Will this tank stand be strong enough

[Mike Cruz]

Since you are insisting on cabinet doors underneath, maybe the cabinet doors could be on the ends spanning the lower 3/4 (vertically) of the base so the top 1/4 could be plywood/bracing, with eight verticals instead of 6, therefore giving you area on the front and back to put both doors (middle compartment) and plywood/bracing (2 end compartments).

[David Keller NC]

David - you've already gotten lots of suggestions on the structure. I've a couple of other comments. What sort of pine you use will sensitively affect the sturdiness of the final design. There is a huge difference between the strength of eastern white pine, so-called "SPF" (spruce-pine-fir) and hard yellow pine (usually sold as SYP - southern yellow pine). SYP is probably strong enough, as is true douglas fir. White pine, so-called "white-wood" and SPF is not.

Another comment - you don't say too much about the refugarium. I'm assuming this is not your first coral reef tank, and you may already know this, but you absolutely must use an over-flow design down to a sump that processes the water and returns it to the tank for a coral reef tank. Without the skimming action of overflows across the top surface of the tank, it will quickly turn from a coral reef into a swamp.

One other consideration is that your tank will weigh more - considerably more - than the calculation of water weight and tank weight would indicate. Generally speaking, one goes with about 2 lbs. - 4 lbs. per gallon of live rock in a reef tank. Some of that weight will be subtracted because it displaces water, but all rock, no matter how high-quality (the higher the quality, the less dense), will exceed a specific gravity of 1.0.

The type of rock will sensitively affect this calculation. Tonga or Fiji rock is typically the least dense. Harvested terrestrial rock from the Atlantic is far more so.

One other design comment - realize that you're going to absolutely require a chiller. The surface area to volume ratio of a tank like this is far too low to rely on unforced convection/condution. Most hobbyists include the chiller inside the bottom of the stand, with the air-flow from the outside through the evaporation coils back to the outside again accomodated by ducting that's built into the stand.

[Scott Gibbons]

My tank was of similar proportions, i had a company weld me an aluminum stand out of 2x2x.25 wall. i think i paid about $600.00. I fully understand the amount of money you will be spending and $600.00 is a drop in the bucket...I guess I am making the assumption you are doing a reef.