Hi all,
Been lurking for a few days and all being well will be heading towards monster(ish) tank terrorty in the near future which leads me on to this little lot...
Our current Juwel Rio 400(L) is starting to look rather crowded and as the Mrs is rather fond of her fish its larger tank time again
Realistically we can (just about) afford to go as large as 8x2x2, would like taller but the price jump for the thicker glass is way over budget and this already assumes building rather than buying a stand - not that i'd trust 1000+ KG on chipboard anyway lol.
Bellow is a SketchUp of the basic idea we have in mind, it consists of two identical top / bottom 18mm ply surfaces braced with 47x47mm timbers along the outside endges, these timbers will also have the side panels fixed to them. The front and side panels are 15mm "furniture board", not sure about the back yet as tempted to leave this open for cables, hoses etc. As the stand will be made before the tank is delivered the top will be 5mm oversized in each direction just in case the tank is not 100% to size / square. The total height is 636mm or just over 25". The main support for the tanks will be three columns of concrete blocks stacked and bonded together, the top / bottom will bases will also be bonded to the blocks.
My biggest concern is the blocks being able to support the weight of the tank and the top bowing in the centre, originally we intended to use dense concrete blocks but these alone would have weighed 500kg so instead have been considering these. My GCSE maths is a little rusty so if there are any engineers or number crunchers out there that can check them that would be great
Assumed weight of tank, water and décor: 1250kg (2755lbs)
Compressive strength of blocks: 3.6N/mm^2 (522psi)
Surface area of each block: 94.6cm^2 (14.94"^2)
Pressure on a single block: 13.21kg cm^2 or 1.3N/mm^2 (187.75psi)
With 3 "stacks" of 6 blocks and the total load spread evenly across them this (in theory) works out at 0.43N/mm^2 on each stack which is well within limits and this is what bothers / puzzles me, either our maths are way out or we're massively underestimating the strength of the blocks lol
Given the lack of a garage or similar its not really possible to make a 100% wooden stand - at least this way the top / bottoms can be made separately and the side panels fitted in situ or that's the plan at least....
If anyone can spot any flaws or room for improvement in the design, materials etc then please shout before 900litres of potentially water end up on the floor
Cheers
T.J
Been lurking for a few days and all being well will be heading towards monster(ish) tank terrorty in the near future which leads me on to this little lot...
Our current Juwel Rio 400(L) is starting to look rather crowded and as the Mrs is rather fond of her fish its larger tank time again
Bellow is a SketchUp of the basic idea we have in mind, it consists of two identical top / bottom 18mm ply surfaces braced with 47x47mm timbers along the outside endges, these timbers will also have the side panels fixed to them. The front and side panels are 15mm "furniture board", not sure about the back yet as tempted to leave this open for cables, hoses etc. As the stand will be made before the tank is delivered the top will be 5mm oversized in each direction just in case the tank is not 100% to size / square. The total height is 636mm or just over 25". The main support for the tanks will be three columns of concrete blocks stacked and bonded together, the top / bottom will bases will also be bonded to the blocks.
My biggest concern is the blocks being able to support the weight of the tank and the top bowing in the centre, originally we intended to use dense concrete blocks but these alone would have weighed 500kg so instead have been considering these. My GCSE maths is a little rusty so if there are any engineers or number crunchers out there that can check them that would be great
Assumed weight of tank, water and décor: 1250kg (2755lbs)
Compressive strength of blocks: 3.6N/mm^2 (522psi)
Surface area of each block: 94.6cm^2 (14.94"^2)
Pressure on a single block: 13.21kg cm^2 or 1.3N/mm^2 (187.75psi)
With 3 "stacks" of 6 blocks and the total load spread evenly across them this (in theory) works out at 0.43N/mm^2 on each stack which is well within limits and this is what bothers / puzzles me, either our maths are way out or we're massively underestimating the strength of the blocks lol
Given the lack of a garage or similar its not really possible to make a 100% wooden stand - at least this way the top / bottoms can be made separately and the side panels fitted in situ or that's the plan at least....
If anyone can spot any flaws or room for improvement in the design, materials etc then please shout before 900litres of potentially water end up on the floor
Cheers
T.J
With that in mind and the other comments I'm in the process of doing a complete redesign based on the 2x4 method.