Am I providing enough reinforcement and support for my tank?

[newreeferontheblock]

Hey all -

Excited to be getting my first tank - a 40 g breeder. The wife and I have very limited (okay only 1) option of places to put it - on an existing built in wall unit in our living room. After some good advice on an earlier thread I have formulated a plan to reinforce it to hold the weight - would love your thoughts on if it is not enough / too much / just right:

The wall unit is here, it is against/built into a load bearing wall and 2x10 joists run perpendicular, 18" apart:

I have done some drawings on how the cabinet itself is currently supported and built below:

The top surface of shelf is supported by 2x3's and vertical dividers between cabinets 1&2 and 3&4. There is currently no support or vertical divider between the middle two cabinets. on the bottom, the full units is supported by two large beams that sit squarely over two joists in the middle of the cabinet. There are two 2x4 legs in the front of the cabinet, and there is a 3/4" piece that runs along the wall supporting 3 sides.

My plan:
If you've read this far, thank you.

I would like to do two things:
1 - Build a "deck" from 2x4s and a 3/4" plywood that would sit on top of the existing shelf. I envision it as a 2x4 square frame with one cross brace in the middle and the plywood covering the whole surface. This will give me some extra height on the tank, protect the cabinet surface, and ensure the weight is distributed
2- Add two box frames inside the cabinet in the front and back to provide additional vertical support. Not sure how big the wood needs to be for these, hoping to get away w/ 2x3's

Drawings of both below:

Does this seem sufficient? My main concern is that the unit weight isn't better distributed across more joists, but I would love to avoid ripping the baseboards out and replacing them (which is the only way I could add supports under the cabinet)

 

[blaxsun]

You should allow for 400lbs of weight in your calculations.

 

[ryanjohn1]

2nd the 400 lbs

 

[newreeferontheblock]

Thanks - Any good calculators out there? Based on some rules of thumb I believe the internal supports for the cabinets will be fine, but less clear on the joists themselves or the "legs"

 

[FishTruck]

The "king of DIY" provides some calculations on the weight bearing strength of 2 by 4s, screws, etc... which I found helpful.

 

[PotatoPig]

If this is a framed tank they’re designed to span from one end to the other. If you’re ever at the LFS and they have larger tanks on racks you’ll see they’re on little angles that hold them in place and bear only at each end. It looks a little frightening once you work out what’s happening but they’re designed for it.

What they’re not designed for is a center support with nominal end support (ie a vertical post in the middle of a

This means you will ideally provide a vertical support at each end, not at the middle. I’d be a little wary of it but if you can’t add in posts underneath then the way to ensure you have the tank supported at the corners vs the ends would be to have a small shim under each side providing full support to each corner.

 

[newreeferontheblock]

This makes sense. It is a rimmed tank so it seems like what I should do for my "deck" that the tank will rest on is have 4 cross supports with 2 on the ends of my shelf (to make sure I am distributing the weight out) and 2 where the tank is supposed end, and nothing in the very middle. That way the tank is completely supported under its four sides

 

[V A R I A N T]

I see you have 48” for the 40 breeder. I believe these are 36” long. 60 breeder is 48x18.

 

[newreeferontheblock]

I see you have 48” for the 40 breeder. I believe these are 36” long. 60 breeder is 48x18.

You're right - I looked at so many I mixed up the measurements. 36"