Steel vs Wood tank stands.
- Thread starter Volcano1
- Start date
tom obrecht
Active member
Hey Todd...are you planning to run a sump under it? If not I can tell you what I did for when the tank was in my house.
Tom
Tom
coolwheels
New member
I have a wood stand under my 480 with no prob. but went overkill too my sumps are outside the stand you can see some of my pics at reef2reef under coolwheels all depends what you want to acheive :bum:
Untamed12
New member
MY 6' x 4', 400 gallon is on wood. Tank is acrylic, so I suppose it is slightly lighter. The entire centre of the stand is open, so there is a lot of room under there.
I suppose the only space drawback is that the height under the stand would be reduced by 5" and the walls are probably 2" thicker just due to the thickess of wood vs. steel.
Steel also has the advantage that you can pick it up and move it if you want. I would probably have to destroy my wooden stand to move it.
I suppose the only space drawback is that the height under the stand would be reduced by 5" and the walls are probably 2" thicker just due to the thickess of wood vs. steel.
Steel also has the advantage that you can pick it up and move it if you want. I would probably have to destroy my wooden stand to move it.
Their are several guys on here that have wood stands wilth large tanks. I'm in the process of building a 360gallon peninsula that is 96x36x24. I will be using wood. I haven't started the thread yet because I'm waiting on all my dry goods to arrive.
Here are a few links
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=968181
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1515150
Good Luck with the Build.
Here are a few links
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=968181
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1515150
Good Luck with the Build.
Tom,
Not planning on it, trying to reuse my current sump set-up.Delays on the plans getting from the enginner to the shop making the stand has been the biggest isssue so far. I designed everything and speced the steel sizes, but they want an engineers ok. Might go with wood just to get the ball rolling.The steady stream of snow or cold hasn't helped either. Might wait for weather to break as well.
Undecided about keeping the Volcano on the system also.
Did go through the stand calculator thread and got a good idea what to use for dimensional lumber. I do have some Select structural 2 x 10's left from my addition. Know that would be overkill, but I do have them.
Feel free to share your build.Didn't look real close when I was there.
Everyone else , thanks for the feed back, got lots of other questions, guess I should just start a build thread.
Not planning on it, trying to reuse my current sump set-up.Delays on the plans getting from the enginner to the shop making the stand has been the biggest isssue so far. I designed everything and speced the steel sizes, but they want an engineers ok. Might go with wood just to get the ball rolling.The steady stream of snow or cold hasn't helped either. Might wait for weather to break as well.
Undecided about keeping the Volcano on the system also.
Did go through the stand calculator thread and got a good idea what to use for dimensional lumber. I do have some Select structural 2 x 10's left from my addition. Know that would be overkill, but I do have them.
Feel free to share your build.Didn't look real close when I was there.
Everyone else , thanks for the feed back, got lots of other questions, guess I should just start a build thread.
tom obrecht
Active member
Todd,
On both this tank and my last 260 the stands were built the same. 3 rows of 2x4s running the length of the tank spaced every 6-8". These where built just like a wall framed in a house would be. The sides were skinned with osb and the top had 2 pieces of 3/4" ply. Both stands were ROCK solid and would easily hold a truck! If you go with a sump in a remote location you can easily get by with wood.
So what's up with the volcano? Not happy with it?
Any issues? 
On both this tank and my last 260 the stands were built the same. 3 rows of 2x4s running the length of the tank spaced every 6-8". These where built just like a wall framed in a house would be. The sides were skinned with osb and the top had 2 pieces of 3/4" ply. Both stands were ROCK solid and would easily hold a truck! If you go with a sump in a remote location you can easily get by with wood.
So what's up with the volcano? Not happy with it?
Any issues? Thanks Tom,
So you had 3 rows behind each other, parallell ,spaning the wide of the tank, each row as long as the tank with upright 2x4's spaced 6-8"s, is that right? The osb was the sheeting holding all the rows together?
Well,
Had the venturi clog a little, was having fits trying to see what was causing my what draw to do up and air to go down. Solved that, so now hope I can get it back dialed in. Getting close, lots of nasty stuff coming out. Did loose a few things, still have most left, plenty to put in your tank.
I know lots of new skimmers and technology to the market, but don't know if I'd improve on what I have and don't really want to bite the bullet on this one. I know you and others have, but seemed like I was having better luck with mine.
So you had 3 rows behind each other, parallell ,spaning the wide of the tank, each row as long as the tank with upright 2x4's spaced 6-8"s, is that right? The osb was the sheeting holding all the rows together?
Well,
Had the venturi clog a little, was having fits trying to see what was causing my what draw to do up and air to go down. Solved that, so now hope I can get it back dialed in. Getting close, lots of nasty stuff coming out. Did loose a few things, still have most left, plenty to put in your tank.
I know lots of new skimmers and technology to the market, but don't know if I'd improve on what I have and don't really want to bite the bullet on this one. I know you and others have, but seemed like I was having better luck with mine.
tom obrecht
Active member
Correct on the stand.
I hope the ol volcano holds up for you and ends up doing a good job. Yes, to replace a skimmer for large tanks anymore is big $.
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