Max Posted June 4, 2022 Share Posted June 4, 2022 Last year, I built an aquarium stand by somewhat improving an IKEA Besta with the following dimensions (without using the 'legs'): I used some wood panels (glued wood, around 1cm thick) to support the back walls to reduce pressure on the 3 vertical walls, and added one piece of wood screwed to the middle wall that directly connects with the ground. On top sits a kitchen countertop to distribute the weight. The bottom of the whole cabinet is full of felt gliders so the weight is evenly distributed on the floor. The construction was always planned to have 3 aquariums, but up until now there were only two Dennerle Nano Cubes (30L/8 gallon), together weighting around 80kg / 180 lbs. Now I bought another 55L/15 gallon tank to side in the middle, which will add round 70kg/155 lbs of weight. The reason I was hesitant regarding the last aquarium was my concern for the weight, but as you can see on the photos I tried to improve the stability already and right now with 2 aquariums and the one empty aquarium it looks pretty sturdy still. Is there anyone who used similar furniture for aquariums or can assess the stability of my construction? I personally see one option I have to improve it further: Since the kitchen countertop stands out a few centimeters behind the cabinet, I could try to screw a supporting piece of wood on the wall right below the countertop plate (or instead give the piece of wood two legs to stand on the ground). I really want to make this work, should I be worried though? I know that in the end it is at my own risk, but maybe someone can give their opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 5, 2022 Share Posted June 5, 2022 On 6/4/2022 at 1:03 PM, Max said: Is there anyone who used similar furniture for aquariums or can assess the stability of my construction? I personally see one option I have to improve it further: Since the kitchen countertop stands out a few centimeters behind the cabinet, I could try to screw a supporting piece of wood on the wall right below the countertop plate (or instead give the piece of wood two legs to stand on the ground). What does the inside look like? My 75 is an aqueon branded stand manufactured by sauder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted June 5, 2022 Author Share Posted June 5, 2022 On 6/5/2022 at 2:10 AM, nabokovfan87 said: What does the inside look like? My 75 is an aqueon branded stand manufactured by sauder. Here is a picture from the inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 5, 2022 Share Posted June 5, 2022 On 6/5/2022 at 6:36 AM, Max said: Here is a picture from the inside. The big board on the middle helps. A lot of stands don't have that support there. My 75G has two of them. The 75 also has 6 feet (not 4) so that speaks to the choice you made regarding supporting the entire footprint a bit better. 4 feet on the corners and then one underneath each of those vertical support walls. Depending on how robust that material itself is, I think you're "ok" with the two side tanks. Keep in mind that for glass with a rim you support the exterior, for Plexi or rimless you support the entire base. If that central wall pushes up on the center but doesn't support the sides, you might have a stress fracture. With those two tanks on the side, I would take a level and check to see how bowed or flat the top surface is. I had a very small tank on a dresser that was "fine" but after 3 months it wasn't. It might be fine now, but over time that amount of weight on certain types of materials just might not work. I'll grab some pictures of my stands and you can compare.the structure to yours for the sake of easing concerns or figuring out where to focus on for reinforcement of the stand you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 5, 2022 Share Posted June 5, 2022 Blue = Current supports. Purple = Potential places to reinforce the support of the top board Red = Potential place to reinforce vertically given the load (you can also add the feet back if you wish, but add 1 on each corner, 2 in the middle) On 6/4/2022 at 1:03 PM, Max said: I used some wood panels (glued wood, around 1cm thick) to support the back walls to reduce pressure on the 3 vertical walls, and added one piece of wood screwed to the middle wall that directly connects with the ground. On top sits a kitchen countertop to distribute the weight. The bottom of the whole cabinet is full of felt gliders so the weight is evenly distributed on the floor. This is the part I'm trying to dig into. You are running rimless, so having the large/strong board supported by the 4 (5 including center brace) walls is definitely the way to go. The big question as mentioned in the earlier post is simply "how flat is flat". Have you seen the warpage over time, and how sturdy is that central board. OK SO.... Here's mine. I don't mean to post the above to say that you need to change anything, but just in terms of making sure the top stays flat, there's pretty specific types of hardware used that may or may not be used on the stand you're showing. If you have a piece of hardware horizontally (parallel) to the top of the stand, then you would want to make sure it has certain characteristics because of the load it is going to see. Every bit of furniture should have a load rating for each top surface and each shelf. The majority of this is based on those hardware and material decisions. 29G Imagitarium stand. This is very similar in construction to what you have. The top piece of wood is a bit sturdier and higher quality. There is some bracing on the side, and not much on the rear wall. No central brace (does have some all around the base of the top board, it's arguable how much of it is really doing anything vs. there for aesthetics) This is the underside of the top board Underside of the shelf (shows the middle brace) Legs (1 on each corner). Please excuse the water spots! 75G Sauder / Aqueon Stand This shows you the internal structure. 4 vertical walls, plus the top piece. Nothing special here, the sidewall is a support for the top surface Nothing special here, just a low load shelf 3 of the 6 legs. the leg shown here on the right, I can grab the schematics from online I think, but it's three pieces of wood attached forming a triangle to a square block/base with a plastic foot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted June 5, 2022 Share Posted June 5, 2022 I wouldn’t do anything else. That thick middle vertical piece is carrying the load for the middle tank, plus the thick countertop piece is distributing the weight. I think it looks great too, it’s very similar to aquascaping stands that cost many $$$. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted June 6, 2022 Author Share Posted June 6, 2022 On 6/5/2022 at 8:57 PM, nabokovfan87 said: With those two tanks on the side, I would take a level and check to see how bowed or flat the top surface is. I had a very small tank on a dresser that was "fine" but after 3 months it wasn't. It might be fine now, but over time that amount of weight on certain types of materials just might not work. [...] Thank you for your extensive replies 🙂 The top surface is very sturdy and won't bend really, it is a very heavy and thick plate originally for kitchens, I had them cut it down to my required size at the hardware store. So I would assume that the weight of all tanks is equally distributed onto the cabinet itself, and thus the 3 vertical walls as well as the back wall, which I supported with additional wood panels. On 6/5/2022 at 10:14 PM, nabokovfan87 said: [...] This is the part I'm trying to dig into. You are running rimless, so having the large/strong board supported by the 4 (5 including center brace) walls is definitely the way to go. The big question as mentioned in the earlier post is simply "how flat is flat". Have you seen the warpage over time, and how sturdy is that central board. Again the sturdy part is the topmost wooden board, everything else (the basic Ikea cabinet) is just some pressed cardboard. Then again, I added additional support of actual wood panels in the back (behind these, there is a maybe 2mm cardboard background which obviously doesn't give as good support as these wooden panels, which also distribute weight from the upper horizontal part of the cabinet to the bottom horizontal part of the cabinet and reduce the load on the 3 vertical walls. Plus the central additional wood piece which is directly connected from the kitchen countertop to the floor: Quote OK SO.... Here's mine. I don't mean to post the above to say that you need to change anything, but just in terms of making sure the top stays flat, there's pretty specific types of hardware used that may or may not be used on the stand you're showing. If you have a piece of hardware horizontally (parallel) to the top of the stand, then you would want to make sure it has certain characteristics because of the load it is going to see. Every bit of furniture should have a load rating for each top surface and each shelf. The majority of this is based on those hardware and material decisions. 29G Imagitarium stand. This is very similar in construction to what you have. The top piece of wood is a bit sturdier and higher quality. There is some bracing on the side, and not much on the rear wall. No central brace (does have some all around the base of the top board, it's arguable how much of it is really doing anything vs. there for aesthetics) I think yours is more sturdy from the material, except for the topmost board, it looks a lot closer to my proper aquarium stand from my 92 gallon aquarium. On 6/5/2022 at 10:52 PM, Patrick_G said: I wouldn’t do anything else. That thick middle vertical piece is carrying the load for the middle tank, plus the thick countertop piece is distributing the weight. I think it looks great too, it’s very similar to aquascaping stands that cost many $$$. Thank you, I really tried to make it look as good as possible with my limitations in money and tools. I'm still unsure, I will look into my pile of random wood pieces if I find anything to additionally connect the countertop piece directly with the floor to reduce stress on the weaker materials of the cabinet, and if not I maybe just have to bite the bullet and see how it works out. The big question then is if it would slowly lose its structure by mabye bending at the weakest point, where I could still intervene, or just suddenly collapse, what would be the worst case scenario. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 6, 2022 Share Posted June 6, 2022 (edited) On 6/6/2022 at 1:54 PM, Max said: Again the sturdy part is the topmost wooden board, everything else (the basic Ikea cabinet) is just some pressed cardboard. Then again, I added additional support of actual wood panels in the back (behind these, there is a maybe 2mm cardboard background which obviously doesn't give as good support as these wooden panels, which also distribute weight from the upper horizontal part of the cabinet to the bottom horizontal part of the cabinet and reduce the load on the 3 vertical walls. Plus the central additional wood piece which is directly connected from the kitchen countertop to the floor: Makes sense. You said you reinforced the back where shown. Did you reinforce the front? If the topmost surface is strong, it might crush something weaker underneath, that's my concern. So the cabinet is a skeleton/shape, but you'd basically be reinforcing it the same way that they do roll cages for cars. 4 posts on the corners to the floor, crossbeam to those to provide rigid support, then you have the post in the middle rear, is there something middle front? That's all I'm asking. Again, probably fine, I'm just trying to understand what you did in terms of structure. Especially with the Ikea materials being there to take no load whatsoever. Something similar would be like covering a steel stand with magnetic panels to hide the frame. The panels do absolutely nothing for strength. The way it's constructed right now reminds me of this video below, especially with the question of whether or not you were going to attach to the wall. I like the idea of taking something and repurposing it. I'm intrigued. On 6/6/2022 at 1:54 PM, Max said: I'm still unsure, I will look into my pile of random wood pieces if I find anything to additionally connect the countertop piece directly with the floor to reduce stress on the weaker materials of the cabinet, and if not I maybe just have to bite the bullet and see how it works out. The big question then is if it would slowly lose its structure by mabye bending at the weakest point, where I could still intervene, or just suddenly collapse, what would be the worst case scenario. Hopefully the question above makes sense. Right now the rear seems to be supported, but I'm trying to understand it all in terms of what is original / potentially weak materials, what is solid. I would think it would start to deform ok the front edge and over time, if unnoticed, would then collapse when there is a shock / Shear off something. Especially on the front I'm trying to understand the load path you have that protects it from the strong top and carries that to the floor. Edited June 6, 2022 by nabokovfan87 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted June 27, 2022 Author Share Posted June 27, 2022 On 6/6/2022 at 11:40 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Hopefully the question above makes sense. Right now the rear seems to be supported, but I'm trying to understand it all in terms of what is original / potentially weak materials, what is solid. I would think it would start to deform ok the front edge and over time, if unnoticed, would then collapse when there is a shock / Shear off something. Especially on the front I'm trying to understand the load path you have that protects it from the strong top and carries that to the floor. Sorry for the late response, I was delayed in my progress on the project. Long story short, I thought everything was fine, I added some additional support in form of some metal bars and was just planting both the middle and the right aquarium with my plants that arrived today. And just while filling up the tanks, I noticed the side panels of the stand bending outwards slightly, maybe 1-2mm in the middle. I have no idea how long this has been the case, maybe since the beginning, or since I added the third tank half-empty in the middle. But I don't think I can trust the construction, even if I would support it further. So now I'm sad and will probably just buy a proper aquarium stand, put my kitchen countertop on top and put the 3 aquariums on it. Really the biggest pain there is that I now have to keep the bucephalandra alive that I glued onto my wooden decor, until I can get a hold of the stand. I will probably chose one of these, still deciding. The small problem is that my kitchen countertop board is 120cm wide and most aquarium stands here in that size are 121cm wide (except the first one). https://www.olibetta.com/aquatlantis/splendid-240-prestige-120-white-cabinet https://www.olibetta.com/juwel/rio-240-cabinet?sai=4689 https://www.dehner.de/produkte/eheim-aquarium-unterschrank-vivalineled-240-4277877/?categoryId=79624219 (the last one is german, could not find another link). They should all be strong enough to support my 3 aquariums I think, and the countertop board should equally distribute the weight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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