favorite height of tank

28" - low enough to look at the tank comfortably while sitting, and tall enough to have a slightly downward viewing angle when standing in front of it to show off the best colors in the corals

 

My stand is 32 inches and my tank is 30 inches tall also. I am looking dead even with my tank and yes I will need a step ladder and some extensions to the previous cleaning items I use to maintain my tank.

 

How will the tank normally be viewed? Standing up, sitting on a sofa, sitting on dining room chairs???
The viewing angle will make a difference on how high you build the stand, you don't want to be staring up or down so keeping the center of the tank about eye level with how its normally viewed works for me. My stand is about 40" high and is in the dining room so the angle is right for the chairs we sit on.

 

Mostly from a sofa height... Occasional stander though. I'm thinking final height will be 50-52"?

 

Dingo, many good points here. I believe that you are on track with 50" to 52". You have considered viewing from both sitting and standing. As well as maintaining.

For our 120 gal, we settled on 60" as that is the distance from my arm pit to the ground. The thought being to have the tank as high up as possible to stand beside for viewing, low enough to reach the bottom without a step stool, and not too high for viewing from the couch.

How has ti worked out, you ask... As it turns out, with the full hood in place, a small folding stool (6" tall) is a benefit during cleaning. Viewing from the living room is perfect (with much praise from visitors) and not too low to comfortably stand beside. With a full canopy, there is no looking down from the top into the tank (without opening the doors and risking banging your guest's heads).

 

mine stand is 38" and the tank is 20". seems about right.

 

My stand is 32" tall and the tank is 24".

As I'm just 5' with shoes on I'll be using a step stool for maintenance .

The tank is also between the living room and dining room so it's at a height comfortable for viewing from sitting/standing.