Help on steel stand for my tank

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

I have a 250g glass tank I am building a steel stand here are the measurements The tank is 64"L x 30"W and I want the stand 43 1/2"H what material do I need and welds ect.
Thank you.

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

I have a 250g tank I am making a steel stand here is the measurements The tank is 64"L x 30"W and I want the stand 43 1/2"H what materials do I need? Welds gages ect.
Thank you

 

[fab]

Do you plan on using standard mild steel or stainless steel?

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

Do you plan on using standard mild steel or stainless steel?

What ever is better I'm kinda in the dark with materials

 

[fab]

Saltwater rusts steel... fast. It gets ugly. Stainless steel resists rust very well. Even if it does stain a bit it is usually very, very minor and not at all unsightly. For our purposes the two types of steel will provide about the same strength...a lot.

With steel you can make a very "true" welded frame. In my stainless steel frame, 8 ft long matched length frame members are within 1 mm of each other. Every 90° angle is spot on. The top is a perfect plane. Using leveling feet, I have the top surface as level as I can measure its levelness with a four ft long bubble level. It measures level in both directions across its entire surface, left-right and front-back. You can't get that with wood.


With wood you will have much thicker frame members than with steel, but it will not rust. It could rot in spots and weaken, though.

My frame is made of 2" square stainless steel tubing. That is the best structural shape to build a frame with in my opinion. You could use angle iron or channel iron. Square cross-section tubing is stronger and looks much better.

Across its 8 ft length it has four legs front and back, a total of 8 legs. Structural analysis confirmed it has an ample safety factor of well over 4 for static loading and plenty enough safety factor for the worst case dynamic loading I analysed, which was a pretty severe all-axes simoultaneously, dynamic load scenario.

If you use mild steel and paint it, you will compromise any rust protection the paint provides if you ever nick or chip the paint, much less if you ever drill the frame. Successful rust prevention is extremely difficult to achieve and to maintain. Once a tiny bit of saltwater gets underneath the paint it will rust the frame. The rust will spread and lift the paint off as it progresses. You will not see this happening in till the paint starts chipping off. Then you will wish you had used stainless steel.

If you use stainless steel, you will not have these problems. You will not even have to paint the stand. You will need to use measures to avoid galvanic corrosion. For instance if you screw into or bolt through the stand you must do one of two things. You can use stainless steel screws and bolts or you can used nylon spacers and nylon shoulder washers to assure that you do not allow two dissimilar metals to touch each other. The latter method is much less desireable as the bolts and screws will be prone to rust if they are not stainless steel themselves. I definitely prefer steel stands way, way over wooden ones.

This is a starter set of info for you. Hope this enables you to move forward. Good luck.

 

[nhat]

Make sure you do powder coat on them. love my steel stand!

 

[JOKER]

I used 2" x 2" x 1/4" steel tubing for my stand. I used adjustable feet I found on grainger rated for 2000 # each I think so I could level as needed. I welded mine with a mig welder, and had it powder coated.

 

[143MPCo]

This is the one I made, it's made from hot rolled square tube 1.5" x 0.1875-wall thinness, it has 12-1/2" grade-8 nuts welded to the stand, the 1/2" grade-8 bolts for leveling it.

I made my stand from 3/16" iron fortified structure mild steel... The end are 45'd on all 4 corners, not box end to end and plate covered, this means the top and bottom frames are one continuance piece and can support a greater load requiring less metal. However sense we like to make waves in our tanks (no pun intended;)) and 90% of the time they run side to side, I placed 6 triangulated gussets two 24" long on the back and four 10" long on the front, yes it's a little over kill with metal that's that thick but, piece of mind is what I shooting.

A little illustration, hope this might help explain what I mean a little better, red lines are weld area.

You can see that on the triangulated ends you are welding all eight sides as opposed to boxed that only weld to one side.

The bolts and nuts for feet...

Close up..

 

[Uliulimaka]

2x2 1/4" wall mild steel tubing works fine. Just powder coat the stand afterwards.

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

Thank you for your info

 

[Paul B]

I personally would not build anything tank related out of plain steel. Here is a picture of a leg on my tank after about 35 years. The one on the left of it is one I added to shore up the rusted leg. Those legs are "Kindorf" and are very resistant to rusting as they are hot dipped galvanized. We use them for virtually everything in construction. I chose brackets instead of welding because of the fact that welding would ruin the galvanizing. A steel stand will rust badly where the stant meets the bottom of the tank as water will get in there and never get out. So it depends on how long you want it to last. I changed 3 galvanized legs so far. I would assume a regular steel stand will rust badly in 20 years or so. Just my opinion of course.
If you powder coat it like the last poster, it should last much longer than regular steel

 

[Uliulimaka]

Yeah, that's why powder coating is a must. Or poly coating works too.

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

I personally would not build anything tank related out of plain steel. Here is a picture of a leg on my tank after about 35 years. The one on the left of it is one I added to shore up the rusted leg. Those legs are "Kindorf" and are very resistant to rusting as they are hot dipped galvanized. We use them for virtually everything in construction. I chose brackets instead of welding because of the fact that welding would ruin the galvanizing. A steel stand will rust badly where the stant meets the bottom of the tank as water will get in there and never get out. So it depends on how long you want it to last. I changed 3 galvanized legs so far. I would assume a regular steel stand will rust badly in 20 years or so. Just my opinion of course.
If you powder coat it like the last poster, it should last much longer than regular steel

So would stainless steel be better

 

[michaelrc51]

So would stainless steel be better

Absolutely but there are different grades. You would want the most pure stainless but it won't be cheap and you need to use the same grade stainless for your welds.
Your best and most economical bet is a steel stand powder coated. 2"x 2", 1/4" wall like has been suggested is very high strength and can support much higher loads than a big tank will require.
Only thing I would suggest is adding multiple adjustable feet, not just 1 on each corner, this will help distribute the load across your floor instead of just 4 points.

 

[fab]

316 stainless steel is the most rust resistant. It is the best stainless steel for saltwater applications. You must TIG weld it with the right weld material so the welds do not compromise the resistance to saltwater. It will not rust in your lifetime if done right. It is expensive, but permanent. It is a proper solution, not just a hedge. And it ain't cheap.

 

[Shredded]

Here is mine, completed today, for my 300 gallon. 2X4 3/8 in SS steel, powder coated in white with red Pearl. Total cost 1650.00

 

[michaelrc51]

Here is mine, completed today, for my 300 gallon. 2X4 3/8 in SS steel, powder coated in white with red Pearl. Total cost 1650.00

Good lord!
I am a big fan of over doing structural stuff but that stand could support 10k lbs easy!
Must weigh a ton at 3/8" wall thickness SS.

What grade SS?

 

[Shredded]

It's just 304. Couldn't afford more. The powder coating is rated at 1000 hours of salt spray. The front is showing, but the back is completely open, no center support for total access. I wanted to make sure there was no deflection what so ever once the tank was in place. Good guess, the company that made it said they would guarantee it up to 10,000 lbs. It's not awful, it weighs in at about 450 lbs.

 

[michaelrc51]

It's just 304. Couldn't afford more. The powder coating is rated at 1000 hours of salt spray. The front is showing, but the back is completely open, no center support for total access. I wanted to make sure there was no deflection what so ever once the tank was in place. Good guess, the company that made it said they would guarantee it up to 10,000 lbs. It's not awful, it weighs in at about 450 lbs.

That was an educated guess. It will support well north of 10k lbs.

Well, I don't think you will have to worry about deflection. SS is very rigid and doesn't bend much before it breaks. Seeing as you coated the stand I don't think you'll ever have any rust issues.
Definitely a bit overkill but it can't hurt......

Nice stand!

 

[Shredded]

Thank you! It's actually better in person. The sump is Royal Exclusiv and so naturally going with the red and white theme. The white powder on this stand is covered with irredescent red pearl. When the light hits it the red shines thru. Really a cool look.