Final thoughts on DIY stand

[LextacySC]

I went to home depot today to price out making a two tier stand to hold three ten gallons per shelf that where face to face the long way. Since I saw some post on this forum showing metal shelving with tanks, I decided to take a look at what home depot had. They had a four shelf metal rivet thing that looked good. On the metal frame each self had I guess particle board on it. The shelves measured 36 inches by 18 inches. The whole thing was supposed to be able to support 1,000lbs spread out evenly. Can I use this with three thanks on the second and third shelves? The 10g are 20 inches long and would hang off each side by one inch. Would this be acceptable? With the metal and particle board will there be enough support under the tank? Most importantly are these things strong enough? Appreciate the help, do not want to be cleaning up water and glass while searching for lost crayfish.

I would be worried about this. 10 gal tanks are made of very thin glass and need to be supported along the whole bottom of the tank. If you get a sheet of particle board on each shelf that covers the whole surface that the tanks will be resting on will help. This is to make up for the unsupported inch. Just don't let the tanks hang off the edge like that. They can and will crack from doing that over time.

 

[Charney]

Thanks Matt for the info. Then do you think particle board alone will be enough to support each end? Or do you think I still might run into problems?

 

[Kobeclone]

I would be worried about this. 10 gal tanks are made of very thin glass and need to be supported along the whole bottom of the tank. If you get a sheet of particle board on each shelf that covers the whole surface that the tanks will be resting on will help. This is to make up for the unsupported inch. Just don't let the tanks hang off the edge like that. They can and will crack from doing that over time.

This is a great idea, but go back to HD an look at the shelf bracing...

I believe that these shelves have bracing that would interfere with your ability to use a piece of particle board....

If not, the particle board will work fine... just make sure the board is around 1/4-1/2 an inch...You could use plywood in place of the particle board