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Need help building stand for 630 gallon!

Thai

Members
Purchased a monster tank off craigslist and before I move it to my house I need to build a stand for it, does anyone want to help me or build a DIY stand and I'll pay for materials and your labor of course! Posting here in the lounge since it's a high traffic area.

Tank is 96"x42"x36" all glass, starfire on front and back!

Thanks,
Thai
 

Thai

Members
D2F8C4F8-37DE-4796-86A0-E293603BDA46-10632-00000DB468D1005D.jpg

8AC8B8C6-F035-4919-BFF8-C422DE124A29-10632-00000DB46FBF1E49.jpg
 

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
Too cool for school

I'd put considerable thought into this before proceeding - several options, bears serious thinking about what effect you want to create as far as ambience when it's finished because it's definitely going to dominate any space it's in short of a gallery with 20' ceilings. A low pedestal with a high/broad wrap around step would for instance possibly make your life much easier....

F-ing awesome tank- I wouldn't put a fish larger than 8"-10" in it myself because fact is you could have a veritable underwater jungle with a lot of different species rather than just a few open-mouthed marauders..

Know it's gauche but I have to ask; ¿Cuanto cuesta?
 

Thai

Members
Any suggestions would be appreciated, I'm not very inclined with tools or anything, I wouldn't want the stand to be higher or maybe even as high as the current one it is on, which sadly doesn't come with the tank.

And avatar it was 2000 for the tank only
 

YSS

Members
Awesome tank and that's a great price for a tank that size. Good luck building the stand and post pics when the tank is stocked!
 

JasonC

Members
Go to a machine shop and have them engineer/fabricate you a steel stand. Considering how much you paid for the tank, I would imagine this would be a pittance in comparison... and I don't even want to think of how much support you would need to do this in all wood substructure. Take the steel frame and wrap with furniture grade ply and trim out. Stain, seal, happy, happy.

Freaking ridiculous tank btw... cant wait to see it up!
 

Hawkman2000

Members
An LVL frame should be more than enough to support the tank.

However - 630 Gallons (US) = 5,257.5163889 Pounds

I would be worried about the floor you are setting it up on. That much weight, even on a foundation slab, can cause serious dammage.

Where are you planning on setting it up?
 

Thai

Members
It would be on floor level of my townhouse which is on a slab, you think that much weight can damage it?
 

Avatar

Plenipotentiary-at-large
Oh yeah

Definitely, but no worries, I'll give you twenty cents on the dollar for it. :D

Talk to Tony - he's the concrete guy. I suspect you should be fine - a modest stone/brick chimney weights way more than three tons.
 

dogofwar

CCA Members
Simplest approach would be concrete blocks with a decorative facade (front) to align with your decor. You could hide sump, etc. underneath. You could do the same with wood but that will take a lot more skill...

A custom metal stand would also be an option (and there are folks on here who do that kind of work)...

Matt
 
man that is a beast of a tank.. cant wait to see pics of the finalized product. i do agree with the idea of a low pedestal type stand but i am sure whatever you will just make that tank look even better
 

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Definitely an awesome pickup. Congrats!

Regarding the integrity of your concrete SOG (slab on grade), if it were my house, I wouldn't worry so much.

In saying this, I have to give a disclaimer. I have a structural civil engineering degree and work in commercial concrete construction, but am not a professional engineer. I work in construction management and haven't done any real structural calcs since college. This is only my opinion and if you are really concerned, I encourage you to check with a registered PE.

That being said, check out this article: http://www.structuremag.org/article.aspx?articleID=613

Give it a thorough read. There are tables towards the bottom of the page. For a townhouse basement, you likely have a 4" unreinforced slab ("unreinforced" meaning only wire mesh for crack control and no rebar).

You aren't going to be able to know what the soil bearing was under the slab, so consider the lowest listed value of 50 pci (pressure in psi per inch of soil deformation). For residential, consider your concrete to be 3,000 psi.

So in your case, refer to "Table 1 - 4 inch slab." These tables are used for tabulating allowable steel column loads on the slab in kips (1 kip = 1,000 lb). For the largest distributed load condition - a 16" square baseplate, the slab will support 17 kips. Your tank is much, much larger than a 16" baseplate, so the loading is more distributed.

So yeah, if it were my house, I wouldn't be worried, but it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion from a PE.

Good luck and certainly keep us posted. :happy0180:
 

Thai

Members
Got a close friend to agree to undertake the task! We should be up and running in a month or two since I also have to design the filtration and plumbing
 

Hawkman2000

Members
Good info tony. It's just that it was the 4th thing to pop into my head when I saw the pic of the tank.

HOLY !@#$ THAT THING IS HUGE !

**** thats a nice tank.

I want that tank.

I wonder how much it'll way when its full...
 

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Thanks! Now who has any experience with large filtration systems!?

;)

I'd definitely go DIY sump (with some monster pumps).

What kind of bioload are you thinking? Are you in a position to run auto-water changing (close to a drain)?
 
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