DIY Double Aquarium Stand Advice

Without going into a long story. My MTS has made me get a 80g tank. I do not have room for a 40 gallon and 80g and I am not willing to tear down one for the other. I came up with this idea to build a double aquarium stand. Both are freshwater and both tanks have rims which mean all their wait will be on the edges.

The stand will be located directly on the slab so total weight is not a problem and will be located in my garage so not as worried about damages but would be more devastated by loosing my tanks. Thanks to suggestions I will make sure that it will be bracket it to the wall because of living in earthquake territory. Have some time before I start construction to make any adjustments. I built a 40b stand using the same general template and it came out great.

I used Sketchup to design this stand. The final design will have 1/2 plywood around the sides and any front open area to make it more aesthetically appealing and to help support and bind everything together.

I would like feedback to the total design, flaws and improvements that can be made.

Also I already have a Fluval 306 (plan to place on the open area next to the sump and want to make a DIY sump for the 80g Any advice or feedback on how to go about the filtration system is welcome. The sump is to try not to spend $300 on a couple canister filters or an FX5. That and it's highly customizable.

Thanks,
Troy

 

Looks great to me. I'm overly paranoid so I would try to distribute the top weight just a little more. Either with corner braces or an additional vertical brace on the back center.

 

looks good just make sure you got enough room above both bottom tanks for maitanance and getting equipment in and out of them.

 

It looks great but.......

Personally, I'd lower the centre of gravity by bringing the 80G down. You have a lot of weight up high on a fairly small footprint. With a high centre of gravity comes greater instability. While I really like the look of your design, I'd put safety first. Depending on your level of DIY skill and whether you own your home, you could bolt it to the floor.

You'll also find it a lot harder to do routine tasks like vacuuming the larger tank when your tank is that high. You'll need plenty of space around the the whole setup to allow room for a step ladder.

Moving the smaller tank up may not be quite so pleasing to look at, but it will increase stability, comfort and safety.

 

Thanks for the replies. The high center of gravity is scary. Definetly plan on having a step stool to help with maintenance.

If I ditched the sump and lowered the bottom tank by 6 inches and squeeze out another 1 inches between the tanks the top tank by that would drop the total height to a lol better 5'5"

 

Any chance that you could have two stands next to each other? You could have the 80 gallon and the sump on one stand and then the other stand would hold the 40 gallon breeder. That way the 80 gallon wouldn't be too tall in order to do maintenance and you wouldn't have to bend over in order to deal with the 40 gallon. Having a second stand would also leave some storage space below it. Obviously this is all space permitting but I figured I would throw out the idea.

 

Looks great to me. I'm overly paranoid so I would try to distribute the top weight just a little more. Either with corner braces or an additional vertical brace on the back center.

I am basically a screw it up yourselfer, but my brother is an engineer;; he likes the design, where the amateur in me would put the heaviest tank on the bottom--I know, size restrictions, which is why real DIYers can do it, where my idea of a stand is a bunch of cinder blocks supportings plywood---well done--rick

 

Considering the weight, I don't think it is going anywhere, high center of gravity or not. Except maybe a big earthquake, the Earth weighs a lot more than the tank. But I would expect you to bracket it to studs in the wall and that should solve any potential problems.

 

Considering the weight, I don't think it is going anywhere, high center of gravity or not. Except maybe a big earthquake, the Earth weighs a lot more than the tank. But I would expect you to bracket it to studs in the wall and that should solve any potential problems.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will now be definitely doing this because we do live in earthquake land. If anything did happen it is going to be located in the garage so flooding out the garage is not as bad as the house.

 

Any chance that you could have two stands next to each other? You could have the 80 gallon and the sump on one stand and then the other stand would hold the 40 gallon breeder. That way the 80 gallon wouldn't be too tall in order to do maintenance and you wouldn't have to bend over in order to deal with the 40 gallon. Having a second stand would also leave some storage space below it. Obviously this is all space permitting but I figured I would throw out the idea.

Yeah wish I could do the side by side stand but I am limited by space lengthwise. The setup is going into the garage and that's all the space I have for the tank.