Building stand: exact size vs oversized top?

[Sayn3ver]

I personally love the look of ada tank/stand combinations. Simple and clean looking.

I'm hesitant to build my reef stand the exact size of the tank, as it's located in my living room atop hardwood flooring.

I'm concerned maintenance dripping will be an issue as it will run straight down to the floor, especially if it goes down the back or one side as the tank will be sitting in the corner of a room next to a couch and those sides will be inaccessible.

I feel I know the answer, that I'd probably be better off providing a small 1" or so lip all the way around the tank to atleast catch most of any dripping?

Any real life experience?

 

[jerrod]

I prefer having a ledge that I can set stuff down on when woking around the tank be it food, Turkey baster, scraper etc and not have to worry about putting it on top and possibly falling in. I do like the clean flush look but its not practical for me.

 

[Caseyoidae]

I love having a ledge! I don’t have one on my current tank and miss having my leaning spot lol

 

[schuby]

Can you give us some examples of "maintenance dripping"?

 

[Crabs McJones]

When I built mine I left a 3/4 inch lip around the edges and used decorative trim. I like it because of dripping as you mentioned above, and it's a nice little shelf to set stuff when doing testing and maintenence as any coffee tables or end tables are across the living room from the tank.

 

[Sayn3ver]

Can you give us some examples of "maintenance dripping"?

Serious answer....like the water rolling down a forearm, splashing from algae removal, dripping off of tweezers, turkey baster, etc.

Non serious answer....NSFW.

 

[schuby]

LOL!

For your listed scenarios, a 1" lip isn't going to catch much (and I have to wonder where the lip would drain). You might consider a towel around your neck to dry off your arms/hands and instruments, as needed, and placing towels on the floor and couch if you expect to do a lot of splashing.

 

[X-37B]

My stand is steel. Tank is rimmed and is a standard 120.
I built the stand with 2" square steel. 3x2 on the top for a no center brace stand.
I built the stand so the rim sits in the center of the 2" steel all the way around.
Then installed a 3/4" piece of coated plywood on top of that.
That left the side of the plywood visible so I trimmed it in oak and painted black to match the atand.
Here is a pic. Came out nice and catches any small drips from sticking my hand/arm in the tank.

 

[Water Dog]

I have a rimless tank with a bottom trim. I built the stand with a lip to hide the bottom trim. The stand is 2x4 construction with 1/4” birch plywood skin. The trim is made with 3/4” finish pine trim pieces. It’s primed with Kilz latex primer and water based gloss acrylic paint. The acrylic dries to a very nice hard shell that cleans very easily. Any maintenance spillage is easily wiped clean.

 

[Sayn3ver]

I guess I was more asking more is from anyone with an stand that's the exact size if they did it for looks but regretted it long term?

I've seen pics of the ada gallery of smaller tanks on oversized stands and it still looks good (like a cube tank on a larger rectangular stand).

I have a piece of soapstone for the top Im going to cut to size when I get done.


I have a super overbuilt stand already I made oversized for an aquapod 24 a decade ago. The problem is it's built with 2x4 and skinned and is posing issues for me during my planning stages due to restrictions in the size sump I can fit and also for drain pipe routing (framing is in the way for tanks with internal overflows and I can't find a glass 24x24x12 or 24x24x16 locally or online.

I'm about to settle on an innovative Marine 25 lagoon external overflow but I'm leaning towards a 16" tall tank and I'm giving up 4" of depth/bottom area that I could fit in the area the tank is going. You know how it is wanting to maximize space.

Looks wise in the living space, a 20x20x16 cube would be better for me but deep sea is gone, aquarium masters I cannot get locally and theres much less options for lighting the 20" tank vs a 24".

Sorry to ramble.

 

[X-37B]

FWIW. My 18" cubed nano stand was even with the tank.
It looked nice but I was constantly cleaning the side from drips down the side from working on the tank.
Being black it was very visible and did not look good. Being rimless every time I worked on the tank water would run down the side.
Thats why I went with a rimmed tank and over sized stand on my 120.

 

[dadnjesse]

I put a shelf around mine also lets me put test kits and also lean on while I'm enjoying the tank

 

[Sayn3ver]

I may simply oversize the stand for the tank instead of adding a lip like shown to keep a clean line on the side of the stand.

I feel convinced that having some kind of perimeter to catch drips and or used to rest test kits will be useful long term.

thanks everyone.

 

[Johnd651]

I put a shelf around mine also lets me put test kits and also lean on while I'm enjoying the tank

Do you have pictures of how you finished it? Plywood top? And then board on top with 3/4 trim around the side?