300 Gallon stand and canopy

I am going to build a stand and canopy for my new 300 wide tank (96x30x25). I'll log all the progress here. I've always been pretty handy but I've never built anything of this magnitude. I just went out and bought all the saws and am figuring out how to make a nice level workspace, then I'll be ready to get started.

I'm hoping to make it pretty close in style to Joe's 220 - http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92507 - but nobody at Home Depot has any idea about any of my questions. Before I go buying wood, I figured I'd just come and ask here.

1) Is a 2x4 skeleton like Joe's, except with one extra joist for the last 2 feet, strong enough for a 300 gallon glass tank full of water? I figure it's over 3000 pounds. I don't need a wide middle opening for sump access, as my 125g sump will slide in and out through one end - so I can have a support and joist right in the center, giving me five equally spaced joists from end to end.

2) Are wood screws holding the wood together strong enough or should I get those metal brackets to support the joists?

3) What kind of screws, and should I pre-drill holes for them if I'm just screwing 2x4 to 2x4?

4) Any recommendations on wood for finishing? I've been told that oak is easier to stain than birch or maple. This is key for me because I plan to stain it a very dark color and don't want it to be uneven or cheap looking. I want it to match my kitchen, which is shown below. A sheet of oak ply is a bunch more expensive than Maple or birch, but maple cabinet doors actually cost a bit more. So I'm cool with any wood really, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of how wide the graining is with oak. I suppose I should just find out what wood the cabinets are and match that.


I wouldn't mind going with 2x6 for the top spans if that helps cover the 30 inch width. The cost is no big deal. What I do worry about with 2x6 is that then that forces me to leave at least that much space, plus the 2-3" for the trim, above the top of the cabinet doors, and I think that might look kind of goofy. Then again, there's no real reason why I couldn't just have the doors overlap the 2x6 by 2 inches anyway so that they still cover the whole area from bottom trim to top trim.

I also have no problem using 4x4 except that if I don't notch it I end up with 2(4x4)+2(2x4) width subtracted from the 30" width, leaving me without much space to store anything inside the sump. Plus, I'm not convinced that just having a 4x4 in the corner really gives me that much more strength than the doubled up 2x4s like in Joe's design.

Thoughts?

Cool link, I like that a lot.

The glass tank is perfectly flat across the bottom (not distributed to the trim like my 125) so I was also going to put plywood across the top. I figure between that and having 5 double 2x4 vertical supports 2x4 ought to be strong enough to span the 96" just fine. But I have no idea if 2x4s across the 30 is enough. The widest gap in the front and back would be 22".

It's interesting to see that they claim to be able to span the entire length of a tank without middle supports. It makes sense, and I agree that many stands are overbuilt (every 90 and 125 stand I've ever seen in a store is basically all 1x4 and MDF and they do just fine) but still, given how much work I've had to put into even moving this tank when it's empty, I just want to be 100% sure I'll never have to worry. I don't mind leaving supports in the middle of the front and back because I can slide the sump in through the side, but if I don't have to, that would definitely be nice.

The Prestige Cabinets brochure I picekd up at Menards has a cool swatch pullout with every type of wood and a variety of stains on them, so it looks like cherry on cherry is the way to go to make the best match, or possibly a Cordovan Glaze (whatever that is) on Cherry. I'll have to pay more for the doors but the ply won't be quite as much as the oak. I'll get some extra ply to experiment with how the stain absorbs. I'm pretty sure I've decided on a design for the skin, even though I won't get to that for a while. It won't match the kitchen's style exactly, but it'll look nice near it and be portable to any house I move to later.

What's the purpose of wood glue? If screws are being used, what role does it play? Where should it be used?

Bobby, I'll give you a call a bit later on. I'm headed to the airport right now without any cell battery left.

So here are some pictures of the tank, which is from GlassCages and bought secondhand from a reefer. Look at the size of those damn holes in the overflow... he had a 4000GPH pump that I declined since I don't think my fish will be able to swim against it.

So aside from somehow severely hurting my back, this beast also led the hired movers to have issues picking it up, so at one point they pivoted it... with the bottom against gravel. So the edge of the glass chipped off in little shards on the driveway. This was just wonderful, as you can imagine (The previous owner had already broken off most of the black trim, which is just cosmetic on these builds, and I didn't care because I'll have that area covered by a stand).

The pictures show the damage. The largest piece left on the ground is in my hand. Given that it's the bottom of two full 1/2 inch panes and there's an additional 1/2" bracing pane above that, and that none of it is cracking at all, every opinion I've gotten indicates that this won't matter. The glass company that loaned me the suction cup told me to just sand the edges so it won't try to crack, and that'll be all I need to do.

Still, I'm a little skeptical. I don't know physics or anything about force and loads, but if there's 300 gallons of water inside this 800 pound monstrosity and it sits on a stand whose weight is borne only by the edges, wouldn't that cause a problem? Or does the fact that these chips don't touch any seam with a side panel make it OK? I feel like I could put 5000 pounds of sand in it and it'd be fine, but am not sure if the water pressure on the edges changes anything.

Any opinions on that? The movers didn't speak english so I couldn't properly scream at them and can't shake them down if they ruined my tank.

Also pictured is the 125 sump. I wish it didn't have that hole drilled, but I might just plug it. I'm hoping to figure out a way to really make use of as much of that space as possible for scrubbies and other media while also keeping it silent. It'll be my first attempt at making my own sump.

And just to further illustrate what an awful day it was, in addition to hurting my back and getting the tank broken and getting in a fight with an obnoxious neighbor about it being on the grass for two hours and having a roommate (and his 1500 dollars for my pocket) bail on me, I also broke the top of my 110 acrylic.

This move has not gone well overall. Far too much stress. And I still have no idea how I'm actually going to get the damn thing downstairs and into the basement.

I'm not worried at all about the 110. The tank is about 80% full now and the crack hasn't grown in 3 days. Since it's on the top I don't care how it looks so I'll just do a little acrylic and adhesive sandwich on it and it'll be fine. I'll do it next time I change the water.

I guess it's the same process for the glass and silicone. The fact that I've never done it though has me a bit nervous that it'll find a way to leak anyway.

I'm about 90% set on my stand design too - the skeleton should be a simple process with the link above and 2x6s around the top. Might go 2x8 anyway. The only question now is about how I want to trim it and if I want to deal with all the miter cuts necessary to get the look I want for hiding the seam in the 2-piece canopy. Well, I guess there's the question of whether my craftsmanship matches my design... I've never built anything like this before. But I'm not willing to tolerate uneven seams or imperfect cuts. And I hear the staining will be the hardest part given the darkness of the color that I want. If I use too much or overlap any of it it'll end up looking terrible and cheap.

In my time surfing yesterday I found this: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1213499 which is kind of awesome. It's a whiter, smaller version of what I had in my head for building a 1500ish gallon tank and fish room in the basement of the house we didn't end up purchasing. Details and general design are almost exact. He wasn't a carpenter either (but obviously had a leg up on me in Sketchup skills) so this gives me hope that I'll be able to make a damn nice stand.