question about pre-made stands for a 55gal

[riggs2k]

a guy at my LFS was encouraging me to purchase a stand i believe is made of melamine, and it does clearly say on the box that it is made for aquariums mesuring 48x13. but do these stands have pre-determined weight maximums? i'm headed for a 65 gallon and it seems to have the same width as the 55 gal but higher (therefore heavier)....and it will be about 3 feet from where i sleep...i don't wanna wake-up in a flood...thanks for all your expertise help. :?:

[Gryz]

I would say it will hold the 55g, but I would not push it with the 65g..that is around 100 more lbs...

Though you could always reinforce the whole stand with 2x4's

[segen77]

I'm no legal expert or anything, but I can't imagine a LFS selling you something that wont hold up. That seems like to much liability and potential for a law suit IMO. You can always get them to put it in writing that it will hold just in case anything does happen down the road. The way I see it, if a LFS isn't willing to put something they say in writing then they are probably trying to pull one over on you.

[gman0526]

Too many variables in that situation for a LFS to commit to signing anything. I wouldn't, the LFS has no way of controlling what happens after the stand is sold. What's to say a customer won't fill the tank with 200 pds of LR a SB and water.

If you're not sure I encourage you to build your own, might turn out to be a fyn project, and that way you'll be 100% it'll hold.

Im with Gman on that line of thinking too. Yeah I got one of those stands from the factory with my 125 but I dont have a warm fuzzy about it and walk pretty gingerly past it in the living room. One day I will quit procrastinating and chunk that stand too and build one like I have for the dozen or so other tanks I have...at least if its going to be close to me when Im sleeping! Suprises aint cool....

[riggs2k]

you gus are right, you are like my concience in my head...telling me to build my own. i'll probably keep the stand i have now but re-inforce it with 2X4's. it's already holding my 40gal with LR and a SB but it definatly needs to be re-inforced for the other one.

[stpetehxc]

build your own, that way you can customize it to hold your sump/refug and a qt tank. g/l

[maxwellwhothunk]

Yeah I built my own too, its great because then you can have everthing match very well. I just need to finish mine off, I dont know what I want to do, stain/paint or just as is.