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antciam
04/08/2015, 01:26 PM
Hello Everyone,

I am in the planning stage of upgrading my 225 to a 450 gallon tank. I am working with various stand designs and wanted to see if anyone has any examples or some structural engineering knowledge for a steel stand that is 8ft long with no center vertical support in the middle?

I would like to keep the center of the stand wide open for easy access for sump additions, corrections, or removal. Going in from the side is not going to be an option since the tank is going to be in wall between my office and family room.

Any ideas or advice would help.

username in use
04/08/2015, 01:41 PM
The large tank forum has lots of designs for stands like you are wanting.

adova
04/08/2015, 01:44 PM
There is a site / program that will show you the deflection of the metal based on weight and design. As mentioned, you will see some examples of it in use in the DIY or Large tanks forums.

antciam
04/08/2015, 05:06 PM
I've been following several builds on the large tank forum but most have center support on their stands. Do you know the site that show the deflection?

adova
04/08/2015, 06:24 PM
I don't because I never used it, but some research should show it to you relatively quickly. I will tell you that you are going to need some serious tubing to get it to behave without any support outside of the four corners. And you will want to incorporate some corner bracing to prevent the stand from racking as well.

I just built mine and put the support brace slightly off center to allow me to remove / access the sump better. You can check out my build if it helps...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2469666

adova
04/08/2015, 06:25 PM
As a second thought, you might be better off if this is a square as opposed to long tank, but I got the impression that it was not...

antciam
04/08/2015, 09:50 PM
Plan is for the tank to be 96L X 36W X 30H. I've seen your build before its looks as if everything is going very well.