Plywood
 

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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/pag...=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/a1...8/DSC_1606.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...8/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.