used 55g tank - question about stand

[triazole]

finally after a lot of fights with my roommates, i managed to eke out space for a 55g tank in the living room. and to top that, yesterday i got a sweet deal on a 55g - tank, iron stand, 2 huge penguin filters (not a big fan, but oh well!), heater, and a sponge background (which was viciously attacked by a BN pleco for a year) - all for a 100 bucks. i blame AA for this bout of MTS !

the tank came with a bunch of mollies, a paradise gourami, a BN pleco, and four strange tetras. i coudn't id them, so will post pics later for help. i'll probably trade in the mollies, or put them in my planted 29g.

the tank has space for putting one more 55g at the bottom. does anyone know if this would be safe? if not, would putting a 40g long be ok?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I wouldn't. Just for the fact it's an iron stand and if it's not on a load bearing wall you could have issues (not sure how old your place is). Just one 55 gallon tank alone is...pushing 800-900 pounds. I would just leave it open, if I were you.

 

[JohnPaul]

I agree, problem might not so much be the stand as what's below it. Two 55's would be almost a half ton of weight, all focused on about a 4' long section of flooring.

 

[triazole]

thanks for the replies. DT, i have no idea about the load-bearing walls in my apartment. Besides, another good reason not to put a 2nd tank there is, the clearance on top of the lower tank is barely 2", which is quite insufficient for maintenance purposes.
so i have to pack my dreams for a 2nd tank underneath the 1st, and send them on a loooong vacation ....

 

[JRagg]

Are you on the ground floor? I'm assuming no since we're talking about load bearing walls and such. If you're on the ground floor and have a concrete slab underneath your feet then it doesn't matter if you're next to a load bearing wall or not.

I've got one of those stands in my basement right now. I would be very squeamish about putting an additional 55 under the main one. Maybe something smaller though that has the same depth.

 

[Burks]

I wouldn't trust that much weight on the stand. Maybe a small 20L or 10g would be better. But not anything larger than that.

 

[triazole]

JRagg, i'd be in heaven if i were on the ground floor. I was hoping i could fit a 40g long underneath. but that still adds upto 95g, spread over 4 sqft, instaed of the standard 6 sqft for a 90g tank. so, i'll pass up the temptation of a 2nd tank underneath, and be happy with what i have .

Burks, the problem with putting a 20L/10 would be that i'd need to put a plywood first on the base, since two sides would be unsupported otherwise.

 

[severum mama]

You could just save some cash, put a piece of plywood on the bottom shelf, and add a sweet canister filter. That would be much more quiet than the Penguins and you would love how clean the water looks with a canister.

What do you mean by sponge background? Any pics?

 

[triazole]

nice idea severum . i'll see what happens. i had a bad experience with a fluval 304 i used to use. the main problem was that it'd be clogged (it was in a planted tank with a prefilter), the outflow would slow down to almost a trickle, and i'd have no idea since the outflow nozzle was always below the water level.
the 55g is in the living room, and with all the noise we make , the penguins don't matter much.
the sponge background is one of those 'scenic bio-filter' ones that cover the entire inside wall at the tanks back. its not bad. only problem is that if you have a BN pleco, it loves to munch on the algae on the sponge, and in the process, hmm, destroy it. but i hope to recover it somehow, and make it look nice. pics are coming later. i'm going to do some major redistribution in my tanks, and take pics after that.

 

[toddnbecka]

I've seen those sponge biofilters, the price at the one lfs that sold them was outrageous The ones I saw also covered the bottom of the tank. I prefer to have more flexibility regarding cover and decorations in the tank.

 

[Sicklid]

The stand can definatley hold the two tanks together, I used to have that set-up for years, but it was on a concrete basement floor.

 

[triazole]

TB, i know what you are saying. but i just couldn't pass up the deal.
sicklid, i still went against putting another tank underneath . i'm pretty skittsh by nature (just like those bala sharks ), and the thought of the floor collapsing was too much...but its good to know that another can be put there safely.