Plywood

[Seriak]

Do most of you just put the plywood and styrofoam on the metal stand? No adhesive? Also, have any of you painted the plywood or the styrofoam under the tank? Type of paint? Or just use the skirt to hide the pink styrofoam?

Thoughts?

[The Grizz]

When I build the skirting for stands I drill a counter sunk hole in the top plywood and secure it with a Tec screw. I then seal all the wood with a wood sealer after filling and sanding any brad nail hose and seams. After the sealer I stain to my desired color of choice. I like to leave the top plywood a few inches past the stand to run over the top of the door and then put a trim around the bottom of the tank to come up to around the mid point of the sand.

[Seriak]

So I am assuming that the trim would be sitting on the plywood and would cover the styrofoam and as much of the bottom of the tank as I wanted. I am debating on that or just taking panels with magnets and having the panels tall enough to cover the plywood and styrofoam. No doors just removable panels. I don't really want to drill into the stand and destroy the coating in those few places.

[The Grizz]

Your idea with the mag panels would be another good option. I usually weld my hinges onto the stand before I paint it.

[Seriak]

Okay okay. Next time I will get you to build it. :-)

[Seriak]

What kind of sealer do you use. I am going to end up painting the plywood black.

[The Grizz]

If your going to paint the plywood I think you could just use a marine enamel without the sealer but it will not have a glossy finish, maybe it could be varathained after ward. For my own personal stands I use a MinWax wood conditioner & stain to match my decor.

[MMAX]

Do most of you just put the plywood and styrofoam on the metal stand? No adhesive? Also, have any of you painted the plywood or the styrofoam under the tank? Type of paint? Or just use the skirt to hide the pink styrofoam?

Thoughts?

I painted the styrofoam under my tank but be careful what paint you use. It has to be acrylic latex or the foam will melt.

[The Grizz]

Another great idea for panels are pre made Ikea doors. If you check out Kiens build thread you will see what I mean. The first time I seen his tank in person I could not believe they were from ikea & there held on by magnets.

[sphelps]

I did a skirt for a metal stand once, it was two pieces held on with rare earth magnets from lee valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=58750&cat=1,42363,42348
The 1/2" ones will be enough, I seem to recall using the 3/4 and they were a bit too strong, was a little harder than ideal to pull the skirts off.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/Jamie/Nov%202%2008/DSC_1606.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/Jamie/Nov%202%2008/DSC_1610.jpg

As for plywood base, personally wouldn't bother with it unless the tank sits flat (no plastic trim). If it's a standard tank with trim just use some foam or even some thick rubber if you're worried about what it looks like. Most tanks I've seen setup including the one above didn't use anything, straight on the metal, never heard of any issues before.

If you do use plywood, make sure it's good plywood and properly sealed, I have seen problems occur from such material swelling up from moisture.

Oh and whenever possible with stands or skits I make them cover up to just above the sand level of the tank. This hides the hard to clean algae and makes cleaning the glass with a magnet easier as you don't have go right to the sand.

[Seriak]

Well what a coincedence. I bought some panels from Ikea that look great. A little bit of gorilla glue and some rare earth magnets and I should be set.

Question though. If my stand wobbles slightly should I just shim it. I could also put a sheet of plywood on the bottom. My tank is being custom made so it will being sitting flat without a trim so I will be using plywood and styrofoam on top. I have extra sheets of 5/8 plywood lying around or is it better to go with 3/4?

I went and bought marine enamel. They said it is now called Weather-it at general paint. But they said it should work, even though it says in clear wording only for metal.

[sphelps]

5/8" is fine, it really doesn't offer any additional support. The stand should be shimmed to be level and distribute the weight properly, it shouldn't wobble.

For the magnets, the link I provided comes with cups for mounting. I'm not sure I would rely on glue.

[Seriak]

The magnets are purely holding them to the stand. They will be sitting on the floor, so it should be okay.

[sphelps]

The magnets are purely holding them to the stand. They will be sitting on the floor, so it should be okay.

Yeah I know but the rare earths stick pretty good, the bond between the stand and magnet maybe more than the glue and the magnet. Not sure but the cup sets are cheap enough.

[Seriak]

Yeah I considered the cup sets at lee valley but I wasn't going to go the extra step of routering them in and I only got the 9lb magnets, so I thought it should work. I think gorilla glue should be stronger then the 9lb magnets. I guess if it doesn't work I will come back and let you say "I told you so". :-) and then go by the cups.

[sphelps]

Yeah you're probably right, 9lbs is minimal.

The cups don't have to routered in though, I've always just screwed them to the inside surface. Unless you're really trying to get the panels flush against the stand but then you have to router in magnets anyway as the cups only add less than 1/8".

[kole]

What thickness of styrofoam are you using? I have a 180 on the way and was wondering if I should put styrofoam under it.

[Seriak]

I use the pink stuff. I think it is 1"

[The Grizz]

I have 1/2" under my 96" x 22" x 18" tank.