Aqueon pine stand modification

[mjw011689]

Hopefully someone here knows… I’ve got an aqueon 125 with pine stand. I’m having trouble getting a sump in this thing. Long story short, I modified the stand to have a butcher block top that the tank sits on, and in doing so, I took away my only option for inserting a sump of any decent size (it would’ve had to go through the top). The doors are not big enough to put anything larger than like a 10 gallon in there.

My question is, if I add some temporary supports inside, can I knock out one of the upright pieces that the door hinges screw into? I’ll try to post a pic here to show what I’m working with, but my theory is that the temporary supports inside would actually be stronger than whatever that board is supporting anyways.

This would open up the front plenty for me to get a sump in there.

 

[mjw011689]

So this is the stand in question with a couple of doors removed. This was the day I was transferring everything into it so disregard the incomplete look.

But if I remove one of those uprights, will there be any issue with structure? I will have a 2x6 in there to make up for it being removed, but it will be placed about a foot to the right of the door brace