What kind of stand needed?

[Raven22]

Hi all, how are you all? Ok i am away to place a order for a tabk to be built by a tank shop, the tank will be 5ft long, 2ft wide and 3ft high. Now the question i have is what kind of stand will i need to hold the tank? Wood or steel frame? It will around 850 uk litres. The reason for this size of tank is i have a space in my living room and would like the fish tank to fill it in. Thanks in advance.

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

I don't know if iron/steel stands are made for this large a tank. But one option is to make your own stand from concrete (cinder) blocks. The tank sits on a thick sheet of plywood or particle board (1 inch thickness for this tank) which is laid across 2 by 4's that run across the blocks. You could then for aesthetics build a cabinet around the blocks. I absolutely would not trust this weight to wood alone.

To show you what I am thinking of, here is a photo of my 4-foot 70g. You would build the cabinet facing around it in a living room; I have my tanks in a dedicated fish room so I don't care much how they look aesthetically, just so they don't upset. I will say though that if I were doing this over, I would angle the blocks. This tank has been sitting here for 8 years with no issues, but angling the blocks does provide even more support/sturdiness. The photo of my bank of smaller tanks shows what I mean by angling the blocks.

 

[NickAu]

What sort of floor will this be sitting on. When you include glass, substrate and Besser Blocks thats close to 1000 KG.

 

[Byron]

Nick raises a good point I had forgotten since I was thinking of the stand itself. I have a rancher home that sits on a concrete slab so weight of fish tanks is no concern at all. But this heavy a tank is not possible with many types of construction, such as frame. You would need to be on the ground on a concrete slab, or in a building where the floors are reinforced concrete.

 

[Lateral Line]

The floor that is to be under the tank should be your first consideration. A solid concrete floor is a different situation to floor boards over joists. A tank that size will be heavy. My ground floor was easy, solid concrete, no problem with my tanks, but my breeder setup, ie. 4 36 x 24 x 24, was in an upstairs unused bedroom. Steel base across the load bearing joists.