IIIHawKIII

yeah. probably. but i would worry about your span from one side to the other. might have to put a support in. personally, i would make it two stands that sat next to each other with one piece shelves. again, moving it in and out and around stairs will become more difficult especially if you are wrestling welded iron tubing around.

and maybe put some angled corner braces in on the back support wall. and around the bottom cabinet spaces.

djbrist

Well, I assembled the stand that we sketched up, I did change some of the lumber, and added some trim for beauty and function (rails hiding the exposed edges of plywood). I did use some flat 90's and T's for stability (hidden and in back), but the rest is dimentional lumber as post and beam platform construction, screwed at joinery with 3" coated exterior deck screws. The plywood surface is 3/4" (23/32) screwed at 16" centers around the perimeters. As you can see I chose not to clad the sides as it appeared to be too enclosed, this is all the lighter and easier to disassemble. The postes of each tier can be replaced with variable height posts for different tank size and arrangement. The bottom tier tanks would be limited to <30" in length with the center post, If the center post was removed a longer tank could fit, but I'd go easy on the second tier's center weight.

As you can see it held me, and I feel it will be more than adequate support for the 1200 lbs. The set-back stacking will allow for acess to the front of each tank, vacuuming and plant care may be a bit cumbersome, but not impossible. There may be limitation to the lighting options for clearance reasons, but like I mentioned the posts can be customized in height to some extent, and maybe I'll try to undermount some. All the wood allows for easy placement of multi-outlets and drip loops, I will use a surge protected GFI just to be safe. HOB's may be a bit tough at this height, but posts can be adj. Now some clean-up, sanding, primer and a good exterior grade paint ( I prefer NO VOC).

I am still as always open to suggestions/criticisms, please post. If you want more details re: construction price list and or cutting/layout list PM me and I will send whatever, or even e-mail if you wish (The whole worx, pix incl.) NOTE: I am not the best at writing instructions so you'll have to forgive me.

Thanks for all the help! Just need to finish feeding my MTS....

Dave

Attached Images

	Tank Tower 4.jpg (54.3 KB, 59 views)
	Tank Tower 5.JPG (96.2 KB, 57 views)
	Tank Tower 6.JPG (95.0 KB, 56 views)
	Tank Tower 7.JPG (96.2 KB, 56 views)

IIIHawKIII

looks flippin SWEET. great job! glad we were able to work that out. you have quite a nice lookin stand. post pics when you get it painted/stained or whatever.

Nate McFin

From an idea to a stand. Very nicely done! Update when you get it all set up!

ghrowl

That aquarium stand looks really awesome!!
I'm very interested to see what it looks like now =)

djbrist

Sorry, I was messing around with the thread and ended up starting a new one in members tanks section...
Tank Tower with multiple tanks

ghrowl

thanx for the heads up! =)

Reid

I am a bit late replying to this thread, but I have an idea for the apartment stand build.

Have you thought about triangle braced shelves? I bought a pair of black powder coated triangle shelf supports years ago from the home depot for $16, and a piece of 1" oak scrap for $1 to build a shelf for my HD projector. The supports were rated for 200 lbs a piece. So I screwed them into the 2x4s in the wall with 3" deck screws, drilled pilot holes in the oak, and screwed the oak on with some 3/4" wood screws. I wanted to test the sturdiness of the shelf before setting my new toy on it so I grabbed a hold of it and hung off of it. It did not budge. So I threw myself around a little while holding on to it in the air...and nothing. It felt like a brick wall. I drilled some holes in the rear of the oak to run my wires down, stained it and it was finished. Now I wouldn't put a big tank on anything like that, but I am positive you could use this for a 10-15g tank. You could install the power bar on the bottom keeping it away from spillage and run a plastic wire hider down to the floor to clean up the extension cord. Also, you could wind the excess cords up from the heater, filter, light and zip tie them to the triangle support to keep that area clean as well.

Just a different idea for you to think about. This would enable you to place your fishtanks all over the room instead of one spot, possibly running on separate breakers, hang lights above the tanks to make them look like art work and you would have all the room in the world to clean them. Also it would make the room look bigger as you wouldn't have anything on the floor around your tanks. I build the one for my projector for $17, and I am 210 lbs, and I couldn't move it a millimeter. Might be a cheaper way to obtain what you are after.

Cheers! Can't wait to see your finished project! Happy building!