Greg,
I built a stand for my 90 gallon using 2x4as at each corner and another
one front and back at the mid point. I'm pretty sure the 90 has the same
footprint as a 120 but its just a bit shorter.
I made sure to stack all the wood before fastening. That is make sure
that gravity was working to keep the joints together rather than relying
on just the fasteners to do the work. The back is open. The sides and
top which the tank rests on are 1/2" Oak plywood. The front is an Oak
frame with 4 oak frame doors with the remaining Oak plywood as inserts in
the door frames. I have about $75 in materials in it and the Oak hood I
built to accomodate the AH lighting and I know its much sturdier than the
ones sold in the shops which use 1" oak with something that looks like
paneling or a veneer for the outside "wood" look.
The whole thing took me about 4 nights after work to build and another
weekend to do the finishing. The hardest part was finding a nice oak
board to use to build the hood and the frames for the front and doors.
Chris
Greg Miller wrote:
I started building a stand for my new 120 gallon tank, but
have gotten cold feet after calculating that the weight of the water
will be roughly 1.4 metric tons (12 pounds/gallon?). I've already
built my original design, but am afraid to move ahead.
What I've got so far (tank dimensions are 24"x24"x49.5"): one
24" 2x4 (leg) in each corer of the tank, going from the tank to the
floor. These are held together by 2x4's, one on top, and one on the
bottom, connecting to each neighbor leg (connectors). So, basically,
the four legs bear the weight of the tank, and the remaining 2x4's
keep those legs from falling over. Then I'll tack on some 1/4" pine
or oak on the front and sides for looks.
Now I'm thinking about going back and adding in three 2x4's on
the long connectors (one every 12"). And one more on the short
connectors. But I'm still not confident in this design either, this
is more weight than I've ever dealt with before. Can anyone provide
any advice?
The one's in the stores look like they're made out of 1/4" oak
on the sides, top, and bottom and almost nothing in the back or the
front (except some doors).
Greg Miller (gmiller at gregmiller dot net)
http://www.gregmiller.net
http://www.net-chess.com