I have the same problems. I have two rather deep tanks. I am 5'7". Not exactly short, but a LONG ways from tall as well.
Both stands are taller than I want them to be. My husband and I bickered back and forth over every millimeter he wanted to make them taller. He won, and he needed to. I am still annoyed, but I am perfectly capable of using a step ladder.
One tank is 28" deep and its stand is 33" tall. With the tallest of the small step ladders I can just reach the bottom at the front, if I don't mind sticking my head and shoulders into the tank. I clean the tank wearing a sleeveless vest and even get that wet some days. (The lip of the tank is 61" off the floor.)
The other tank is a lost cause. Its 32" deep and came with a prebuilt wooden stand. We cut 6" off of the stand. The guy that owned the tank before me must have been the Jolly Green Giant. Its stand is now 35" tall. (The lip of the tank is 67" off the floor, making it 6" taller, but the tank is also 4" deeper.) I stand on my step ladder to feed the fish, cleaning the tank almost requires a chain-fall to lower me into it! I put a block of 6x6 on my step ladder and can reach in the top enough to run a gravel vac. I have a friend of mine (with very long arms) come visit about once a moth to retrieve any items off the bottom that I have dropped. (Lid to a filter, algae sponge, the gravel vac part of my Python etc...) I use an algae scrubber on a stick to clean the glass and can do NOTHING about where the rocks, plants are located. They are where they are!
The tank I can't reach into has a stand with a "false bottom" like you are planning and has a 55 gallon tank as its sump. There is less than 3" of space between the supports for the frame and the top of that 55. ANd some how we had to run pipes through there to plumb the sump. A triple jointed orangutan couldn't have done it. Ohh and the center support made it so you couldn't get the 55 gallon tank into the stand with out taking end panels off and sliding it in that way!
We learned about all the misery that stand created and applied it to the one we built. Get rid of that "false floor". That forces your stand to be several inches taller. Just put your filters on your floors! Wider door openings are required to get sumps in unless you assemble the stand around your filter. Paint the inside of the stand white, and install a couple of "under the cabinet" style lights so you can see under there. Bi-fold doors on the front take up a LOT less space in the room and are easier than single piece doors when maintaining the tank.
Seriously, if you want the plans for our stand, just ask.
Enough thread derailing....