First DIY Aquarium Stand Build Advice

[Justepic]

So i am building my first DIY aquarium rack stand. I'm doing this because my mum won't let me have the old terrapin tank in the house because of space however if I build this stand I will have all the aquariums in one place- it will make it easier to maintain as well! I am following the King oF Diy method- this video

Here is my drawn-out plan to support 3 aquariums- a 30 gallon and 2 10- gallons.
The stand will be taller than I want- around 170-180 cm. This is because of the supports that you can see underneath the left and right of each tank. My question is do I need these? Because if I don't, I can make the stand less tall and it will easier to maintain. I will be using wood screws- Joey says 30 for each tank. I will definitely be adding a support underneath the first tank so the whole stand doesn't tip over. Thoughts and advice is welcome

 

[Hendre]

You don't have enough overhead space, you can keep it tight but it makes life easier to have the extra room. You can see how I supported mine here:

How to properly build a stand that can hold 4 10 gallons

I mean I know the basics on how to build a stand, just wondering how to properly build one that will hold 4 10 gallons, two on a bottom level, two on the top. I'll also be putting them long ways, with what would be the side panel facing forward, so I can fit and view both tanks on each level...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I see my photos in the original thread are gone: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ck-start-to-finish-build.699073/#post-7878355

Here it is now:


I had a 10 gallon on top at one stage, but I found it was too tall for easy maintenance. 6'4" me could not get into that tank properly without a stepladder so I took it down and put plants up top instead. Having the vertical space above the tank makes it much easier to really get into the tanks.

 

[Justepic]

The thing is, I have enough overhead space. I just don't want the top tank to be too tall as then it will be hard to maintain, like what happened to ur tank.

My question do I have to put in the 2*4 supports that Joey puts at the end of the vid to stop having all the weight supported by the screws? If I don't need to, I can lower the height of the entire stand.

 

[tlindsey]

The thing is, I have enough overhead space. I just don't want the top tank to be too tall as then it will be hard to maintain, like what happened to ur tank.

My question do I have to put in the 2*4 supports that Joey puts at the end of the vid to stop having all the weight supported by the screws? If I don't need to, I can lower the height of the entire stand.

I highly suggest you add the 2×4 support as Joey did it. You absolutely don't want the screws bearing the weight.

 

[Justepic]

Would 2x3 supports also work? Trying to shimmy as much height as I can

 

[Justepic]

I just realised something stupid... the aquariums have to all be the same size because they all rest on the 2 pieces of wood- my smaller aquariums would just fall through the gap! So can I just get a fitting piece of wood and drill it with woodscrews in the gap?

By the gap, I mean this: look at the video and the piece of wood at 1:03

 

[Hendre]

I would never leave the bottoms unsupported like that, ever. Refer to my earlier posts on how I build my racks

 

[Justepic]

I would never leave the bottoms unsupported like that, ever. Refer to my earlier posts on how I build my racks

Unfortunately, the pics are dead on ur post but I understand most of it.

Is this method better? http://www.neptunesneighborhood.raymondwise.com/rack.html
So instead of the gap, there would be 3 equally spaced beams crossing the gap. Then I could put the aquarium on that?

 

[Rass]

Always use vertical supports to support the weight. Cory from aquarium coop built the racks in his store with the method you are referring to, but it was for smaller tanks, and he used large bolts instead of wood screws. He has how to videos on his channel. You could make the stand a bit wider to accommodate the vertical supports easily enough. And listen to the advice about space above each tank. I built a dual stand for a 75, and 40 breeder. I think I left 10 inches above the bottom tank and it works, but still tight at times when cleaning.

 

[Rass]

Stands I've built, with slight variations of the same method. If you make a rack like you want with vertical supports it will end up being slightly longer than the tank that sits on top. That's why I went with the 75/40 combo. The tanks are the same width and I already had the tanks at the time. Plus they both run off one air pump for economy sake. The others are two 40 breeders, a 55, and a 5 foot 112 truvu acrylic that had two leaks on the bottom seam so it ended up as a terrarium for my coastal jaguar carpet python. I ended up selling the snake, so the 5 foot stand got completely torn down all the way to the hardware, and all the materials were cut down and repurposed into the 4 foot combo stand.