Reinforcing a 75g stand

[TerraAimee]

Happy holidays everyone! Still working on leak testing but only just started and I'm wondering... would i need to reinforce this stand? It's a 75g bowfront. I'm planning on doing a sand bed around 3" and live rock. This is the tanks original stand and it's probably around 10 years old. Looks to be in good condition and sturdy. No idea what brand or type of wood. Thanks in advance.

 

[Big Tex]

there is no 75g bow fronts first off, if its 36" wide at the back its a 46g and if its 48" wide at the back its a 72g, and yes i would brace the stand, those are basic pine stands for freshwater and IMO cant support the weight of marine aqaurium, and judging by your pic i can see the 1"x4" and the 1"x6" pine they use on the front for the bow and thats 54" of wood, minus the "bow" i would say its a 48" tank meaning its a 72g bow front.

your gonna be adding around 80-100lbs of sand and 80-100lbs of live/dry rock plus water volume weight and equipment, water weighs 8lb/gal so to add on to your sand and rock, thats about 500lbs of water so total of around or above 700lbs, so i would definitely brace the stand.

any other questions just ask away

 

[TerraAimee]

Thanks for the reply! After I didn't get a reply for a few days I started looking up the tank set a little more and realized it is in fact a 72 gallon. I was just using my best guess with what I had.

As far as bracing goes, Im not sure how to go about it. Ive seen other people run supports across the back on angles. Is this the best way to go about it? I dont know much about woodworking so Im sorry if these are stupid questions. lol I just want to get this right the first time!

 

[Big Tex]

Thanks for the reply! After I didn't get a reply for a few days I started looking up the tank set a little more and realized it is in fact a 72 gallon. I was just using my best guess with what I had.

As far as bracing goes, Im not sure how to go about it. Ive seen other people run supports across the back on angles. Is this the best way to go about it? I dont know much about woodworking so Im sorry if these are stupid questions. lol I just want to get this right the first time!

if you dont have a compound miter saw, or at least some experience with a 45 and a circular saw, dont attemp it, you really dont need a triangulated and double braced frame using 4"x4" for a 75g but to me a 75g is my limit for basic frames, anything above would need a triangulated frame its absolutely a necessity in my honest opinion.

the best basic support is vertical, its very hard to split a board vertically versus horizontally or at the wrong angle, a perfect 45 with another perfect supporting 45 to creates a triangulated frame where the weight is distributed at multiple points, but a basically vertical braced frame is all you need.

i would do all 4 corners and both front and back center in 2x4 pine, also if you'd like just for good measure add screws into the stands old wood at the joints because these stands are air nailed together and over time and throughout a tank and stands lifetime have probably been moved and setup many times meaning those nails might have backed out a bit or lost their initial bite into the wood.

if you go to lowe's and buy the lumber there, the cuts on their huge saw table are only $0.25 so its very affordable to build or brace a stand, and they measure about 3-4x and also asking you about the length on the tape and also compensate for the blade thickness before cutting.

 

[TerraAimee]

After discussing this with my boyfriend, we decided to call our friend who used to be a carpenter and see if he would lend a hand. The bf is very paranoid about weight issues, so he wants to have the 45 angles in the back as well as the four corners and middle front and back. lol I guess better safe than sorry in a case like this.

Definitely going to add some extra screws to the original wood like you suggested. I know for a fact this tank had been moved at least 5 times and I just dont trust this setup without reinforcements. lol

Ive never had a project this daunting before. Im sure you'll see me posting all over the place on info. lol

 

[TerraAimee]

Stinkin phone wasnt showing my last post....so bump i guess lol Thanks again for the advice