steel aquarium stand

[Ryan Kouns]

Hello fellow hobbyist
I'm new to the form, I'm looking for some help.

I'm going to build a steel stand for a 115 gal reef tank. My plan is to have supports on all 4 corners of course then support bridges across the top and bottom. I'm going to have 3/4 inch plywood across the top for the tank to sit on as well as the bottom for the stand to rest of on top of.

Do you think 1 inch 16 gauge steel is going to be able to hold the load?

Ryan

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R Ryan and thanks for joining. I'm not a steel guy so I can't help directly, but I'm sure someone will respond to assist.

 

[Swoody]

I would use sched 40 2” box tube and never have a concern. But I’m a “overkill “ type!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R!

I too would go 2" in the legs and primary horizontal supports at least, the 1" could probably be used as secondary horizontal supports and as structure for shelves, power strips, etc.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Ryan Kouns]

Thanks to all of you for the feed back its greatly appreciated.

Ill go with 2 inch to be safe, should I do more than just the 4 corners for supporting legs?

 

[Swoody]

I would center a leg in the back and gusset all corners. Alot of tank manufacturers that build their own stands have really nice pics on their web sights you could look at to get some idea of the type of bracing that they use. (AGE aquariums, CTC, etc...)

 

[Greybeard]

Mine is 1.5" 11 gauge square tube. Sand blasted the scale off, and powder coated. Holding 140 gallons, strong enough to support much more than that.

Initial design:

Completed (so far)

I'm still planning to add bookshelf inserts, eventually... something like this, to fit under the tank