Steel stand and tank upgrade

[justDIY]

Greetings.

I currently have a standard glass 30 gallon aquarium (36x20x18 or something like that) on a custom made steel stand that is built to hold two such aquariums one on top, one on a lower shelf about 6" off the ground.

I bought the tank and stand at a garage sale, and after much cleaning and painting, the stand is like new, and the tank is decent (no leaks but a few bad scratches).

I was browsing petsmart a few days ago and noticed a 45 gal tank with the exact lenghtxwidth of my 30 gal, just taller.

My question is for those who've dealt with steel stands in the past, do you think it would be able to support the additional ~160 lbs that an extra 15 gal of water and more gravel would add?

The stand is constructed of what looks like 12 ga. angle iron welded into a square shape to form the top shelf, which is welded to 8x 1/2" solid steel bars (2 bars for each 'leg'), that curve outward as they go down (to make room for the second tank), and then circle around to make feet before joining onto the second shelf also made of 12 ga. angle iron

I was thinking of "testing" the stand by buying 18x 50# bags of sand and putting 10x of them on a thick piece of plywood on top of the 'top' shelf, and the other 8x on the lower shelf and leaving it sit for a few weeks ... 900 lbs should give me about the same as the two aquariums filled with gravel and water, plus a good safety margin. The stand will be located on the ground floor, which is poured concrete, so it shouldn't have any problems supporting the load.

Any thoughts / comments?

[reefrunner69]

My question is for those who've dealt with steel stands in the past, do you think it would be able to support the additional ~160 lbs that an extra 15 gal of water and more gravel would add?

Yes, if it is a wrought iron stand, it will do just fine.