Hey everyone,
I have been out of the fish game for a while, but still have a few severums in a 55 at my parents. I came across the tank on craigslist for $150. Dimensions are 6X2X20 high. The interesting part is that the back 4" act as the sump for the tank. The overflow is on one side and two returns via powerheads in the old set up are on the other side.
I have some 2000 grit sandpaper and the novus is on its way. I am interested to test the novus 3 when it gets here to see if I will need to use sandpaper at all. I think I will, but having never used novus I am unsure.
The main question I have at the moment is concerning the tank stand. I have been through hundreds of the DIY threads on different types of stands on MFK, but haven't found anything quite like what I am thinking.
For my growout/ quarentine, I had a 29 and some 2x4/2x6's laying around so I built a stand for it based on the following picture. This was mainly to test this technique. I would say its very easy. Accomplished in about 2 hours from nothing to stand with ply on top.
However, the problem I see with the design, is that when scaled to carry a 6' tank it would be quite heavy. I know that I will be moving within a year and really want to limit the weight of the stand. My fiance and I could carry the tank by ourselves, since it is acrylic. So, I would like the stand to also be handled by only two people.
I also want to not have any structure throughout the entire span and I wanted the stand to have room on the ends to support a side wall of the stand so that only the front glass is visible. So I came up with this design.
This is still heavy, but I have run the calculations for structural bending and it will not fail. I am worried a little about the deflection the acrylic can sustain. I had a bit simpler design, but wanted to support the whole bottom of the tank better. The span in between the joists is only 8.25" so only the middle sagging should be a problem. As a note, Everything is 2x6 except the yellow bottom and bright green uprights which are 2x4. The other thing I wanted to add is that the tank itself will be sitting 3" inside the end dimensions. Due to the way the joists span, I don't think this should matter at all, but let me know if you believe differently.
Real pictures of the tank will be following along with buffing and DIYing the sump behind the tank. Also, I am thinking right now that I am going to try to create a Piano Black finish on the stand, which should be interesting to say the least.
Thanks for any feedback.
I have been out of the fish game for a while, but still have a few severums in a 55 at my parents. I came across the tank on craigslist for $150. Dimensions are 6X2X20 high. The interesting part is that the back 4" act as the sump for the tank. The overflow is on one side and two returns via powerheads in the old set up are on the other side.
I have some 2000 grit sandpaper and the novus is on its way. I am interested to test the novus 3 when it gets here to see if I will need to use sandpaper at all. I think I will, but having never used novus I am unsure.
The main question I have at the moment is concerning the tank stand. I have been through hundreds of the DIY threads on different types of stands on MFK, but haven't found anything quite like what I am thinking.
For my growout/ quarentine, I had a 29 and some 2x4/2x6's laying around so I built a stand for it based on the following picture. This was mainly to test this technique. I would say its very easy. Accomplished in about 2 hours from nothing to stand with ply on top.
However, the problem I see with the design, is that when scaled to carry a 6' tank it would be quite heavy. I know that I will be moving within a year and really want to limit the weight of the stand. My fiance and I could carry the tank by ourselves, since it is acrylic. So, I would like the stand to also be handled by only two people.
I also want to not have any structure throughout the entire span and I wanted the stand to have room on the ends to support a side wall of the stand so that only the front glass is visible. So I came up with this design.
This is still heavy, but I have run the calculations for structural bending and it will not fail. I am worried a little about the deflection the acrylic can sustain. I had a bit simpler design, but wanted to support the whole bottom of the tank better. The span in between the joists is only 8.25" so only the middle sagging should be a problem. As a note, Everything is 2x6 except the yellow bottom and bright green uprights which are 2x4. The other thing I wanted to add is that the tank itself will be sitting 3" inside the end dimensions. Due to the way the joists span, I don't think this should matter at all, but let me know if you believe differently.
Real pictures of the tank will be following along with buffing and DIYing the sump behind the tank. Also, I am thinking right now that I am going to try to create a Piano Black finish on the stand, which should be interesting to say the least.
Thanks for any feedback.
