Stand Made Out Of Breeze Blocks

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We went down to the builders( or whatever they are called lol) today to pick out some breeze blocks for the stand needed for our 260 gallon tank(yes i have changed the size to 7ft x24 x30 (wide),due to having work space at the side of the tank).We looked at some lightweight celcon breeze blocks,and the more robust kind,but the more robust kind were smaller and they wouldn't quite fit how we would want them to.The lightweight celcon ones were bigger and they were suited to the job,but i had doubts that they would hold the tank as they were quite crumbly(some were chipped at the site,while the other breeze blocks wernt).This tank is going to roughly weigh 2600 pounds + .We went into the shop and the guy said o0h yeh that will be fine,but i had doubts because obvously he doesn't know the weight of water a filled aquariums.So anyway we went ahead with it and said we will probably pick some up tommorow.But my dad was actually looking for robust breeze blocks with the holes in the middle,as he thought they were simialer priced,lightweight but much stronger.Ofcourse they didn't have any .So tommorow (hopefully) we are going out to check out another shop for them.But what i really want is someones opinion on what kind of breeze block would be best.And we still need to get a wooden top to go on top.This is what i found on ebay-http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Large-Oak-Timber-Boards-Planks-200x50x2500mm-8ft-3_W0QQitemZ120102722277QQcategoryZ112570QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Looks good to you?
O and the plans for the stand are now(due to the sie of breeze blocks) to have-

 

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Nugde*I still need help..

 

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Nugde*I still need help..

Hi, just to give you some help on these blocks, I used to run the technical department of a national manufacturer of these things.

In compression, that is putting them on the floor and piling weight on top, they are very strong. The weakest you can buy will be 2.8 Newtons per square millimeter. A bit of maths says if you take the standard size block and lay it flat (which from your drawing is what you intend) so it is 440mm x 215mm in plan it will fail at a load of 440 x 215 x 2.8 = 264,880 Newtons or about 27 tonnes. Of course thats the load it will fail at so to be safe you need a much lower load but even if you use a factor of 10 (pretty conservative) you can still put 2700kg or 5,940 pounds on a block (or pile of blocks) arranged this way.

So the weight in itself is not a problem, what you need to do though is spread the load across the block, remember we build houses, offices even factories out of these things and when we do we use mortar, one of the things the mortar does is to spread the load evenly over the block. This is why people have died standing their cars on these things and then going underneath. The blocks will take the weight if it is spread evenly but if it is loaded at a point by the back axle or something it just snaps the block in half, bricks behave much the same way.

So make sure you spread the load evenly over the blocks, either build it like a building with mortar or use something to spread the load and they will be far stronger than you need. It's not very different to putting an aquarium on polystyrene to spread the load, if you stand one on a pointy piece of gravel and fill it up it breaks!

Some of this is a bit simplified but it's quite technical enough for what you are doing!

Incidentally bearing in mind the poor floor you are planning to stand this thing on maybe the very light aerated concrete blocks are the way to go or your stand could be almost as heavy as your tank!

 

[T1KARMANN]

im not a builder but are they they blocks with holes in the middle if so you can fill the holes with cement and it will make them alot stronger

 

[BigC]

Hi,
Yeah as T1 above, there are double blocks with either holes or packed with insulation, remove the insulation and fill with concrete if you are overly concerned.
I used breeze blocks for stands in my fish - house on a kind of stepped system 3 tiers. so as I could access all three heights of tanks.
http/www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview...eeze_blocks.jpg
Regards
BigC

 

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Thanks for your help guys, but when I bought the 270gal it came with a stand.I'm sure this will help me out in future reference though.