Will My Stand Hold Up?

[rowdyreefing]

Hi Guys,

I had my friend who is a lifelong professional welder by trade weld a stand for me. The stand will be supporting my new 84"x36"x25"tall tank (330g). The stand is sturdy and heavy with 2" tubing. My only question is in regards to no bottom support, will this lead to the stand failing? Do the bottom supports serve much structural purpose? The welder claims it will hold 4,000lbs no problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks!

 

[G Santana]

I am no welder nor engineer however I would insist on cross supports. I'm not saying it won't hold all I can say is that every steel framed tank I have seen has been supported all the way around.

 

[Octane13]

Although I am not a professional welder I do have a similar style stand for a small tank. I would only suggest maybe some gussets in the corners to prevent shifting weight. Mine shakes a little bit when cleaning the glass aggressively (Structurally I believe its fine just a little unnerving).

 

[Chrisv.]

Although I am not a professional welder I do have a similar style stand for a small tank. I would only suggest maybe some gussets in the corners to prevent shifting weight. Mine shakes a little bit when cleaning the glass aggressively (Structurally I believe its fine just a little unnerving).

That would freak me out!

 

[Octane13]

The stand is sturdy and heavy with 2" tubing.

Do you know the wall thickness? I assume 0.25

 

[mfinn]

Without any cross support, this stand would make me nervous.
While it will, no doubt, support several thousand pounds straight down, any movement in the floor ( floors can shift over time), not being perfectly level in the beginning, etc.
I would insist on some sort of gussets.
Plus with all the weight focused on the small areas of the legs, what kind of damage is going to happen to the floor?

Having a welded steel stand would be in my opinion the ultimate upgrade in stands. I would want a few changes on this one.

 

[Tamberav]

If it were me, I would want the bottom added to mirror the top. Honestly it also gives a platform to build a wood bottom on to place the sump and shelving or whatever.

I also would rather have the whole bottom a frame instead of legs which would have pressure points on the floor. Even concrete still has to hold up.

Also we’re there any sort of lean or unlevel over time.. even if the cause is the floor and not the stand… it would put all that extra stress on the leg.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I Would not want a stand like that without a bottom brace, for one it looks unfinished and not saying it would , but could lean at some point. I wouldn't be all that hard to add the bracing.

 

[landlubber]

no way would i put a large tank on a table style stand like that. tell buddy to finish the bottom like the top and you're fine.

 

[rowdyreefing]

Thanks for all of the feedback. Just spoke with the welder, we are going to use angle iron around the perimeter to act as a tie between all the legs.

 

[kenbennedy]

I'm in the "makes me nervous" camp. A variety of things could induce a side load on a leg (or any load not perfectly aligned with the leg), as mentioned above. On paper it is for sure strong enough for the weight, but I would sleep better with more stiffness or support at the bottom of the legs.

 

[slythy]

I dont know the Wall thickness of the material but 330g is a lot of weight, Im glad you are tying the legs together because they are going to want to slide out or slip. I would not trust it as is. Look up Planet aquariums metal stands, I would replicate that.

 

[attiland]

Hi Guys,

I had my friend who is a lifelong professional welder by trade weld a stand for me. The stand will be supporting my new 84"x36"x25"tall tank (330g). The stand is sturdy and heavy with 2" tubing. My only question is in regards to no bottom support, will this lead to the stand failing? Do the bottom supports serve much structural purpose? The welder claims it will hold 4,000lbs no problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks!

By looking at it it will hold up but as soon as gets sideways push would just sit down like a giraffe...
You need support for the legs to keep their distance on the floor and and support to keep the shape something like this:

 

[workhz]

Add me to the list of not liking it. It’s one thing to build something that you can change later and a whole different thing when you build something to carry a 3k weight (basically a car).

Mind you, my 4 post lift which does carry a car is on 4 posts (legs) but the base on the bottom of the legs is 18”x18” or so and the whole thing is constructed with quite a bit more metal.

I don’t even like your angle iron idea as you still have tiny contact points. Not sure how and where you plan on shimming things but having an area to shim under the stand would be helpful also.

Just do it right ....

 

[rowdyreefing]

Add me to the list of not liking it. It’s one thing to build something that you can change later and a whole different thing when you build something to carry a 3k weight (basically a car).

Mind you, my 4 post lift which does carry a car is on 4 posts (legs) but the base on the bottom of the legs is 18”x18” or so and the whole thing is constructed with quite a bit more metal.

I don’t even like your angle iron idea as you still have tiny contact points. Not sure how and where you plan on shimming things but having an area to shim under the stand would be helpful also.

Just do it right ....

I’m going to talk to the welder about more support. I have adjustable feet now, so don’t plan on shimming.

 

[Soren]

Hi Guys,

I had my friend who is a lifelong professional welder by trade weld a stand for me. The stand will be supporting my new 84"x36"x25"tall tank (330g). The stand is sturdy and heavy with 2" tubing. My only question is in regards to no bottom support, will this lead to the stand failing? Do the bottom supports serve much structural purpose? The welder claims it will hold 4,000lbs no problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks!

Bottom supports would prevent the legs from ever slipping away from each other and adding moment or side load and would be safe, but I am not certain if they would be necessary or not. As you have it designed with leveling feet, this will concentrate the load onto smaller points, so more floor structure will be absolutely essential to take point-loads rather than distributed load.

You should not need to add full diagonal cross-braces, although they are the safest option. Simple corner gussets in the corners under the top frame should be sufficient and would be cheaper, less welding, and block less access than full diagonals.

Steel fabrication done right is not much like making a stand out of wood. There will be quite a bit of stiffness from the welded joints that is not present with wood stands (even if both glued and fastened). I have not done analysis on your dimensions and total estimated weight to stake my name behind saying your stand will work as it is, but it does not look far off workable. I work as a structural design engineer and have some general ideas of what seems dangerous versus within a factor of safety. I would still recommend gusseting and some tie between legs to prevent shifting to be on the safe side with this much load, especially considering the lives and cost at stake.

I don't disagree that many of the above suggestions are extra precautions to minimize risk as much as possible, but it all depends on how much risk you are willing to take versus how difficult or compromising the design change would be. One observation from my learning experience as a structural engineer is that most people (myself included) will tend to have no real grasp on the strength of steel and welds from "intuitive" guesses. We tend to be much more "intuitively" familiar with strength of wood and plastic instead.

 

[rowdyreefing]

Bottom supports would prevent the legs from ever slipping away from each other and adding moment or side load and would be safe, but I am not certain if they would be necessary or not. As you have it designed with leveling feet, this will concentrate the load onto smaller points, so more floor structure will be absolutely essential to take point-loads rather than distributed load.

You should not need to add full diagonal cross-braces, although they are the safest option. Simple corner gussets in the corners under the top frame should be sufficient and would be cheaper, less welding, and block less access than full diagonals.

Steel fabrication done right is not much like making a stand out of wood. There will be quite a bit of stiffness from the welded joints that is not present with wood stands (even if both glued and fastened). I have not done analysis on your dimensions and total estimated weight to stake my name behind saying your stand will work as it is, but it does not look far off workable. I work as a structural design engineer and have some general ideas of what seems dangerous versus within a factor of safety. I would still recommend gusseting and some tie between legs to prevent shifting to be on the safe side with this much load, especially considering the lives and cost at stake.

I don't disagree that many of the above suggestions are extra precautions to minimize risk as much as possible, but it all depends on how much risk you are willing to take versus how difficult or compromising the design change would be. One observation from my learning experience as a structural engineer is that most people (myself included) will tend to have no real grasp on the strength of steel and welds from "intuitive" guesses. We tend to be much more "intuitively" familiar with strength of wood and plastic instead.

Thank for this. This is very informative. I will push for gussets as well as the leg tie. The adjustable feet will be sitting on LVP vinyl floor in my basement. So I don’t think there’s too much to worry about for support, other than indentions in the vinyl, correct?

 

[Wyvern]

If that was me, perimeter bottom ties all legs together, add 4 more straight legs- between existing ones.

Weight is coming straight down, vertical support will be more efficient, the lower perimeter will prevent lateral movement.
Install gussets to all 4 corners top and bottom to further reduce lateral stress.

I would trust that with an immense load.

I fabricate stuff for the fleet I work for, simple designs are often the best- I rebuilt my rotted out frame with a similar approach.

Downside to this design is sump removal will have to come from the side.

Please note, this was drawn on my phone, not cad

 

[workhz]

Glad you clarified that wasn’t a cad drawing.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Hi Guys,

I had my friend who is a lifelong professional welder by trade weld a stand for me. The stand will be supporting my new 84"x36"x25"tall tank (330g). The stand is sturdy and heavy with 2" tubing. My only question is in regards to no bottom support, will this lead to the stand failing? Do the bottom supports serve much structural purpose? The welder claims it will hold 4,000lbs no problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks!

The bottom definitely needs supporting like the top in your picture provided, the legs will open/ splay out/ will just split like a gymnast, turn this picture upside down then ask if it can support your aquarium, turn this structure upside down then ask yourself, could this support my aquarium, load bearing is your aquarium, weight bearing is support