are you planning on having a removable brace in the front. thats a long stretch with a lot of weight on just a 2x4.

There is a 4 foot span across that opening. I'd really LIKE to put a vertical brace there...it just makes access difficult. Any other opinions on this? I might remove those two front braces and replace them with 1 inn the center and just deal with it. With an opening that's around 30" on each side I might be able to get a sump in there later I'm not sure. I wish I had the sump to test that.

What about this idea: I trim those front two supports shorter and insert another horizontal 2x4 on top of them spanning all the way across the front. So the front would realy be 2x8. Extending this idea to span that horizontal 2x4 across the actual corners would be nice but it's all glued and would be a real chore to rip apart...

Sure I would be interested! :) PM me with a price if you could. I didn't know you were an artists, I'd be interedt to see some of your other work too.

Cool stuff. :)

You could always double-up a 2x6 or 2x8 in behind the front beam maybe if you wanted to keep the area brace free.. I built the stand for my 280g using a 2x6 and a 2x8 doubled up to cover the span and when I had water in the tank I measured for any signs of deflection and could not find anything even after 2 months. I'm not a structural engineer though so I'm not sure if there's a better criteria.

At this point I think what I will do is simply make the center opening narrower. It's a little over 4 feet wide as it is but I'm not sure why i wanted to be able to push a 4 foot sump straight in. If i make that gap say 3 feet wide instead i can still slide the sump in and I don't think a 3 foot gap would be trouble at all.

Don't really see any reason why that wouldn't work either. :)

What do ppl here recommend for a sump? I was thinking a 75 gallon or something. That would be 1.5 feet wide and 4 long. Think i could fit that in there through a 2.5 foot opening given the stand's front to back width of 2.5 feet?

I think I need to rig a cardboard tank and test that one out lol...

So I decided to play it safe and moved the support to the middle. I also added a bit of support to both middles. I should still be able to fit a 72 gallon inside I think.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/DSC_0001.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/DSC_0002.jpg

Probably a good idea on the center brace. Your sump will just have to be a little taller to make up for the length that you can't get in there.

I believe that you screwed the plywood ends on? Maybe you could just unscrew the plywood from one end and slide the sump right in from one end. Then just screw the ply back in place.