8 foot stand and canopy build

[coreybecker]

Starting to build stand this weekend. Tank i ordered is 96*30*24.
Will be wooden 2*6 frame wrapped in med-x MDF (wood countertops made of water resistant) and painted. Some input required

What height would you recommend for cleaning purpose. Never had such a tall tank before. (Filtration is 2 fx5)

Should I make stand couple inches bigger or exact size of tank spoke to guy making rank says it's 3/8 of inch bigger.

What kind of paint would you use. Not that matters for stand but will on canopy.

And yes I will post lots of pictures as I go lol

 

[esoxlucius]

If you make your stand short just so you can comfortably clean your tall tank without stretching then that hinders your space in your stand for filtration, you need wiggle room in your stand. So i'd make a stand where placement of filtration is not a problem and also maintaining said filtration is also easy to do (you don't want it cramped in your stand so you're banging your head everytime you're messing down there). If this means your display tank is elevated up to such an extent where you're stretching ridiculously to wipe glass, do gravel vacs etc, then you need to invest in step ladders to make it easier (I think most of us with big tanks have to get step ladders out at maintainance time).

When I built my stand I made it so the top of it was a fraction bigger than the 6x2 footprint of my tank. This way I could comfortably add trim to the top of the stand to hide the bottom of my tank (glass joints and silicon).

I painted the inside of my hood with bathroom paint, it protects the wood, it's not flaking off or anything. I don't think you need to go buying expensive specialised paints.

 

[taksan]

I’d agree with that ... I made the mistake of making my 32” high 540’s stand 3 feet high... and it was a PITA maintenance wise ...

 

[coreybecker]

Stand ready to wrap in MDF and paint. Might have went a little overboard cause it's crazy heavy. Really sinks in how big this tanks actually going. To ve

 

[taksan]

That’s ummmmm solid indeed ... could probably hold 2 tanks !

 

[fishhead0103666]

Very solid indeed. You may have went overboard but the stand shows for it in its beauty.

 

[coreybecker]

I cut a quarter inch of each side of 2*6 so actual wood was 5*1.5 was key in making it perfectly square. Hope to get back to it before the weekend.

 

[coreybecker]

So I put top and sides on then started thinking. I should notch in cross braces into 2*6 so it's actually supported by something but just 2 screws. So going backwards now bit should make it stronger. Do you think it's worth it?

 

[TheWolfman]

Yes without a structural support under the horizontal beam your relying only on the screws to hold the 4000 pounds of tank above it.

 

[coreybecker]

Got the floor installed. Used long peices only over where tank going to be. Took 4 guys to carry stand plain and level haul back out for finishing. Had to mark out the back only one way in lol