Urgent: How Many of You Keep Another Tank Below Your Tank?

[Taker]

Is it safe for the aquarium stand to sustain another tank below it? And is it designed to hold another tank?

I have a steel made stand and the bars on the lower level are not as thick as the ones made to bear the aquarium at the top.

I just placed an equal length (4 feet) tank but it is 5 inches shorter (13 inches) with 10 inches water level (reduced to 9 iniches now. And it seems the center of the bars are kind of bowing out slightly.

Am I in trouble? Have you done this before? How did you make it safe? I am stuffing thick hard books in the center.

 

[Taker]

This stand shows the difference in the thickness of the bars between the top and lower level. They can be compared to mine.

 

[krichardson]

It depends on how the stand is made as some of the wrought iron jobs are double deckers.Check out my DIY two tiered baby..

 

[jordanroda]

I have a 60 gal & 20 gal below...my dad made my stand 31 years ago...

 

[Oddball]

I had a rack of 12 55 gals. It was an aisle setup with 6 on each side stacked 3 high. It started out as a rack of 24 20s but, I changed it up for a group of grow-out tanks for my tangs.

 

[tlindsey]

I'm using a wrought iron stand made for a 30 long with a 20 long on the bottom.

 

[duanes]

 

[skjl47]

Is it safe for the aquarium stand to sustain another tank below it? And is it designed to hold another tank?

I have a steel made stand and the bars on the lower level are not as thick as the ones made to bear the aquarium at the top.

I just placed an equal length (4 feet) tank but it is 5 inches shorter (13 inches) with 10 inches water level (reduced to 9 iniches now. And it seems the center of the bars are kind of bowing out slightly.

Am I in trouble? Have you done this before? How did you make it safe? I am stuffing thick hard books in the center.

Hello; My take is maybe. I have used metal stands for a long time and have found find a wide variety of designs. I have seen some fairly weak lower shelfs. I have one now that I felt the need to add some additional welds to. I got it used and it had held the top tanks well enough but it feels a bit too weak to add a tank on the lower shelf.

Assuming the pictured stand is representative, I would cut a plywood sheet to fit. I have done this as it seems to spread the load to the stronger bits of a stand. I also tend to keep the lower shelf tank considerably smaller if the stand is in question. The books will do the job but will likely be ruined over time from the inevetable spills.

Some stands are plenty strong, but a bowing shelf is a red flag. Good observation on your part.

Good luck

 

[Rivers2k]

I have had two 45 breeders stacked one on top of the other on a iron stand. I also up until recently had a 75 above a 45 on a custom stand. The only issue I had was when vacuuming I never go enough suction to get a good cleaning because it was so low to the ground. I would have to do double the water changes and water changes took longer because of slow suction. But that is a small problem to overcome.

 

[MrBlueDream]

When I bought my 120 gallon, it was meant to be a reef tank.
So the built in overflow drains unto a 30 gallon sump in th stand, but the pump is too noisy (tank sits a few feet from my bed) so I removed the pvc piping and closed the drain to the sump and currently using it as feeder tank.