

If you look at this picture that was posted by Haxer in post #978, this is exactly my problem. Rocket said that the sheer weight of the tank will press it down later on... can someone clarify that for me??

my tank is a 120gallon with a base of 24.5" by 48.5"

 

[snowball2020]

Found the post that Rocket posted about the gap, here:

Haxer,
If you have 4 out of 8 legs with less then a 1/16th gap, you should have no issues. Things will settle no matter how well you make the stand. To get consistent lengths you need to fixture up a stop that you cut each board from or cut them all at the same time. Not an easy job either way.

RocketEngineer

 

[snaza]

I had a similar problem on 2 legs. I just filled the gap with an icecream container cut to shape. fit the 2mm gap perfect.

 

[snowball2020]

On closer inspection, I only have 1 gap left after screwing the vertical purple pieces to the top 2x6 frame using 3 pocket hole screws. should I wedge it with Popsicle sticks? I don't think it's even big enough for it to fit in...

the gap isn't 1/16, more like 1/32... here is a pic:

here is the other gap that i'm not too concern about since it's sitting on one of the legs. but I'd like yall's opinion on this as well...

right side:

left side:

I had a similar problem on 2 legs. I just filled the gap with an icecream container cut to shape. fit the 2mm gap perfect.

Snaza, did you glue the legs to your top and bottom frame? I want the option to take it apart in the future so I didn't glue it. it wont be holding any weight so I don't see a problem.