# Tank Stand Modification



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Hi all,

I recently purchased: Amazon.com: Aquatic Fundamentals Curve Front 29 Gallon Aquarium Stand: Kitchen & Dining.

At the top, I plan to put a Fluval Edge, and in the middle I WAS going to put this: Amazon.com: Marineland 5 Gallon Crescent Aquarium System: Home & Garden. 

However, as it turns out, the 5g will NOT fit on the second level and the stand is not wide enough to put the tanks side by side. I was wondering if anyone had any modification ideas that may work to get the 5g to fit? The 5g is ~13 inches tall WITH the light and only around 10.5" without the light. The space between the second shelf and the top shelf is 11.5 inches. The bottom shelf is the same. The 5g will fit without the light, but it is a planted 5g and needs to be lit. Does anyone know of any mods i could potentially do to be able to fit the tank and add a light?


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Only thing I can think of is to put the 5 gallon on the bottom with the second shelf removed, otherwise you might look into creating a led fixture on the bottom of the top shelf to light the 5 gallon underneath it. But I find the biggest issue is you will not leave enough space to get your hand in the tank when you need to, 1 inch is not very much room so I would ditch the middle shelf or try and redrill the supports for the middle shelf about 5 or 6 inches higher and put the tank on the bottom as those shelfs look like they get smaller the higher you go.

Of course you could always figure out a way to mount some lights not directly above but just off to the side of the tank on the shelf above, you will lose some light but still should be sufficient.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

I thought about the redrilling, but the holes go all the way through teh side supports for the screws so after redrilling, there's no way that i know of to cover up the old hole and it will not look very attractive.

Anyone else have any ideas?


----------



## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

Redrill it to raise or lower the shelf. Very few people except you are gonna notice the little holes .


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Actually, the holes are HUGe. The screws are 1/2cm diameter and the holes are very noticible, esp since the screws are polished so they draw attention to themselves against the dull grey backgrounds of the supports. The bottom of the tank stand is also wider than the top so if I move the supports down, the middle board will look like its too small for the tank. I was thinking of flipping that board inside down which will give me an additional 1.5 inches and be sufficient for what i need, but then the entire middle board would be held by 4 screws and as a particle board, not sure how much weight it can take, a total of 6 gallons will be there so there would be roughly 50lbs on the middle board. Ill take pics of the supports later today and see if yall think it will work.


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

What about covering the holes with some spackle then repainting the whole stand to make it blend it, seems your very limited with this stand.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

yea in retrospect its not a very good idea to get this since i cant customize it but i hadnt planned to customize it so now i guess im stuck with it... will post pics later.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

so currently the shelves are held by this:








I can flip the entire shelf upside down and it will fit the tank, but i do not know if it can hold weight properly. There are 4 of those joins in the pic and would have to hold up over 50lbs of stuff with the threads of the screw. Will that be too much? Considering its also particle board, im worried it will just break and fall eventually.


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

drill the holes through then use a nut and bolt and the largest washers you can fit.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

ohhh.. didnt even think of that... what about the strength of the joint? the area connected to the bar doesnt look like its very strong, do you think that part will matter?


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

I'm betting they will hold with 50 or 60 pounds, you can always silicone around the rail area if you want a little extra support.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

OK, so i flipped the shelf as suggested and bolted the board to the frame. However, it looks like the middle has a little bowing happening. I am worried that this will get worse over time. What do you all think? Are there solutions to adding support to that middle board from below without making the overall setup look ugly?


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Thats the problem with fiber board it likes to bow and will only get worse over time, besides tacking a board underneath the fiber board to give it support, best option is to make your own shelf out of a nice piece of wood but this can become expensive quick, depending on how much you to do it to make it belong.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Could just adding one board underneath standing vertically support it? It would split my bottom shelf into a left and right side, which i guess is better than water all over my floor. Would one board work? How thick do you think it would need to be?


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

That could work, since we are only dealing with 5 gallons here I'd say just about any size board would do, 1x3 would be my preference but would take anything I could find in the cull lumber at the hardware store. Just mount them as middle as possible, also mount a board under the bottom shelf to the ground so that one doesn't start bowing too from the weight.


----------



## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Well im not worried about the bottom one because it has a metal frame underneath to support the bottom shelf. The thing is there is a 5g on one side and a 1.5g on the other side so there's at least 70 lbs of weight unevenly distributed on the shelf. I will see if home depot can give me a board that will fit.


----------

