Designing the stand was a lot easier than the tank, but not without its challenges and mistakes. In fact, I made some big mistakes. I started by talking to a welder who proposed a standard 6 leg stand built like a box with an open bottom. He recommended two inch square tubular steel. This was his design.
According to the welder, the bottom brace isn’t necessary as the downward force would prevent it from slipping. I think he’s probably correct, but I was happy with design because of the extra two inches of height that it affords assuming a plywood bottom.
The stand was designed with adjustable brackets for the lighting which are not shown in my sketchup diagrams. I don’t honestly know if I will use these, but I figured they would be nice to have (just in case). If I can use them I will, but it’s a little too early to say.
The first modification to the design that I made was to extend the platform beyond the back of the tank. The idea was to increase the under tank space and therefore maximize the space I would have available for a sump. The added benefit was that it provided a path for the overflow plumbing to enter the under tank area through the top of the stand at a straight vertical rather than through the back of the stand.
I had the stand shown above built, powder coated and delivered. It was sitting in my garage waiting to be moved to the basement.
I made the mistake of doing additional research after having the stand built. I came across a great thread on RC titled ‘
Lets see those steel stands’ (My stand shows up towards the bottom of
page 44)
For anyone researching stand construction, this thread is a must read. One of the common themes in the various designs is bracing or gussets. You will notice that my stand doesn’t have any bracing or gussets. Is that a problem? – Well, here again we are back to opinions of non experts and the ultimate responsibility being your own.
I asked everyone including posting my stand to the thread referenced above. The majority opinion was that the stand was strong enough, but it’s not so simple. My biggest concern was the oscillating nature of the weight distribution due to the wave action. I basically became paranoid about the possibility of repetitive stress on the stand. I equate the risk to two strong guys on either side of the tank, which weighs over 3000 pounds, pushing back and forth once every second for 10 years. Would the welds fail? Would the failure be catastrophic or observable before failure occurred?
I can only assume that the math involved in calculating the risk factor would be ridiculously complex. It would require knowing the breaking strength of the welds, the actual shift in weight due to the wave and the effects of repetitive stress on welds.
In the end, I had the bracing welded on. This required grinding off parts of the original powder coating, welding the braces and having the whole stand powder coated again.
This is the design I gave the welder:
The braces are intended to protect against the racking resulting from sway. The placement and number of braces was based on two considerations.
• The first consideration was minimal obstruction to the inside of the stand. Placement was based on the sump design and planned equipment.
• The second consideration was to reinforce the beams which run at spans of between 36” along the length and 40” front to back. This consideration actually backfired as welding the braces in place may have actually caused some deflection in the beams. I am trusting the plywood and stytrofoam to even this out.
Another lesson I learned is that it’s much cheaper to drop the stand off for powder coating yourself vs. having the welder do it for you. Having the powder coating redone is a lot more work because of the prep time required and the total cost was about half what the welder charged me. Ironically, when I dropped off the stand to be re powder coated, they recognized it having done it once already.
Here is a picture of the finished stand:
Stand Dimensions
Note: According to the tank builder, it is standard to add an extra ¼” in length and ¼” in depth to the stand dimensions.
Height – 30” – This is standard height for an aquarium stand. The stand has to be able to fit through all of the doorways!
Width – 72 ¼” – The aquarium will be 72” long + ¼” safety.
Depth – 42 ½” – The aquarium will be 37 ½” deep + ¼” safety + 2.5” + 2”