Finding a suitable base for a fish tank?

Herzlos

So I've got a 60l fish tank and a tattyish black stand, and it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the furniture. I haven't bought the new furniture yet so have a bit of scope, but I'm struggling to find a decent stand, or even a normal unit that can handle it.

I was advised Ikea had a lot of units that'd be OK, but the tv stands top out at 50kg and I'm looking at 70kg (60kg of water + 10kg of extras). All of the fish tank stands I've seen either haven't been very practical or don't fit in.

So I'm looking for a stand that:
* Is either beech or Oak
* Can handle 70+kgs of weight on the top shelf
* is at least either 60cm wide by 30cm deep, or at least 40cm wide by 40cm deep.

Even Argos/Homebase don't seem to do side units as heavy as that.

Any ideas folk? Or should I just be looking at dropping down to a 40l tank?

teddysmum

Herzlos wrote: »

So I've got a 60l fish tank and a tattyish black stand, and it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the furniture. I haven't bought the new furniture yet so have a bit of scope, but I'm struggling to find a decent stand, or even a normal unit that can handle it.

I was advised Ikea had a lot of units that'd be OK, but the tv stands top out at 50kg and I'm looking at 70kg (60kg of water + 10kg of extras). All of the fish tank stands I've seen either haven't been very practical or don't fit in.

So I'm looking for a stand that:
* Is either beech or Oak
* Can handle 70+kgs of weight on the top shelf
* is at least either 60cm wide by 30cm deep, or at least 40cm wide by 40cm deep.

Even Argos/Homebase don't seem to do side units as heavy as that.

Any ideas folk? Or should I just be looking at dropping down to a 40l tank?

You need to look up some aquatics suppliers, as the 'wooden' stands you see tanks supported on , are actually reinforced with metal, because water is so heavy.


I'm not aware of the construction of the top surfaces of these, as my stand is all metal ,but if they are like mine (ie top is just a 3cm open frame) then the dimensions need to match those of the tank.

Pollycat

Many years ago, we wanted 2 fish tank stands that were at eye level when we were sat on the sofa and couldn't find one.

So we headed to MFI (yes, it really was that long ago) to look at coffee tables.
My OH had calculated the weight of tank, water, gravel etc and we reckoned that if it held both our weight, it could cope with a 3 foot x 18 inch x 12 inch tank. Not sure how many litres that held. How big is your tank?

We found what we wanted and - just as the saleman was heading our way - we both sat on the table, lifted our feet in the air and wriggled about.
The salesman did an abrupt halt and headed in the opposite direction. :rotfl:
The table held, OH put them together really well and it held our tanks for probably 7 years before we moved house and bought a proper housing.
We gave one of the tables away to a friend and he used it for his 2 foot tank.

Herzlos

Current stand is just chipboard, which is why I'm struggling to find another one, but I think a lot of it is due to set-up as the uprights are about 1/3rd of the way in rather than the edges so will take more load.

Tank is only 600mm wide, 300mm deep and about 300mm tall so it's weight isn't miles off a large old TV. I tried looking for solid wood cabinets but couldn't find a weight rating. Though I have considered seeing if it'll take my weight (100kg) as a reasonable benchmark.

JP08

How about simply buying a unit you like and reinforcing internally. Twenty quids worth of 3"x2" would make a big difference to the structure of any cabinet ...

Herzlos

That's certainly an option!

audigex

Don't use "It will take my weight" as the benchmark! There's a massive difference between sustained and instantaneous force. I've seen people massively come a cropper with this before (and I'm talking ~£1500 worth of fish and equipment on the floor levels of "come a cropper"). Most cabinets are fine, but they very simply aren't designed for it and it's complete pot luck if you get one that will.

Get in touch with ND Aquatics and/or Birmingham aquatics and ask if they'll do you a custom stand for you. I've not asked for a tank that small, but they (ND) certainly do them for larger tanks and I can't see why they wouldn't.

singlehouseholder

I got a sideboard from ikea for my big tank . It's big , sturdy and a nice bit of furniture .

Buffythedebtslayer

You can look on line for build it yourself tank stands or look on somewhere like freecycle or Preloved for a tank stand.

I really wouldn't use normal furniture, tho the stands look like normal chipboard they are generally more dense than normal chipboard and sometimes reinforced.

Occasionally as Pollycat said you can get decent coffee table - real normally thick wood, low height and a surface area much larger than the tank itself and it would work. But if you have a 60 litre I'd get a proper stand. (well I'd get a bigger tank any excuse!)

what make is the tank?

lisawood78

I've got a 48l sitting on a small oak sideboard, wouldn't have even crossed my mind that it wouldn't hold its weight? And before that it was sitting on a small square table.

HelenYokley

I would suggest that you visit AquaristicOnline , its an online website where you can get everything related to an aquarium.