Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:33 am
I had my 90 Gallon tank on the ground for the first week or two, until just a few days ago I finished my cheap, but sturdy stand. If you want to read about it, continue on (it's rather confusing, unless you can imagine things really well), otherwise, stop here, since your floor can most likely handle 600-700 pounds of water (75% full on a 90G), but make sure, what I did, is I went to the basement, or the floor under where I put my tank, and looked at how much support the floor had (more, shorter joints, the better).
I have one of those heavy-duty steel racks that you can usually find at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. (make sure that the capacity per shelf is at least 800 pounds, and one that measures your tank's dimensions), and put it together.
The dimensions on the shelves for my rack were 3 cm too short, so what I did, is found a wide, big flat piece of wood (I found one from an old table I don't use anymore, but you can buy one for under 5 dollars, just make sure it isnt too thin, or weak), and placed it on top of the shelf. The thickness of my wood (plywood I think it was), was about 2 cm, and it was wider and longer than the shelf by about 6 cm, all around, so it was a good fit.
I'm not sure if the rack itself can stand 800 pounds, but unless the company lied, it should. Anyways, what I did, is I took four of the many legs included in the rack, and assembled them along with one shelf to look like a table. Then I added one more shelf near the bottom, for more support to hold the legs together. Then I bought two small steel rods (or sticks, since they look more like sticks), cut them around to fit my needs, and bolted the cut up sticks along the legs, into criss-cross, X-like things, giving more support, and then I added two pieces of wood under the first shelf where I put the tank, and bolted them to the shelf, adding more support. And I also took four more legs from my rack, and bolted them in the middle, creating an 8-legged stand, then finally, laying the 8-legged stand onto a strong piece of flat metal (wood is fine, just make sure it is tough, since it has to withstand 8 legs pushing 900-1000 pounds down on it, considering a 90G tank weighs 140-150 pounds). I put in nuts and bolts, and screws where ever there was a free hole, since the more you have, the stronger the stand is.
It's hard to explain without a picture, but hopefully, you'll have a basic idea of what I just mumbled or something, I myself think what I just said is very confusing. I'll try to get a picture or two if I can find my camera, though I haven't seen it in weeks. I had an old steel rack, so I didn't need to buy one, though I saw one at my local Home Depot for around $ 100 Canadian, but stuff up here is inflated like mad, you could probably get one in the US for $ 40-70 USD. Or if you're not too good with tools and Do-it-yourself projects, you can keep it on the carpet until you find a suitable stand.
The one downside about not having a stand, which annoyed me (since the water got all nasty and stank up within one day, I had to change water every day or two), was that canister filters won't work, they need to be below the water level, below your aquarium by at least 20-24 inches, since a canister filter works on the siphoning principle, unless you have a good hang-on filter(s).
Hey hey hey.
