[Canadian Man]

Originally Posted by sTang

Jonathan,

The tank looks great!!!

Did you buy a stand from Inter-American or are you building your own?

The steel stand that came with my 230 gallon tank is made of thin-wall 1" square tubing, but I don't trust it. The glass tank weighs ~400 pounds dry and it seems quite flimsy. I am not a structural engineer, but my gut instinct tells me to build another stand that supports a potential weight of at least ~3500 pounds. I will trust a stand to hold my full reef tank if and when I believe it will support the weight of my classic Mustang. No, I am not going to try this!

It may be going overboard, but I would rather be safe than sorry. Afterall, it would really be painful to see all of that money go onto the floor and down the drain...not to mention all the grief my wife would put me through. I contemplated the option of wood construction for the stand, but the cost of wood is quite a bit of money and I was concerned about warping. I plan to use 1/8" wall 2" x 2" square steel tubing. That should do the trick. For the top of the stand, I plan to use 3/4" plywood.

:?: Are any of you with >200 gallon tanks using styrofoam or rubber matting between the stand and tank? Any advise you can offer on the subject?

The tank was $900 + 7% tax.
free delivery yea for us calgarians.

The stand is made of wood and is going flush with the wall. I don't really like the steel stands either because they do seem flimsy if you give them a push. The stand is made from 2x4's and 2x6's glued and screwed. I dont have any worries about a wood stand warping as long as you brace everything properly and give it some good coats of paint.
The stand will be covered with 3/4" plywood and then a 3/4" layer of insulating foam goes undeneith the tank. Interamerican suggests this and I suggest this with any tank. I believe it to be inportant in basments as I found out the the floor is no where close to level so the foam will help work out any inperfections.