Help with my stand please, advice needed on construction

[jasonstan]

So I'm pretty much done building the stand for my tanks to go on, but have few ???'s for those who "actually" know what there doing vs me
joe the builder :wink:. So heres the stand as it is now

Heres my question, could I leave it as is or should I add the additional support beams I was going to originally add as well, they would go in the higlighted areas of the next picture.

So should the middle of the stand be just fine without the extra beams in the center. Or would I stand a risk of downward bowing once weight was added ?? This is my second attempt at a stand, and I've never had any training per say, so I'm looking for a little help on this one. Thnx

 

[killingseed2000]

what size of the tank and hieght of stand. for the most part it looks fine as is.

 

[killingseed2000]

for the most part i planed on not having a center brace and its close to what you did may not have as amny bords running across the bottom and top. i did use 2x6 for the top frame , i have no center braces and the stand will fit up to 180 4'x2'. most people dont give wood the credit in strangth wood deserves. but some of the cheep stand on pet smart and places like that are nothing compaired to using 2x4.

the most part is high as , i'd say 30" the stand can start to woble from to back. i did notice that a lot on my inwall tank stand but in that case the stand was fasened to some wall support beans which strangthened the front back motion of that one. that stand was made the same way as my other one but 6 foot long with center braces and the height was eye level.

 

[jasonstan]

The stand only has to support two tanks, one 24gallon and a 10gallon. Plus all the weight of Rock and sand of course. So about 300 to 350lbs give or take, and I'm over estimating on that guess. I think it'll be fine, just worried since I've only built one stand before this and it was kinda so so. Plus the top board the tank will sit on is going to be a piece of half inch MDF board (medium density fiberboard or I think thats what its called). Pretty dense stuff.

 

[Ian]

If a 24 & 10 is all you're putting on top, you're just fine. A center vertical brace in the front and back wouldn't hurt but probably isn't needed. MDF will rot away when it gets wet so Id use a nice ply for the top... HTH...

 

[killingseed2000]

ya, you fine with the weight, but the mdf i wouldnt do.

 

[cparka23]

Yeah, you don't want to be using MDF around water. It's made from wood pulp, so it'll soak up moisture like a sponge.

And I'd be careful about the top of the stand. It doesn't look like the horizontal pieces on the top are flush with the top. Maybe you should shim those before placing a ply top on it.

 

[jasonstan]

Thnx for all the replys so far, I got the stand upstairs w/ the help of a friend. And I won't be using the MDF board, for two reasons 1) as stated it would fall apart from any moisture 2) the guy at lowes cut the MDF board I had bought on a few days ago wrong lol his mistake is saving me future problems down the road I guess. I'll be picking up the new wood top today, then hopefully I'll get both tanks and stand setup tonight.