Diy Tank Stand, Do You Think It Will Be Ok?

[mini_matt]

tank stand for my 100l tank

do you think it looks strong enough? It's really heavy and feels sturdy enough just want some thoughts on the construction mainly cheers

 

[bitteraspects]

is this the bottom view of the stand?

 

[mini_matt]

yes mate sorry this is the underside, just to show how its built

 

[Knox213]

Looks good enough!

ask around though

 

[bitteraspects]

is it just the brackets and glue holding it together, or is the wood actually screwed together?

if you have screws in the top holing the legs on, then i think youre fine as far as the vertical pressure. though id be a little concerned about sheering. because the ply on the sides is only connected to the legs and not the base, its not really providing much in the way of crossbracing. but again, its only a 100L tank, and 2x4 is extremely strong. ive built simple 2x4 box stands similar to this for 150g tanks, and it had no problems, so you may just be fine with how it is now.
i would suggest keeping it against a wall though.

 

[mini_matt]

the back and sides are glued and screwed the legs are glued and have the brakets screwed on, wasn't sure if I should screw the legs to the top or not if it will make it loads stronger then I will go buy some really big long screws tomorow and go through the top thats glued on atm

oh yeah and it is going against the wall

 

[OldMan47]

If you have a few screws between the legs and the sheets of plywood and also tying the top frame to the plywood, you could drive a truck over that thing. In the UK you could drive a lorry over it too. The 2x3 lumber is very strong when it comes to holding the load vertically and the plywood would force the load to only be applied vertically. If you remove the various brackets, it will not even affect the strength. Those are appropriately named shelf brackets. They are only strong enough to hold up a lightly loaded shelf. By tying the legs to each other with pieces of plywood, you prevent the legs from bending at all. By then tying in the top frame you force the legs and the top to maintain a stiff and inflexible relationship between them. The top itself can also add to the stiffness of the whole structure if the top shelf is screwed to the top frame but it would stand perfectly well if the top shelf was just laid across the frame. The only thing that I can see that would be even stronger, and is probably not needed, is to set the top frame boards on edge instead of laying the boards flat. I like to have the boards of the top laying across the support legs so that I do not need to rely on the screws actually holding up any weight at all, but have built a few where the boards did not hod up the top without being screwed on. I do that mostly for small tank stands, under 30 gallon size or so. Any bigger thqan that and I want the support leg under both the faces and the ends of the top frame.