Stand design thoughts

[LagunaGlide]

The wife and I really like this DIY table. Was thinking of making it into a stand, but wanted to get opinions. 240Gal reef setup. Sump and equipment will be in another room. I was thinking one brace in the middle front. 2 in the rear. A false back wall to hide the plumbing that will come out the bottom of aquarium. Thought maybe if could use 4x4 for the legs. Thoughts on this? Opinions on size wood I should use if I can do it. I'm not real sure how to design it properly.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Is it a new vintage look or just old timepiece? IMO I would not trust any furniture even with reinforcements especially on the size of your tank.. Sure it can be done since the legs all around look solid but the top section not so much. By the time your done cutting and adding you'll have a akward looking stand.

I would recommend to get some wood and create something that looks near close to this with the self and side X supports. Keep this stand for a TV or something why risk ruining it? Just my thoughts hope this helps

 

[Waters]

I second what he said :-)

 

[Fin]

I am not thinking I would want a ton (literally) of water sitting on that in my house. I agree @Ashish Patel, use it for inspiration and build something similar, but much beefier to carry the load.

 

[don_chuwish]

Way too weak across that front beam. It WILL fail.

 

[lbacha]

A 240g reef tank is 2400 lbs or more depending on your rock, sand bed, hood, etc. Many floors let alone wooden furniture are not designed to hold that. If you want that look I would suggest having a custom frame made out of 1"X1" inch steel (a lot of furniture uses this). I would then get it powder coated brown (most durable finish) or prime and paint it. You can then build the stand around this frame to look like the furniture you just showed. This is probably the only way to do it without using beefy 2x lumber.

Here is a end table I have with a 1"X1" powder coated steel frame. It has a small nano tank on it right now but I plan on putting a 24x24x18" tall on it

 

[redfishbluefish]

Build new and stain/varnish to look very similar. You can use this as a starting point for the frame.

Also, I would never use 4x4's to construct a stand. Typically center cut of the tree, and therefore very unstable (will twist, turn and warp).

 

[LagunaGlide]

Thanks for all the replies. I think maybe my intentions are not clear. That piece is inspiration. I was curious if there is a way I could design and build from scratch a stand what takes heavily from that piece. I was thinking adding a middle support in the front, and two in the rear. Then a "false wall" in the back to hide the plumbing that will come from the bottom of the tank.

 

[lbacha]

Thanks for all the replies. I think maybe my intentions are not clear. That piece is inspiration. I was curious if there is a way I could design and build from scratch a stand what takes heavily from that piece. I was thinking adding a middle support in the front, and two in the rear. Then a "false wall" in the back to hide the plumbing that will come from the bottom of the tank.

Since you are building from scratch I would still recommend a steel frame if you are going with that big of a tank. If you do tht then you cover it wood just like that piece of furniture. It will look like a nice light weight table but have all the strength you will ever need.