120g Tank Stand design revisited

[Flame*Angel]

I got some great advice on my previous tank stand post. I've been giving the refugium in the canopy idea a lot of thought. I'm very concerned about the extra weight and the posibility of it being uncentered weight. So I started over :)

I decided to work more with the space that the tank is going in and this time I did 2 stands to include a small one for my quarantine tank and refugium and the big stand and canopy for my 120g. I did up a quick cad of the room to better demonstrate.

Before I go cutting holes in my walls and plumbing and wiring I'd really appreciate a few more exprienced eyes taking one more look. Let me know if you see anything I should change - I'm determined to get this right!

http://www.sjwilson.net/tankstand

[DukeDog]

Man that is nice!!! Wish I could make something like that. Make sure you put some pics up when you get this done.
Jeff

[DeepSeaDiver]

Very cool looking!

Why do you have styrofoam under the tank?

Good luck with the project, looks like it will be tons of "fun."

:strooper:

[Flame*Angel]

DeepSeaDiver - in doing research before designing the main stand I had heard from several people that styrofoam would help with levelling the tank.

[Larry M]

It looks outstanding!! Personally, I don't use the styrofoam but if you do make sure it is the super-dense stuff so it doesn't compact too far.

Once again, that is a sweet software program. I checked into buying it.....ouch! ;) A little spendy for me.

[Flame*Angel]

Hmmmm, maybe this is something I need to reconsider. Anyone else using styrofoam under their tank? I've been designing and redesigning this stand for so long now I'm not sure I remember what the levelling benefits are anymore :)

http://www.sjwilson.net/tankstand/

http://www.sjwilson.net/tankstand/bgstand2.jpg

[MPTNATE]

WoW! Looks reallly cool! I was thinking that the stand you designed for the refugium/quarantine doesn't look like it will give you much access room for the bottom tank. Might make maintainence and catching those sick fishies tuff.

My 2 cents!
Good Luck,
Nate

[Flame*Angel]

MPTNATE - Good point. I can't believe this one didn't occur to me but you're right, the whole idea of a quarantine/hospital tank means fishes are going to be going in and out of there. That's pretty much the only thing I'll be doing with it so I might as well make it easy to access.

I'm also rethinking going through the wall for the refugium. I'm not sure I want to be looking at the refugium in my office all day and I'm not sure I really want to use another full 20g setup for it.

Oh boy, here I go again. My son doesn't believe that I have any intentions of building this stand - just designing it over and over :)

[MPTNATE]

Flame:
Believe me, I know about redesigns! It took me nearly five months to design and build my stand and canopy!

I really like your refugium idea. You could plant it with various macro algaes and maybe stock a couple of peppermint shrimp or something. I think it would have potential to look really cool!

Nate

[Agu]

Flame, It looks really nice and I don't mean to rain on your parade but, have you looked at a commercially produced stand ? Not to buy it but to see how they're built. I have an oak Oceanic stand for a 180. The entire thing is built out of 3/4 plywood (or thinner), with 1 by 2 strips around the stand top for the tank to sit on, and some decorative trim to hide seams at the corners. Dimensional lumber isn't as strong or straight as plywood, and you have serious risk of warping if you have a major flood. Even without a flood the humidity can cause 2 by 4's to warp. LarryM threw his stand away after a major flood.
Hope this didn't come across as harsh, but if you're putting a lot of time into it I'm sure you want it to be perfect. Agu

[Flame*Angel]

Agu - thanks for you input. You didn't come across as harsh at all, this is the kind of information I need. I'm designing the stands but I plan to hire a professional cabinet maker to build them.

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly in reef central where I live. The only commercial stands I've been able to check out are Hagen type ones for small tanks. Other than that the only stands I've actually been able to see are the ones that the LFS has built for their in-store tanks - very sturdy but no real functionality and pretty ugly.

I'm hoping that having the outside covered in Formica and the inside caulked at the seams as well as painted (is there a waterproof paint?) will help with the warping. Someone else also suggested using lots of carpenters glue and inset screws plugged with silicone. These things I will be sure to pass along to the carpenter.

The final (hopefully) design is almost done now. I'll be posting it later tonight or tomorrow for any last bits of input I can get. This is my first salt tank and I fully expect every possible disaster, including floods.

[Playfair]

Your plan looks incredible, Flame Angle. Wish I had the $$ to hire you to do some freelance Web and general design!

Your canopy functionality (front doors) resembles mine, so I can "nit-pik" a few things you may regret later...

Is the reef going to be viewed mainly from a standing position? If so, you may want to reconsider the reletively low stand height. (If it's because of the refuge, remember that the only the upper water level of the small tank has to be above the display in order to gravity feed, the whole tank doesn't have to sit above)

I noticed that there is a lower frame around the canopy which sits on top of the tank. This may not seem like a big deal, but that additional height of this frame, added to the 24" tank height, may be the difference of being able to reach the bottom of your tank without climbing into your canopy. :1eek:
It would be nice to avoid the frame work all together, as stated in a prior response. Perhaps it is time to get your craftsmans input?

I choose not to have this lower frame in the front, yet maintained the center vertical brace. In retro, I would double header the 4' frame at the top front and leave out the center piece, so that when both doors are swung open, the front is completely open (It's amazing how many times you have to reach from one side of the tank, over the center brace, to the other side; would be nice not to also have to go around the canopy support, which means you are dripping on the floor!)

...I can see light leaks from around your quick access doors that will probably drive you nutz! Those doors are nice for feeding, but should you combine them with the main door?

I found the 12" of canopy height was perfect for general access. Because my design came from some "trial and error", my VHO's are around 5" off the water, which seldom in my way when reaching in.

Here's some close ups of my canopy to see what I'm talking about:
Front Iso (http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/canopy3.jpg)
Left door lift (http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/canopy4.jpg)
Left inside (http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/canopy2.jpg)
Top Iso view (http://members.localnet.com/~playfair/canopy1.jpg)

I hope this helped instead of creating more agony. ;) Again, great planning, and I can't wait to see it all come together.

[Edited by Playfair on 10-11-2000 at 09:47 AM]

[Flame*Angel]

Hi Dave - thanks so much for the pics. Your stand has been a real inspiration behind my design.

I'm planning on setting this up for seated viewing mostly. Also, I'm not very tall myself so I don't want to have to use a ladder every time I need to feed the fish. You make a really good point about the lower frame on the canopy though, I would like to have my easy access doors open as low as possible. I'll add this to my list of things to discuss with my carpenter.

Light leaks are something I'm very concerned about. I want to avoid any leaking at all if it's possible. I know I haven't allowed for this at all in my design but I figure this might also be something the carpenter could deal with. I decided to have the full front open as an afterthought because I thought it might be difficult to scrape the back and side glass through the smaller access doors.

I imagine several aspects of my design will likely change once I sit down with the carpenter. I just wanted to do the initial design to be sure that I get everything that I know I want included. It's a good starting point I think.

PS - thanks for signing the guestbook on my site :)