More Stand Questions - Aquarium Advice

IMPERATORFAN · 05-15-2004, 12:34 PM

I'm getting closer to starting construction of my stand. Any suggestions on what I should do for water proofing. I'm going to be using 3/4 oak plywood for the frame and solid oak on the exterior. I had planned on just staining and coating with polyurethane. Anyone think I'll have trouble with the wood warping or the ply coming apart from moisture getting in. Also, I'll have a refugium and sump in the stand. Any suggestions on what I might coat the interior of the stand with to protect it?

bound_for_obx · 05-15-2004, 01:01 PM

Are you going to glue the joints? If so, I recently used "Gorilla Glue" on a project and liked it a lot. Make sure you use plenty of clamps and wipe up any excess. It tends to expand a little and ooze out of seams as it cures. Also I would pay a lot of attention to sealing any exposed ends of the plywood. This is where it will start to delaminate first. Several coats of a good polyurethane sealer should provide you with a beautiful, durable finish for years to come. Good luck! Another alternative you might consider is framing up the stand with 2-by stock and making the exterior out of removable panels. You could use thinner plywood if you did this and it could make maintainance much easier in the future.

jsoong · 05-15-2004, 11:12 PM

You can seal everything with marine spar finish - this is meant for wooden parts on boats & will stand up to even salt water.

JProx · 05-16-2004, 12:06 AM

i built myself a stand a few months back.. and i used polyurethane [hi gloss stock, had a full can in the garage] on the frame, and coated every inch of exposed wood. the stand was for a 55gallon tank (48"L x 30"H x 13"W) and i used about 1/2 quart of poly, and put on about 2coats. i built mine fairly close to the design found at garf.org, and for skinning i just used 1/4 finishing ply and used polyshades from minwax [stain and polyurethane in 1application].

i really like the polyurethane on the frame of the stand, i know for a fact nothing is getting into the wood, ever. i suggest using poly, but i have heard of people using the spar finish stuff before on the forums, however it can be hard to find in some areas, and thompson's water seal too. problem with thompson's at some point it will need to be re applied, not sure if that's true for spar finish but at least with polyurethane it never needs to be re applied.

IMPERATORFAN · 05-16-2004, 02:20 PM

Thanks for all the tips. I'm finally throwing in the towel on the 3/4 ply structure and going with 2x4's and 4x4's. I was being as stubborn as I could be for months in planning this stand ... but I've just had way too many people recommend I go with 2x4's. I'm going to start drawing up a new design today. I'll look into both the spar and polyurethane. I'm guessing spar should be available at West Marine (they've got just about everything for boating) Thanks again.

05-15-2004, 12:34 PM	#1
IMPERATORFAN Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Louisiana Posts: 45	More Stand Questions I'm getting closer to starting construction of my stand. Any suggestions on what I should do for water proofing. I'm going to be using 3/4 oak plywood for the frame and solid oak on the exterior. I had planned on just staining and coating with polyurethane. Anyone think I'll have trouble with the wood warping or the ply coming apart from moisture getting in. Also, I'll have a refugium and sump in the stand. Any suggestions on what I might coat the interior of the stand with to protect it?

05-15-2004, 01:01 PM	#2
bound_for_obx Aquarium Advice FINatic Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Virginia Posts: 773	Are you going to glue the joints? If so, I recently used "Gorilla Glue" on a project and liked it a lot. Make sure you use plenty of clamps and wipe up any excess. It tends to expand a little and ooze out of seams as it cures. Also I would pay a lot of attention to sealing any exposed ends of the plywood. This is where it will start to delaminate first. Several coats of a good polyurethane sealer should provide you with a beautiful, durable finish for years to come. Good luck! Another alternative you might consider is framing up the stand with 2-by stock and making the exterior out of removable panels. You could use thinner plywood if you did this and it could make maintainance much easier in the future. __________________ 75 gal 4x65w PC AquaC Remora Pro 140#s Live Rock from LiveRocks.com Frogspawn, Hammer, Zoos, Leather Frag, and Xenia and Green Star Polyp frags from fishfreek and Alarmguy66, Thanks! Member of the Unofficial A-Team

05-15-2004, 11:12 PM	#3
jsoong Aquarium Advice Addict Community Mentor Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Edmonton, Canada Posts: 1,802	You can seal everything with marine spar finish - this is meant for wooden parts on boats & will stand up to even salt water. __________________ 75 gal FW with 30 gal DIY wet/dry/sump. 9 fancy golds, 1 hillstream loaches, 1 rubber-lip pleco (C. thomasi), 3 SAEs, planted.

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05-16-2004, 12:06 AM	#4
JProx Aquarium Advice Freak Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Cleveland ohio Posts: 359	i built myself a stand a few months back.. and i used polyurethane [hi gloss stock, had a full can in the garage] on the frame, and coated every inch of exposed wood. the stand was for a 55gallon tank (48"L x 30"H x 13"W) and i used about 1/2 quart of poly, and put on about 2coats. i built mine fairly close to the design found at garf.org, and for skinning i just used 1/4 finishing ply and used polyshades from minwax [stain and polyurethane in 1application]. i really like the polyurethane on the frame of the stand, i know for a fact nothing is getting into the wood, ever. i suggest using poly, but i have heard of people using the spar finish stuff before on the forums, however it can be hard to find in some areas, and thompson's water seal too. problem with thompson's at some point it will need to be re applied, not sure if that's true for spar finish but at least with polyurethane it never needs to be re applied.

05-16-2004, 02:20 PM	#5
IMPERATORFAN Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Louisiana Posts: 45	Thanks for all the tips. I'm finally throwing in the towel on the 3/4 ply structure and going with 2x4's and 4x4's. I was being as stubborn as I could be for months in planning this stand ... but I've just had way too many people recommend I go with 2x4's. I'm going to start drawing up a new design today. I'll look into both the spar and polyurethane. I'm guessing spar should be available at West Marine (they've got just about everything for boating) Thanks again.