True. I think the moral of this thread is that no matter what material you choose, so long as it is sufficiently coated with a water resistant paint, the stand will likly out last ones interest in the hobby :-)

Please don't tell me that i'm putting a few thousand into this project lol ; its my semi retirement gift to myself, something to tinker , and old passion of my youths...lol:biggrin:

Ha, ok, we'll tell you you aren't going to put anew thousand into the tank... You'll come back to us later and tell us you did. It's inevitable:mrgreen: I've learned to just stop counting (and I'm a poor, frugal student). It's a hobby that I really enjoy, so I've stopped caring about the cost as much.

I'll echo what others have said: as long as you've coated the stand with a decent waterproof paint, you're good to good for a long time. At work I conduct experiments with fairly caustic solution (2.2M sodium carbonate) that pretty much insta-rusts steel and I get spills constantly. My whole experimental apparatus is mounted to a steel frame stand. I painted it with blue Krylon paint and 4.5 years later, no rust.

lol ok thanks lol, oh i know about the cost but the its the starting cost thats worst, the rest is maintenance, and upgrades, thats normal, i don't drink or smoke , thats my income for the tank, boose and smokes thats a fair size amount per year, lol , the occasional wine don't count, and two glasses and i'm done, lol. The fishes will get drunk before me on vodka lol. Thanks guys....

STEEL all the way!!!

I voted steel .
I like steel stands as if designed right they give you extra room under the tank for equipment etc.

The downside to steel stands IMO is that they are more difficult to skin/wrap.
and much more difficult to add little shelves , or clamps or modify in anyway once your tank is running.

Couldn't agree more, tore my previous 65g down because a mini flood inside the stand caused the MDF to swell, crack and bulge out. I've used metal on ever stand since then with great results.