Cabinet Skeleton question

[Sebastiancrab]

When building a skeleton for your cabinet out of 2 by 4's do you have to have the lumber under all outside diameters of the aquarium? My plumbing is going inside and the back of cabinet will be larger than the footprint of the aquarium (rimless, low iron 40B). There are two middle supporting pieces and I plan to put half inch skin hobby wood on top. #reefsquad

 

[KrisReef]

When building a skeleton for your cabinet out of 2 by 4's do you have to have the lumber under all outside diameters of the aquarium? My plumbing is going inside and the back of cabinet will be larger than the footprint of the aquarium (rimless, low iron 40B). There are two middle supporting pieces and I plan to put half inch skin hobby wood on top. #reefsquad

If I read this correctly the answer on 2x4 directly under the footprint of your 40b, is not necessary.

A drawing might help folk catch other concerns that we might not be thinking about?

I presume From your description that your top may be 1/2” plywood?

A drawing :) could improve the answers you might get here.

 

[Idoc]

A 40b tank fully loaded with water, rock, sand, etc... may be pushing around 400-450lbs. It would possibly be ok to not have all 4 tank corners during directly on underlying vertical supports as long as you had a thick top under the tank. Shoot, there are some engineers who talk of structural integrity of wood and day that even 3/4" sides without additional supports can hold 120+ gal tanks. But, do you feel comfortable with it? That's the question.

The big thing isn't just the stand structure breaking down. Another thing you don't want is sagging of the top from weight over time that can produce stress points on the tank's seams... and then lead to failure.

The stand can be constructed with the supports under the tank corners directly with room behind the tank for the pipes to go down through the stand top and still be hidden. Look at my build thread at the stand build section... that's how i did it. I have 6" behind the tank with full support under the tank. This is is nice cuz it gives you more room in the sump area under the tank and allows easy access behind the tank.