Wood vs. Metal Stands
 

O.K. you engineering guru's, at what point do you no longer trust the structural integrity of wooden cabinets and opt to go with tubular metal stands ? 135 gallons and up...?

Re: Wood vs. Metal Stands
 

My 300G sits on 4 X 4's :eek: :cool:

I build houses with engineered wood posts rated to hold 20,000 lbs.

...how big of a tank would you like? :mrgreen:

Mitch

4 x 4's... :rolleyes: . Your's doesn't count Steve...
O.K. Let me add another scenario or two to the eqauation. Let's assume you're not building a beautiful tank, built into the wall,(Steve), and you're not hangin' out in some "Frat-house" with an old wire spool for a coffee table which is covered in empties and magazines :wink: . This tank is goin' in the lobby of some elaborate establishment so a nice wood finish is critical. At what point do ya' want a metal support structure encased in wood finish ?

I think any tank can sit on a wooden stand. And it's just as easy to skin 4x4s in oak as it is steel. Weight may become an issue, but strength should be fine for any "normal" tank.

:mrgreen:

My 150 and Jonathan's 230 are on 2x4s.

I think the main advantage of metal is that it's not as bulky. The space inside my stand is limited just because of how bulky the thing is.

The problem with metal though, is that it will distort somewhat with welding.

Mitch

Only if you weld through o_O If you use skid 40, heck even 20 it should't distort at all. Just make sure that you don't have your O2 set too high.

Beth

Another potential issue maybe with metal is it can get rusty, and cleaning rust flakes might be annoying (if nothing else).

Personally I think it's a question of what you've got available, and what you're comfortable working with. If it was me building the stand, I'd do it in wood since I maybe almost know how to work with wood. But welding? Forget it -- I haven't a clue. But a welder might think completely 180 different than that, they might say "metal all the way, why work with wood?". As long as either option is built right I think either option is fine. If I could find a stand made of metal that suited my needs and it was economical then I'd go with that and build a wooden facade to make it look nice. But if I was building from scratch myself then I'd go wood and maybe try to overbuild it a little if it was a big tank.

Bear in mind when you read my comments though that the biggest tank I've ever had is 75 gallons, which isn't very large compared to most of you guys out there.