making a stand

[super7]

wondering if anyone has made a tank stand before from metal. If so what problems did you run into and what where your solutions.

[hollywood]

I am a welder by trade and I have made a few stands for clients and the biggest thing would be to make sure it is square and level! After that you want to seal it with a primer and paint to avoid rust. Thats it.

[Joe Reefer]

I would recomend having it powder coated after its built. My stand is metal and after 6 months it is showing signs of rust in areas where the paint is chipped.

[Static]

I definitely recommend powder coating if you can afford it. Think about automobile manufacturers, they're pretty good at painting, but steel and salt water will always end up rusting.

I used industrial enamel and painted my stand myself. I'm fairly confident it will last a couple years before it starts rusting.

Good luck

[Redrover]

Looks great...job well done Static

[Palster]

I built my own metal stand for my 135 Gallon out of 1 inch square tubing and angle iron. Like Holywood said square and level are the key to pretty much any project. When welding metal it is always a good idea to do a tack weld and double check that everything is square before laying down the final bead of weld (with a tack weld you can always re-adjust). I painted my stand with the stone look spray paint and it has held up surprisingly well to salt water (much better than regular spray paint). One other thing that I did was lay down some thin rubber between the stand and tank to more evenly distribute the load of the tank on the stand.