DIY Aquarium Stand?

[amoore658 1]

Hello people!

I'm upgrading my tank soon, and I'm able to get an 8 foot x 2 foot x 3 foot bare aquarium for £290! This equates to roughly 150 gallons (or so the manufacturer says).

I currently have six common goldfish (around 3 inches long) in a 50 gallon, 4 foot long aquarium. So the replacement will be three times as heavy.

Interesting fact lol - I live in Northern Ireland, and the "stand" for their current aquarium came from Harland & Wolff - same people who built the Titanic!! And it's very sturdy, so it can hold the current set up.

The problem is, a stand for my desired replacement aquarium will cost £600+ (I think thats over $1000)...... And as the £290 is for the tank only (does not include light fitting, light bulb, etc and I need to buy a filter which will cost £225) I want to find another way to hoist their aquarium.

Do you have any ideas how I could make a stand? I'll be keeping the tank downstairs (assume floorboards will be able to handle weight better d'stairs).

I'm trying to upload a picture of my current set up I'm so proud of my fish lol

Thanks for your help

[ShawneeRiver 2,720]

Are you handy at all? With that size, I would build a wooden stand. You could make one with concrete blocks, but that would be very heavy in addition to an already heavy tank.

In the U.S., I could pay a hardware store to cut the lumber. Can you do that if you can't cut it yourself?

Edited July 18, 2012 by ShawneeRiver

[amoore658 1]

Ctrl/Cmd+V

That's a good idea, I must look up hardware stores and ring them.

I just think £600+ for a stand is a rediculous amount of money. More than twice the cost of the tank!!

[dodge245 3]

Bnq if you have one near by, if you make the measurments and buy some 2x4 bnq will cut it to your measurments for you, they normay have a section near the back to cut wood.

[ShawneeRiver 2,720]

Yes, that's a lot of money. If you don't mind how it looks, you should be able to build something basic and sturdy for much less than that if you have a little skill and a drill.

[kortniee 452]

Hm. Something is not computing here. A tank that is 8x2x3 feet is more like 350 US gallons. It's huge! So either your dimensions or your gallons are off rather a lot; it might be a good idea to figure out which it is before you proceed with this!

Best of luck with the stand. There are lots of stand how-tos on the internet so the resources are there. I think you can do it, whether your tank is huge or just quite large.

[amoore658 1]

dodge245: Excellent! I'll go to B&Q tomorrow and find out about it.

I made a mistake.. It's 7 foot x 2 foot x 2 foot - the tank below it was the 8 ft one...Works out about 170 UK Gallons or 200 and something US gallons! Hmm... Will the floor be able to support that?!

[amoore658 1]

I had a horrible mental image there of the floor giving way!

It will be downstairs so hopefully that should be ok? Haha fingers crossed!

[bodoba 2,980]

You will need to put it on a load bearing wall or directly over a support beam. Calculate how much weight it will be with water and then you can determine where to place it. You will also need the weight to figure out how many support posts you will need when making your stand.

[shakaho 6,313]

200 gallons of water weighs 757 kg. That doesn't include the weight of the tank, which is substantial.

Do you have a basement under this? You really should have a professional come in and determine what additional support you need.

[amoore658 1]

Nope, don't have a basement - which I hope is a good thing?

[Ms.Jenny 555]

What kind of foundation do you have? Is your first floor on cement, or is it on a raised wood foundation?

[bodoba 2,980]

I second the contact a professional. Even a phone call to an actual contractor would probably be way more informative than anything unprofessional given to ya.

[dodge245 3]

I probably wouldnt worry too much about the floor fhe majority of buildings in england/ireland have a concrete floor on the ground floor, tthe exception is when you have a basement. I would still put the tank near a load baring wall. Im in a flat upstairs and my 180 tank is between two load baring walls and the chimney breast which is the main support for a house. If you are worried the way to calculate weight is every litre of water weighs about 1kg then you have gravel and fish ontop so my 180tank is roughly 180kg then i have 5kg gravel three fish, the tank stand and glass to take into account so its somewhere around the 210kg mark(estimate)

Your new tank is around 150 us gallon so 580 litres thats 580kg plus stand and tank and probably around 20kg sand/gravel think i would work of around the 650kg-700kg mark(remember water moves). Equivelent to 8-10 people sitting on your sofa.

Edit

Keep in mind the lateral force of water if your building a stand its easy to build a stand to take a nonmoving weight much harder to account for water which will move about.

Edited July 19, 2012 by dodge245

[coco 27]

we used left over(garden job) - paving concrete bricks(new) to support /add strength to the inside walls of the cabinet(used), holding the tank.

Still had space left over for storage purposes.

We have concrete floors, but worried about whether the cabinet(spent all the £££ on the tank&filtration) would support the tank.