Fish tank stand

[CynicalFox]

Hi, my third post and already a request for advice from craftsmen. I want to build a fish tank stand for a 260 litre tank - so a total laden weight of somewhere between 300 - 350 kg. The design is intended to match as closely as possible to existing living room furniture so is perhaps not the most obvious from a structural point of view. My question and request for advice is this: is the following design likely to be strong enough to take the weight? There will be other features added (doors, tops, etc) but this is the basic load-bearing structure. Perpendicular joints will be mortice & tenon, adjoining faces will be glued and biscuited. Construction from an unidentified softwood from a builder's merchant.

 

[pip1954]

hi foxy
i have made many tank stands and for a lot bigger than yours and you don't need to go to over board but yours looks plenty strong enough to me , my last was 5' x 2' 18" front to back.
i used to hide the pump and other bits under the tank in the cupboard. is it bottom outlet with a weir or sealed tank.
pip

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had a 5' 400ltr one and it's purpose made stand was chipboard and KD fittings. Make sure you leave space enough behind the tank to drop ballast units etc. and to bring filter plumbing up from the cupboards, if neccessary.

 

[CynicalFox]

Thanks for your contributions. I really didn't feel comfortable building my own design to support 300kg without running it by people who have been there and done that.

The tank is a bow-fronted Fluval Vicenza 260. It has two filter connections in the floor of the tank and so the top of the unit will have holes drilled to allow connection to an external cannister filter hidden in the cupboard below.