Should I put a 90 gallon tank on 75 gallon stand?
- Thread starter avio07
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I have a metal stand under my 90. Although not a piece of furniture, it is fully functional and able to support the weight without question. Under my 75 I have an cherry office desk that is double pedestal drawers (drawers on both sides), made of regular wood and not particle board, both pedestals are tied together in the with a sheet of plywood (or similar) across the back. It is a nice piece of furniture suitable for any room in the house. I paid $25 at the local Goodwill as it was on sale. Craig'sList, Freecycle, and such, are great places to find furnitue that is suitable for the job. Don't be in a hurry, take a tape measure and inspect carefully. It took me about 2 months to find what I wanted.
Think about how different electricity charges are throughout the country. How different the ambient temperature is in the different regions of the USA. How some people pay for water (at different rates) and some have wells and don't pay. How different a fish only setup running a sponge filter and a reef tank are in terms of their electricity costs!
In other words, it's impossible to answer your question based on your tank size alone. You can use this formula:
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/fyi-your-info/4872-how-much-does-you-aquarium-cost-electricity.html
You can find out your kWh rate is on the electric bill. Don't use that national average rate, that post is from 2005.
+1 on that totally
Those are super cheap particle board stands, even my dresser is stronger than that stuff, lots of horrible reviews on petco and petsmarts websites. 2X4s are the way to go or you can do this......................
http://www.projectaquarium.com/plantedAquariumArticles_ADAAquariumStand.aspx
amazing link, I am building something like this for my 72G bow, the only prob is the bow part
I have one of those 75 gal. particle board stands from petsmart. I have had it up almost 3 yrs now, and it's doing just fine. I have had a couple major water spills with buckets before doing the hose deal, but so far, it;s holding up well.
I am cheap, so I build all my stands, or in the case of my 20 long, I removed a solid oak cabinet from my kitchen because it was in an awkward place, flipped it upside-down, put a piece of plywood on top, and it just happened to be the perfect size! My 40 breeder has a 2x4 and galvanized steel brace stand, stained a deep mahogany. It's kind of industrial, but it works and I like it.
Personally I think the Victorians knew what they were doing, when it came to safety and longetvitiy of weight-loading things.
Their basic rule of thumb was stress test it. design it to be strong enough ... and then double the strenght, that way it's fully secure.
Ok, so a tank might survive on a weaker tank, ... but, you have a mate lean on it, a little, and that's the straw on the camels back and ... boom, bad scenario.
also ... someone here suggested a 2x4 timber frame stand. I wanna do that! Does that person, or anyone else, have a recommended design for that? I think of a base frame size of around 2ft by 5ft maxmium, and 2ft off the ground, maybe 3ft. (I like it low). I need most help on how the joints should work - three bits of wood coming to gether need to be jointed correctly else the thing will collapse.
Their basic rule of thumb was stress test it. design it to be strong enough ... and then double the strenght, that way it's fully secure.
Ok, so a tank might survive on a weaker tank, ... but, you have a mate lean on it, a little, and that's the straw on the camels back and ... boom, bad scenario.
also ... someone here suggested a 2x4 timber frame stand. I wanna do that! Does that person, or anyone else, have a recommended design for that? I think of a base frame size of around 2ft by 5ft maxmium, and 2ft off the ground, maybe 3ft. (I like it low). I need most help on how the joints should work - three bits of wood coming to gether need to be jointed correctly else the thing will collapse.
I have one too ... and after three years I moved it ... I lifted of fthe tank, and everything looked fine ...
then I lifted the the cabinet by the end wings ... and ... the whole top piece came off ... at the back, below the top piece the joints were all swollen and crumbling, and the screws rusted in half. It was a miracle it hadn't collapsed. It might 'look' ok from viewing, but until you actually undo the thing, you won't know. Over three years, even the raised moisure level in the room can dissolve the glue and crumble the stuff. I'm never buying that stuff again. Good luck!
