Beetle kill pine stand V2.0

[Jscwerve]

Hello all,

In my other thread I made a stand for my 60 gallon that was going to be my display tank. Plans have changed and I've relegated that tank to being our freshwater tank for the house and picked up a 125 gallon for the saltwater. I made this out of similar wood so that the two pieces would match. Being that this stand was SO MUCH larger, I did not want to have the removable front as my other one has. I put two decent sized doors to be able to access everything.

The tank originally came with a 2x4 style stand. It was a good start, but over a 6' span, there was no vertical bracing, therefore it had sagged and needed some attention (or maybe not, but I'm paranoid). I added center support and shimmed the ply to be in contact with the rim of the stand all the way around. The pictures of it being shimmed is just the start of the process, there are about 2x+ shims actually used.

Tank with space:

Shimming the plywood:

Finishing up the stand:

 

[halmus]

Nicely done.

If you're paranoid, we're both in the same boat! I think you did the right thing bracing the center. Not having the center of the stand in contact with the base of the tank like that would freak me out.

 

[Jscwerve]

Nicely done.

If you're paranoid, we're both in the same boat! I think you did the right thing bracing the center. Not having the center of the stand in contact with the base of the tank like that would freak me out.

It was the center brace, and what I thought was important was the bracing along the bottom rim being in contact with the plywood.

I did read a lot that said as long as the corners are well supported you didn't really have to worry about support along the length, but that just didn't make sense to me so I made sure I didn't have to worry about it. If I hadn't, I would literally lose sleep over it.

I'm awakened in the middle of the night with visions of 125 gallons of saltwater bursting onto my less-than-year-old Brazilian hardwood floors.

 

[SkyShark]

Great build! Increasing the bracing was a smart move even if just for the peace of mind!

 

[FinsUp]

I wouldn't blame you a BIT for losing sleep over that. I've seen production stands that I would never trust under a tank. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of overbuilding.