55 Gallon Tank Handmade stand out of metal?

In a couple months me and my dad decided to get a 55 gallon tank, and a friend at his work knows how to weld, and my dad said he could make a stand out of iron or steel, would it be safer to buy a stand made for the tank at petsmart?

 

If it's done right then it would end up being stronger than any stand you could buy. As long as it is strong and thick enough iron or steal, it will be fine. Most metal stands I've seen sold in stores are cheap flimsy things IMO.

 

ya a stand at petsmart costs as much as the 55 gallon starter kit I want, but it holds 900 lbs,
would it be alright if the aquarium was on a second floor house(with the metal stand)

 

Now your talking engineering. Putting a large fish tank on a second floor may not be a good thing. It all depends on if the floor can support it. I ran across an article a while back on the Internet written by an engineer that went into great detail about the subject. From what I read I wouldn't do it myself. Unless you know for sure the floor can support the weight you could have big problems.

Edit: I'm not sure if this is the exact article I read, it goes into depth pretty good. It might answer your questions. You can also just google more info. There's tons out there.

 

Ya but a stand costs as much as the aquarium, And we don't have an extra $160
maybe one off craigslist for cheap price

 

I thought your Dad was going to have one made out of steal or iron?

If you are getting a 55 gallon aquarium I would suggest buying the one Walmart sells for the 55 gallon. I have it for my 55 gallon and whtmex has it also. You can look at both of our profiles to see what it looks like. I can't recall exactly what I paid, but I think it was around $89. I really like it myself. This is my second one. I had one years ago with another tank I had, but moved and had to sell it all. Now I have one again.

 

What's up, plecoman123.

What's up, cletus.

Yeah it was $89 for the WM 55G stand.

Also, from an engineering standpoint, it is a flat bottom stand as opposed to a 4 leg metal stand. This means that the weight (lbs/ sq.in) is more evenly distributed across a wider area and would have less impact in a second floor application.

Very easy to assemble, and is reversible so you can have black or cherry wood panels.

 

Oh wow I never thought walmart would have a 55 gallon stand, they usually only have smaller gallon tanks and stands
I'll check my local walmarts and see if I can find one

 

Not all of the walmarts I've been into have them. I have 3 walmarts within a 30 to 45 min drive of each other and only one carries it. Only the one that sells fish has them.

 

I think the box said 38/55 Gallon aquarium stand.

Not quite sure how that works. Don't know the dimensions of a 38G. I guess there's a lot of space left over if you use it for a 38g.

A lot of walmarts don't have it in stock because they've scaled down their aquatics depts, but the one here in my town has the full fish & supplies aquatics dept. If it's not in stock, they should be able to order it.


edit: whoops. ninja'd by cletus

 

edit: whoops. ninja'd by cletus

Lol that's funny.