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stand for small tank,


anthony law

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if you want to "over engineer" it just make the uprights double studs (2 70x45) screwed together. cross bracing will be the most important factor of it to stop it twisting or racking. It will take plenty of framing though, what's your budget for materials?

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if you want to "over engineer" it just make the uprights double studs (2 70x45) screwed together. cross bracing will be the most important factor of it to stop it twisting or racking. It will take plenty of framing though, what's your budget for materials?

it will be brace to the wall of the shed

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Mr Law being a bit of a joker, I did wonder if it were a piss-take of Henwards recent thread about using 25mm steel for a 2000L stand....

:lol:

You could build a stand for that tank out of 1x1's if you had enough of them, I don't see why you couldn't use 3x2 if its good quality (#1 or MSG8, not the merch grade fence railing that are full of knots), but it would require more support than heavier timber. How high do you want the stand? If you're not concerned with putting stuff under it and only want it 3-500 high then I'd think about doing something like this;

DSC05245Medium.jpg

Make a couple of frames (I went overboard with the number of joists), and stack them on top of each other. Doesn't use much more timber than the traditional "legs" style if you're only building a low stand, and far simpler and sturdier. Again, use good machine gauged timber, not the cheapo rough sawn stuff that isn't dimensionally accurate (learned that the hard way and the above stand ended up becoming a raised garden edge...).

Alternately look at using cinder blocks and steel or timber beams. Plenty of good ideas in the DIY Stands forum on MFK for massive tanks.

*edit* ps. where's the pics of the tank?! All glass or DIY? Take it tank is being built on site also?

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Cinder blocks and beams would be a good option then, could even cement them in place with reobar in them for extra stability. Otherwise if you're building a timber stand that high I'd use something a little sturdier than 3x2, probably 6x2 for the frame under the tank, and either double 4x2 or 6x2 for legs.

I'm not familiar with your 12' tank, is it a ply box with fibreglass to waterproof it and a big glass/acrylic window?

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Cool tank, is it ex-Napier Aquarium or did you make it? I seem to recall them having a few like that out back, one with a massive paroon shark in it.....

I wouldn't use 12mm glass for those windows, even if they are at the top part of the tank, and especially if you're keeping big fish in there. You could use acrylic if you're not worried about the scratching, but it does need to be considerably thicker than glass of equivalent size to have the same strength. It can also bow more than glass as it is more flexible, so while you may be able to get away with XX thickness structurally, you may find the bowing/deflection annoying as it distorts your view. Better to go thicker than what is "just needed" IMO, glass or acrylic.

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