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Tank stand - think this’ll work?


RovingGinger
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I bought a 75 gallon and enlisted a buddy to weld a stand out of steel to hold 900lbs. I am generally nervous and fairly cautious so could use a second opinion or five on whether this looks up to the job. The tank fits in it with a little bit of space, I am thinking maybe I should get a board cut to fit? It is right angle steel or something like that around the edge then square beams and thin steel connecting again at the bottom. I primed with self-etching primer and have started to paint with pounded metal finish spray + primer, both from rustoleum. I also have rubber feet for the legs.

My plan is to put the tank up against a load-bearing wall in my living room. First floor above a basement, house is built in 61 and the walls are all thicker than usual but I don’t know about the floors. Would love to put it against a different wall but going downstairs, there’s no support underneath that wall. 

Headed for disaster or over-thinking? I’m not loading the thing up with 200 lbs of rock, it’ll be driftwood, plants, and black diamond sand substrate. 😰  But Sloane the blood parrot needs to not go boom in the middle of the night, and this is my first tank over 40. 

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If you have the material sizes and overall dimensions a structural engineer could tell you for certain. I am not an engineer but I have welded and built a lot. Without seeing it in person and looking at the welds it is hard to say. The legs look pretty thin though. Are the 1/2"? Typically you want to plan for a load at least twice the total weight. Water is 8 lbs / gallon and the rule of thumb is to add 2 lbs to that so that's 10lbs x 75g = 750 lbs x 2 for 1500 lbs. The tank, substrate and wood are a dead load since the don't move but the water is considered a live load.

The only way to really know I guess is to put a bunch of weight on it, something like cinder blocks, to simulate the load and see what happens.

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😬 That doesn't pass the eye test for me. I could see it twisting without lateral cross bracing, maybe bowing too. That's a lot weight on 4 little pressure points, depending on your floor I could see issues with that. I'd want it to be welded out of square tubing and beefed up. I don't think overkill hurts when building stand.

I agree with @pedrofisk I'd load it up with as much weight as I could and shake it around, see how reacts. 

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3 minutes ago, Paul said:

I think you need to go back to the drawing board. Not only are the legs thin and light on bracing but they’re re also too far in from the corners. Aquariums are designed to be supported at each corner. 

This was the main thing I was noticing beyond just general thinness. I think he did it for style. 
 

My current plan is to kill two birds with one stone and purchase enough cinderblocks to test the weight (about 41 from my math). The cinderblocks will go on to become the building blocks for a rack downstairs. And potentially a 75 gallon stand. Is it totally awful to build something out of cinderblocks and 2x4s then cover it in faux cabinetry or something for aesthetics? 
 

This stand may end up repurposed as a plant stand of some sort. 😭 

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24 minutes ago, pedrofisk said:

Absolutely not. Check out @Tazawa Tanks YouTube video on how he fixed up his fish room doing exactly that.

That does add another 4-500 lbs of weight to the living room floor. It’d be against the very outside wall of the house, not an interior wall. Is that a huge risk there? 
 

Where on earth do people source affordable giant tanks and stands, or is it just that much $$$ once you get above 75? 

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49 minutes ago, RovingGinger said:

That does add another 4-500 lbs of weight to the living room floor. It’d be against the very outside wall of the house, not an interior wall. Is that a huge risk there? 
 

Where on earth do people source affordable giant tanks and stands, or is it just that much $$$ once you get above 75? 

In terms of affordability and weight bearing, it's hard to beat 2x4s. I built all my stands out of pine, including my 90-gallon.

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The frame of this thing is overkill. Double 2x4s at each corner, as well as on either side of the cabinets, cross bracing on top and bottom (mostly to keep it squared up). Then you've got lots of closed storage. Top cabinet super convenient for storing fertilizers and food. Bottom cabinet has cleaning supplies and other random stuff. Right cabinet has the Fluval FX6, left cabinet has bulk filter media, test kits, nets, etc.

Sourcing actual tanks, though, not easy around here. I see people across the country picking up these bargain 100+ gallon tanks, whereas everyone around here is trying to sell their 20 and 30 gallons for $100. Petco never ever has anything above 75 gallons. I had to buy my own glass and made the 90 gallon myself. And I paid through the nose for that 1/2 inch glass.

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36 minutes ago, Streetwise said:

Would adding welded triangle elements be enough?

That’d be good to know. 

8 minutes ago, StephenP2003 said:

In terms of affordability and weight bearing, it's hard to beat 2x4s. I built all my stands out of pine, including my 90-gallon.

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The frame of this thing is overkill. Double 2x4s at each corner, as well as on either side of the cabinets, cross bracing on top and bottom (mostly to keep it squared up). Then you've got lots of closed storage. 

I don’t have any woodworking equipment beyond a hand saw. What’s the kind of experience and basic hardware you need for a basic wooden stand? This is my main hurdle for that route - another big learning curve albeit one I want to climb sometime anyway. 

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41 minutes ago, RovingGinger said:

I don’t have any woodworking equipment beyond a hand saw. What’s the kind of experience and basic hardware you need for a basic wooden stand? This is my main hurdle for that route - another big learning curve albeit one I want to climb sometime anyway. 

To build a basic support frame out of 2x4s, you just need a drill and a saw -- either a table saw, miter saw, or circular saw. Hand saw would work but would be labor intensive. 

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@stephenp20

10 hours ago, StephenP2003 said:

To build a basic support frame out of 2x4s, you just need a drill and a saw -- either a table saw, miter saw, or circular saw. Hand saw would work but would be labor intensive. 

I agree. In fact you can often have the lumber cut for you at the store if you have your cut list. Then all you need is a drill which every home should have anyway. You don't need to pay a lot for one that can do the job.

As to position in the house an outside wall is good in that it is 100% certain to be load bering. However what you really want to know is which direction the floor joists are running under the floor. You want the joists to be 90 degrees to the wall so the weight is distributed across more joists. Do you have a basement or crawl space to look?

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11 minutes ago, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

 I am a structural engineer by profession, and if you got me the frame dimensions, steel sizes, and thicknesses I would be happy to check the stand for you.

I'd like to see the FEA analysis of that haha

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2 hours ago, pedrofisk said:

@stephenp20

I agree. In fact you can often have the lumber cut for you at the store if you have your cut list. Then all you need is a drill which every home should have anyway. You don't need to pay a lot for one that can do the job.

As to position in the house an outside wall is good in that it is 100% certain to be load bering. However what you really want to know is which direction the floor joists are running under the floor. You want the joists to be 90 degrees to the wall so the weight is distributed across more joists. Do you have a basement or crawl space to look?

If you decide to have the 2x4s cut for you the best option is to have it done at a lumber yard as opposed to a big box store (Home Depot or Lowes). You have a much better chance of getting someone who gets the cuts right.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So at this time the plan is to get or make an alternate stand.
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Struts go perpendicular to the outside wall I was thinking it’d be safest against. Would it be too risky to put it against the opposite wall, which is interior and I believe supported with like, big metal poles down in the basement area? My guess is this is the  main load bearing interior wall as it runs the length of the house. Just trying to have different options as I convince the husband to re-orientate all the furniture in the living room including his game systems. 

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Do you know what the actual support weight of the stand is rather than just the specs on individual materials? For a 75 gallon tank you want it to hold at least 3750lbs (estimated tank weight*4). I wouldn't do anything under a safety factor of 4 for larger tanks due to the amount of damage that can be dealt if something goes wrong. Joey from King of DIY has a really good series for designing tank stands.

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