DIY Stand basics

[johnrt]

A water bed is only 6 inches deep, or a load of about 35 lb per square foot. You would be packing them in to get more than one 250 lb blond per square foot. I plan to have a 90 gal display, 90 gal sump, stand and hood on 4' x 1.5 ' = 6 sq feet of floor. I would need a half dozen 320 pounders to test it.

Even as a thought experiment, I would not expect they would crash through the floor, but if they stood there long enough, would the floor sag or distort enough so that an originally flat and level stand top was no-longer flat and level?

John T

[Contains Moose]

A water bed is only 6 inches deep, or a load of about 35 lb per square foot. You would be packing them in to get more than one 250 lb blond per square foot. I plan to have a 90 gal display, 90 gal sump, stand and hood on 4' x 1.5 ' = 6 sq feet of floor. I would need a half dozen 320 pounders to test it.

Even as a thought experiment, I would not expect they would crash through the floor, but if they stood there long enough, would the floor sag or distort enough so that an originally flat and level stand top was no-longer flat and level?

John T

You might ask the blondes how long they plan on being there, it's a 90, not your usual walk around i suspect it will be against a wall, you will be perfectly OK

[johnrt]

OK is OK. I like OK.  John T

[gerryo]

If you live in a house your floors are prob. supported by 2x10's or at least 2x8's.

If your in an appt. then your floors are concrete.

I can't see what you would worry about.  90G of water at say, 8.5lbs per would be abt.
765 lbs.  Thats only 5 people.  Many home parties have wayyyyyyyyyy more than that in attendance.

Yer good.

[johnrt]

Good. Its also good to be good.  Thank you.  John T

[sdivell]

I'm going to jump in here... a lot of "you're probably good" and "it should work"...

Typical residential construction HAS to meet the loads of 13psf dead load + an additional 40psf of live load (people walking) in the centre of the span.

so say you have a 4'x2' tank - 8 square feet.  the floor directly under that 8 sq ft is designed to hold 424 lbs safely without deflection in the centre of a room.  NOW, that being said, most older homes are built with some safety design of 1.5 to 2 times that, as it makes for a floor without as much bounce and a quieter home.  New homes however and unfortunately are being built closer to code to save $$$ and it is noticeable as you will no doubt notice some 'bounce' in the floor (loud footsteps on the floors above).

Please keep these things in mind when placing a larger tank in the centre of a span (which MAY be against the wall, not all walls in homes are load bearing)

[Canoe]

If you want dry structural wood, and hardwood so it's stiffer & stronger:

http://www.kjpselecthardwoods.com/
3-145 Bentley Ave. Ottawa, ON
Tuesday - Saturday 8am - 5pm

Popular, Maple & Oak are good examples.

NOT force dried in a kiln. Air dried unless signed as kiln dried.

and lots of furniture-grade wood to skin it with, including veneered plywoods.

October specials include:

• Cherry dressed to 3/4", $2 a board-foot.
  
• Popular, 4/4 , 8/4 & 12/4 at $2/bf. (4/4 is 1", 8/4 is eight quarters of an inch, or 2", etc.)

Warning: although hardwoods will take more shear screw load than framing woods, DO NOT design a frame depending on this. Have your loads fully supported by wood!!!
as per:

2) Simple design for 2x stand(frame)... (all you need is in the first 2 or 3 pages... I've read the first 30... yawn)
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Warning: quality wood is also addictive (spent $840 on Khaya (Chamoiré Figure) for a computer stand and $480 for a coffee table and speaker stands).