46 Bowfront stand Modification...Any problem here?

[Gunk]

Hi I was wondering if this stand modification I did on my 46 gallon bowfront tank stand is ok. Its going to be a reef tank so it will have probably around 30-50 lbs of pucani rock and reef rock from BRS (I have 70 lbs total but not sure how much I'm gonna need because the pucani is huge!) Anyhow here is what I did. My aqueon model 2 proflex sump wouldn't fit. In the corners I needed about 1/4" more. There is no way I wanted to pack it all back up and ship it back so I removed the rear center brace and the two rear boards on both sides and basically just installed them in the same place as they were but on the outer part of the top instead of the inner. That's it. Do you guys think this will be ok? Other than being ugly where the boards were(I'm thinking about finding some small boards and painting them black to fill the gap but they won't really be structural just covering the holes. Hers's a couple pics

 

[MrBeta]

When you took out the braces, was the top of the stand resting on the top of the braces?
You have them fastened to the outside which should be fine as long as they were not holding the platform up.

Edit
Can you take pics of the inside of the stand where you removed the braces?

 

[Gunk]

Yes the top of the stand was resting on the braces but the top is still resting on the braces. It looks kind of like they are just attatched to the outside holding nothing up but they are. I installed them identically as they were except on the other side. I'll try to get some more pics from inside later

 

[Gunk]

The braces are notched about halfway on both the top and bottom of each brace. Then the top of the stand rests in the top notch and the bottom notch rests on the bottom of the stand

 

[Gunk]

OK here are some pics. The first one shows how the top rests on the support. I have another idea now too. The braces are 3" boards. If I rip 1" off of each one of the side ones I can put it back where they originally were. The middle one would stay outside but positioned as it originally was just "mirrored" I guess. The second two pics show how much I would have to trim off the 3" board. So what do you think? Will it still be stable with an inch missing from each side? I think it will be fine(kind of...it it doesn't work uh oh). I was even thinking of building a new stand but with the new equipment I just got everything is gonna fit in here nicely so I want to use it. Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[MrBeta]

Generally if it was a stand built for the tank you should be okay. They are usually way over engineered so I don't foresee and catastrophic failures though I'm not an engineer. I'd rip down the ones you can and out them back and then deal with the other ones however you can.

Edit
After looking at the pics again, ripping the boards should work nicely. On the center brace, could you shorten it so that it would fit between the top and bottom of the stand? Not necessarily in the notch but just so that you don't get any sagging in the center?

 

[Gunk]

Good idea. I will take a look at it and see. Thanks

 

[Gunk]

OK I got it all done today. I ripped about 1 1/4" off of each 3" side board and installed them in there original positions. Then I checked the sump and the drain attachment for leaks. All good there so put the sump back in then installed the middle brace except had to leave it on the outside of the frame. Then just for good measure I put a 2x2 on each side of the middle brace. A $2 insurance policy I guess. I'm not worried about it being sturdy now at all and it looks like a normal stand again. Thanks for the help! And the pics

 

[MrBeta]

Great job. I couldn't have done it better,