I had a steel stand custom built to fit a specific location in my fish room, but in all my infinite wisdom I never once thought about it being too big to get down my stairs (I know, you'd think I'd have thought about it after how hard it was just to bring a 6' 135 gallon down the stairs). So the stand was too big to get in in one piece, and we ended up modifying it to get it in the house. The top half was cut off, and we installed 'plugs' in the bottom half to line them both up again and ensure that the top and bottom lines up perfectly. I should've taken pics when it was apart, but didn't, so only have the attached picture for guidance (you can see the cut about halfway up the side of the big tank on the bottom).
What I need help with is how people think I should modify this stand to ensure it stays stable so I'm able to put another large ply/glass tank on the top? I've had 4 -20's and a 10 gallon (total of 90 gallons) on the top with no problems and 0 bowing in the middle (the pic is deceiving but I measured and there was no bowing), but am still leary of putting a 200 gallon tank on top. The stand is built extremely heavy - one person can move it when assembled, but it's very heavy (I think it's 1/8" 1"x2" tubing). I've thought about building basically two squares out of the same tubing, and then bolting it to both sides of the stand using 4 -6 bolts per side. I'd build the new tank so that it was the same size as the modified stand - 2" wider than the stand is now.
Am I nuts for even considering this, or will it work? I want to cut down the number of tanks I have to fewer larger tanks, and stacking two big tanks was my original idea for this location.
What I need help with is how people think I should modify this stand to ensure it stays stable so I'm able to put another large ply/glass tank on the top? I've had 4 -20's and a 10 gallon (total of 90 gallons) on the top with no problems and 0 bowing in the middle (the pic is deceiving but I measured and there was no bowing), but am still leary of putting a 200 gallon tank on top. The stand is built extremely heavy - one person can move it when assembled, but it's very heavy (I think it's 1/8" 1"x2" tubing). I've thought about building basically two squares out of the same tubing, and then bolting it to both sides of the stand using 4 -6 bolts per side. I'd build the new tank so that it was the same size as the modified stand - 2" wider than the stand is now.
Am I nuts for even considering this, or will it work? I want to cut down the number of tanks I have to fewer larger tanks, and stacking two big tanks was my original idea for this location.
