Starting a steel stand for 650g

You're going to get a whole bunch of different answers, so take it all in then decide for yourself...

After talking to Warren (who wrote this article on glass thickness and is very knowledgeable on the technical aspects of the hobby) and 'kcress' on reefcentral.com (who seems to be the engineering-guru in their massive 'Steel Stands' thread) I opted for 100x50x5mm steel for the front-to-back 1200mm spans, 100x50x3mm for the rest of the top frame, and 50x50x3 for the legs and base for the stand for my 2400x1200x700mm glass tank, along with 6mm plate gussets in the corners. Why so heavy? Glass doesn't flex. 0.25mm deflection in your stand is enough to transfer most of the loading from the steel onto the glass/silicone. In other words, if you're using lighter grade steel (I've seen stands built for similar sized tanks out of 40x40!) and have greater than 0.25mm deflection across the length of your longest spans, they might as well not be there at all.

If you tank is well built then there's every chance you'll get away with it. As I said, I've seen glass tanks of similar width/height to mine (and yours) on steel stands with 50x50 or 40x40 for the front-to-back horizontal spans, no vertical centre supports, and the tanks haven't gone pop. Why? Because of the safety factor. My tank in 15mm glass is 3.2 times stronger than it needs to be to support the weight of the water, this is to take into account things like imperfections in the glass, the construction and/or the stand. If you're confident enough in the safety factor of your tank to under-engineer your stand then by all means skimp on the materials used.

I can email you the sketchup files for my stand, and a similar one using all 50x50x3 but with a centre row of legs, but as it is only 400mm high it might not be much use.

I had it painted with an epoxy-based paint to completely seal it from any moisture. I've had several powder coated stands and the powder coating does nothing to prevent rust IME. I should also mention I used galvanised steel too, here's a pic before painting;



The one thing I would consider doing differently next time is going for threaded adjustable feet to make levelling it easier. Concrete floors are always going to be a bit unlevel, and over 2400 length a little slope adds up to a lot of shims!

Make sure you be careful welding galvanized steel, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_fume_fever. Practice your ass off welding before making the stand. Also you need to study how to prep joints and metals to be welded. This is like a risky first welding project, take your time dont rush anything expect to ruin some of your stock oder extra. Learn how to identify a good weld.

Looks good, you're certainly keen doing it yourself! I'm lucky enough to have a good friend who is a very good welder/engineer. Those feet are exactly what I was talking about, put one under each leg, and make sure they're rated for plenty more than enough weight than your tank will put on them.

In regards to the clearance being only 18"...I think if you are going to be doing maintenance like vacuuming gravel having only 18" is going to be a real pain. But if you are planning on having an auto-drip or a valve for water changes so that you rarely need to get up and into the tank it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Keep in mind that if you want any decor that is larger than 18" cubed, it's going to have to go into the tank before it's placed on the stand (or before the tank is built if the tank is being being built in place). Also keep in mind that it's in there for good unless it can be cut down for removal.

How tall is your sump? I think you can find a happy medium between making the stand too tall to make tank maintenance an issue and making the stand too short so that working in the sump is a pain.

I love the look of tall tanks, but with only 8' ceilings, I would reduce the height of the stand.

this is for a 120 48 48View attachment 953125


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If you have never welded before you should find someone who is really good to show you actually how to do a good job on getting this thing together. Welding takes time and experience to do it well. My 24inch tall tank has a stand of 42 inches and its nice but with your tank being 36inches tall you will not have any room above to get stuff in and out of the tank. If it was me I would plan on making the stand 36inches tall so after the stand height plus plywood top and Styrofoam your top will be at about 6foot 2inches. Great height for sitting and looking at the tank but also standing and looking at the tank you will not be looking down ward.

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