Here we go, my own DIY stand design

[Saadatski]

Hey guys!

After at least 6 hours of planning and working, i finally designed this stand on Rhino today. i took the idea of a former thread here on RC by the name of RocketEngineer, so a big shout out to you bud and thanks for the idea.

Now im only 18, and i study CAD and will hopefully go into Architecture next year. Im not a structure engineer, but my mother is, and she professionally approved this design as the ability to withstand a 75 or 90 gallon aquarium. (see modifications for larger aquariums below). Here is the first point of view...

When we look at this top view of the stand, we notice three things, first is the red box. All the stand is made from eithe Oak or Pine wood. the red is basically a box of 2x4s. build this first. For a 75 or 90 gallon, which is 48x18, you would want 2 52" and 2 18". this is because the tank will go inside the stand kind of (about 1") after adding a sheet of 1" plywood on the green studs (get to that later).

When you look at this photo, you notice that the top "box" and bottom are exactly the same. This stand is fairly short, and you can extend the height to a desirable height with minor modifications. The purple studs are 2x6, for extra support for the tank. the stud as you can see on the side of the stand should be the corner, and the stud in the front should be attached to it.

Last but not least, the green studs. these shoud touch the floor and go only up to 2 inches to the top of the stand. They are 2x6

here are two options. first, you can take this design and put plywood on top of the green studs and make a groove for your tank. Another option is to rather put the plywood on top of the red, and keep the green as a structure brace. doing this, the red would be 2 48" and 2 16" instead of what is said above.


Now i do not know how to build this stand for bigger, longer tanks other than to give extra bracing and probebly increase the wood to 2x8. Also, the red wood should go to 2x6 to be on the safe side.

Finally, the green stud in the middle is the back of the stand, giving you the ability to put a sump in easily. So here it is guys,

Any questions please ask and any input would be great since this is my first stand build.

 

[Saadatski]

haha, no input of this at all? please guys i need to know if this is a decend design to hold a sump and equipment

 

[Charley Diesing]

Yess that is going to be built like a tan. Although it looks like all you did was add the middle brace to RocketEngineer's design...

 

[nemosworld]

I built my latest stand similar, with the exception of onething; the green piece touches the ground and levels with the top.

 

[billdogg]

looks fine to me also - but as you have them, the green pieces do nothing but take up space inside the stand that could be better used by your sump and other equipment.

 

[SpacedCowboy]

looks fine to me also - but as you have them, the green pieces do nothing but take up space inside the stand that could be better used by your sump and other equipment.

The green pieces aren't there for structural purposes, they're there as screw-boards, so you can easily screw the boards to the base, the legs to the boards, and finally the boards to the top box.

All the weight is born by the legs (since the green boards don't carry any load) but it makes for easier building - no fancy joint-work.


@ The original poster:

You have two options at the bottom of your last post...

1) Use the green boards as legs. In this case I'm not sure why you're going to all the trouble to build heavy structural legs around the outside. There's no need to have 8 2x4's supporting a rail around the edge of the tank!

I'm also not convinced horizontally laid plywood would not deflect in the middle of the unsupported front (or rear). If you're going to support the tank, I think you want to support as much of the edge of the tank as you can, rigidly. Your mother may have done the maths, and maybe I'm wrong, but my physicists's gut feeling is that that's not enough support.


2) Use the red boards as the tank support, and use the green boards as screw-boards. I'm with a previous commenter though - this looks identical to RocketEngineer's design, albeit with a center-brace along (presumably) the rear horizontal. I think this will work fine. In fact it's how I did my own stand - see my sig.

[edit:]
Something else worth mentioning is making sure the stand is resilient to lateral forces, the wood twisting etc. The way I did it was to run a piece of plywood along the back of the stand - see the link above.

Simon

 

[Saadatski]

thanks guys for the help

when i read rocketengineers design, he said that the 2x6 would give alot less deflection of the wood when i put the tank on it.

im thinking of adding just some 2x4s at the bottom so i can lay more plywood and give a flat surface for the sump and such.

Lol after i posted i realized that these green peices gave absolutly no support, and i will remove that peice in the middle i nthe back and maybe make it a center brace at the top to give extra support for the plywood i will put on the top.

also, i will be making a rim around the top and bottom for design and to hide the edhges of the plywood.

last question, anyone know good wood to use, perferably hard, and looks nice. im also open for staining the wood.

Thanks guys for the imput, ill post more pics when i start building

 

[SpacedCowboy]

thanks guys for the help

when i read rocketengineers design, he said that the 2x6 would give alot less deflection of the wood when i put the tank on it.

Yes, they will, but you have to rest the tank on *top* of the 2x6's to get *any* benefit from them. Putting them around the outside of the tank is not helping in any meaningful way that I can see.

The whole point is that all the weight is supported by solid wood connections (red base resting on ground, purple resting on top of red, red resting on top of purple, tank resting on top of red). There are no screws supporting any of the weight, and the green bars only serve as anchors for the red/purple combinations - they're not load-bearing. Unless the tank is on top of the top red box, all that design is not being used.

im thinking of adding just some 2x4s at the bottom so i can lay more plywood and give a flat surface for the sump and such.

I did something similar - I put plywood on the bottom of the stand, thus creating a trough into which I can put the sump. This means that minor spills are contained within the stand - your mother may be interested in that benefit In fact, I'm supporting my sump on a mini-platform within the trough, so I'll have quite a bit of spill-volume available, but that's mainly to help out my plumbing requirements ...

Lol after i posted i realized that these green peices gave absolutly no support, and i will remove that peice in the middle i nthe back and maybe make it a center brace at the top to give extra support for the plywood i will put on the top.

also, i will be making a rim around the top and bottom for design and to hide the edhges of the plywood.

Yep, that's what I did. Again, the build process is all in the link I gave above.

last question, anyone know good wood to use, perferably hard, and looks nice. im also open for staining the wood.

Thanks guys for the imput, ill post more pics when i start building

I used red oak. Oak in general takes a stain well, and it's relatively cheap. The wood at that end of the room is all dark, so we went for a darker stain - details in the link.

Simon.

 

[Saadatski]

alright, here is the new design. i will try to make this short and simple.

Here is the frame with only plywood in the back and sides...

as you can see, i raised the tank a couple more inches, cause i realized my tank and stand will only be 50 inches high wiht my other design.

I removed that back green stud and raised the corner anchors to be leveled with the rex studs and the floor.

As you cna see i made it 3x6 instead, might even go with a 3x3.

after adding plywood and the rim at the top, i will have 1" rim sticking out of the top of the stand, holding the tank more in place and relieving me from the egless stand. also looks nicer.

If i need to increase or decrease load, please suggest something, as im oobviously willing to save money on this project.

 

[Skunkbudfour20]

I think it is plenty strong to hold a 75 or 90... Heres a similar stand I made for a 155bowfront and 125 gal under:

The bulk of the lumber is 2x6, with a 2x10 horizontal on the front to accommodate for not having a center leg. I notched the corner posts to sit under the top frame

 

[SpacedCowboy]

I removed that back green stud and raised the corner anchors to be leveled with the rex studs and the floor.

This is more a matter of taste, but I don't like the idea of the screw-boards touching either the ground or the top. If you make the screw-boards level with either end of the load-bearing platform (either red box, top or bottom), you run the risk of the screw-boards being part of the load-bearing structure. If that is the case, your screws (which were only supposed to be keeping the legs in the right place) can become the weak link in the structure of the stand because they'll be bearing load, and when they shear off, your stand may slip (even a little bit) and put too much stress on the tank.

Of course, if your woodworking skills are truly excellent (mine aren't), you'll be fine, and you can ignore the above. For me, depositing 240 gallons of salt-water on the living room floor would be a marriage-threatening event


Personally, I don't think there's much room to improve on RocketEngineer's stand design. It's well-designed from a structural perspective, functional, simple, and easy to build. Just MHO.

Simon.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Beware, the poster of "old" threads read new threads......

I find it funny that folks consider MY design to be overbuilt. While you may not be a structural engineer, you should be able to run the numbers without too much problem. Look at the weight load an actual stand will apply to each leg and apply that to a 2X4 (which is actually 1.5X3.5) GREEN PINE board in compression. I have run the numbers and even for a stand 42" tall, the buckling loads are below what the tank will apply to the structure. There is no need to go larger than the sizes I describe in my thread because most of the load from the tank is applied at the corners which is where the stand is strongest. This design, while functional, would benefit from a little engineering to reduce the sizes to where they do the most good for the least amount of lumber involved.

A well designed plywood stand is plenty strong enough to support all but the largest tanks. Please reread both halves of the thread, especially my posts, and you will see that the design you presented here is way overbuilt, move expensive than necessary, and uses valuable real-estate under the stand for structure that is redundant.

While I respect the intent of this thread, please do the research to understand what the loads are in these types of designs. I think you are overestimating the loads and underestimating the strength of the materials involved. Being conservative is one thing, but over-designing without reason wastes money.

Good luck on your studies. I recommend at least one internship at an engineering firm. It helps having someone who has done this stuff for years point you in the right direction.

RocketEngineer

 

[Saadatski]

Haha my mom is a structure engineer and thats the only reason i know how to work with CAD and Rhino. she also said that my stand is overbuilt, and she said you will be wasting money on extra wood that will give you more than enough load bearing.

Yes i am actually over-conservative, and it is my flaw in my personality. I am trying to make sure that my stand will not fail, cause 90 gallons, aprox 1000lbs in going to fall 30" into my floor which will probebly break it, also not including the fact that i will have 90 gallons of water all over my living room.

heres the question though. can i make the purple studs that hold the red together 2x4, and the red 2x6 and the green 2x4?

 

[TruReef]

I used RocketEngineer's design on a stand for my 180g build. I used 2x6 on top & 2x4 on everything else. I was unhappy with how much head room was wasted from using 2x6 on top. I scrapped that one and made another with all 2x4's and have been pleased with it's performance. IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT. (rockets plans that is)

 

[Saadatski]

aha, did you use a center brace in the front? casue i know a 180 is 72" long? i think thats why you got away with 2x4s.

My design has no cente brace and i will only lose 2" to be on the safe side. but im really happy his design worked for you, it reassures me that his design is well thought out and stable.

 

[Saadatski]

Ok guys, i have made a more economical design without compromising the integrity of the stand.

I am keeping the red studs all 2x6 for my own conservative reasons buttt....

All the purple and green studs are now 2x4 instead, and you guys are right, it does give me ALOT more room.

also, thanks spacedcowboy for the input about the screw boards, as you are right i do not want to make the screws hold the structure. that is why i have made it one inch off the bottom and the top.

Here is the overall stand with the rim and plywood, which once again, will add a nice design and structure support.

Thanks spacedcowboy and Rocketengineer, you guys helped out alot. every other poster i really appreciate your input also.

 

[Drewbaby]

There's no reason to make the bottom "red box" from 2x6's. You can make it from 2x1 if you wanted and it wouldn't effect the integrity of the stand one bit as long as it was placed on a level floor.

 

[nemosworld]

here's mine

 

[Ron Reefman]

I used RocketEngineer's stand design for a 180g with an 85g hex sitting next to it and a 140g sump/refugium inside. The stand is almost 11' long and 30" deep. I used 2x4s for legs and 2x6s doubled up for top front and top rear headers. There is a center brace in the front, but it's still a 5' plus span on either side. The the 8' long and 2' wide sump loads in thru the end.

Here is an idea for those of you building your own stands. I cut 1/2" plywood into long sections about 8" wide and set them vertically inside the stand completely around the bottom. Then I bought at HD a 12' long by 4' wide piece of flexible PVC shower pan liner. Set it in the bottom of the stand, fold and tuck it up the 1/2" plywood walls and attach with glue/ staples/tacks or whatever. Now you have a waterproof system under your sump and in my case, even under the external CL pump. I also installed a bulkhead at the top of the linner at one end and ran a 1/2" pvc pipe from the liner thru the outside wall. If I develope a leak (and my external pump did) the water fills up in the shower pan liner and when it gets about 7" deep (and that's a lot of water) it starts to flow outside rather than on the floor. This system also makes it much easier to clean up salt creep. Every 6-12 months I just dump fresh water in the liner, swish it around, pump it out and dry it with a towel. I would NEVER build a stand without a liner in the bottom again. It works GREAT and it's so easy. If anybody wants pics or info, just ask... or better, send me a PM.

Ron

 

[Saadatski]

Haha, i feel like i have to use my imagination when i read you comment Ron Reefman,

please do us all a favor ans post some pics that will be much appreciated.