Need advice with a building project....

[Paddy]

There is a nice alcove in the living room (ground floor) our new house which would be perfect for a new fish tank. The tank i have in mind is 60*18*24 (inches). I would keep my existing tank (36*15*18) as a sump for underneath.

I therefore need to obtain a cabinet to house the tanks. So essentially I need a five foot cabinet which has a cupboard one foot wide, and another compartment 4feet wide.

My concerns are:

1) Will the floor support this weight? - I assume that I will need to distribute the weight evenly using a lintle.
2) Will the top of the cabinet be able to support the weight of the 5foot tank - especially as there is going to be a 48*20*20+ cupboard underneath.
3) What should I make this out of?

My DIY skills are fairly crappy, so if anyone knows how i could obtain a custom built cabinet i'd be gratfull!

Cheers!

[KvHagedorn]

There are cabinetmakers all over the place. If you could estimate the weight of the full tank and add 10%, tell them you need to support that amount of weight. I would think a stout 2x4 framework, with 4x4 legs and covered in whatever nice hardwood exterior you want, would be sufficient. Check the framing in the basement below to make sure all is well. You might want a structural engineer's advice at that point. (We are lucky here in this respect.. almost all foundations are concrete.) Oh, be sure to use hefty bolts and screws in that cabinet.

The weight of the water involved would be 937.5 lbs for the large tank, and 351.5 lbs for the small tank, adding the weight of the cabinet and whatever rocks are inside the tank, etc, you should have a load there of about 1500 lbs (water is 62.5 lbs/ cubic foot).

[Dilitante1]

what you didnt tell us is the floor, is it wooden? if so, how large are the studs/decking? easier to tell how much support it would have

[az]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
The weight of the water involved would be 937.5 lbs for the large tank, and 351.5 lbs for the small tank, adding the weight of the cabinet and whatever rocks are inside the tank, etc, you should have a load there of about 1500 lbs (water is 62.5 lbs/ cubic foot).

See? That's why the metric system is better: Water is 1 Kg / l

AZ

[Dilitante1]

metrics? ugg

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by az
See? That's why the metric system is better: Water is 1 Kg / l

AZ

Fine. now tell me how many liters are in a 15 cubic foot tank.

And suppose it was not water, but gasoline? Or Mercury?

[KvHagedorn]

Really cool tanks..

http://www.aquarium-design.com/portfolio.html

[Greebe]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
Fine. now tell me how many liters are in a 15 cubic foot tank.

424.75305 L

And suppose it was not water, but gasoline?

the same...

Or Mercury?

the same again.

Now if you asked how much that volume weighed...

[KvHagedorn]

Well, that's what I meant, smartypants.

[SitFlyer]

1 cubic foot of pure water weighs 62.4 pounds
15 cu ft would be 936 pounds

Weights of materials

[Greebe]

everyone should get a Pocket Ref, very concise, very handy...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1885071337/102-2991483-8691310?v=glance

[SitFlyer]

My reference says 1 cubic foot = 28.3168466 liters

28.3168466 * 15 = 424.752699

[Greebe]

That difference is about a drop of water (0.000351 L), hardly worth mentioning.

[Paddy]

It is a new house, so I assume it will be wooden floor boards on concrete foundations (no basement).

What would i need to use as the top of the cabinet? Its not going to be that well supported giving that it will have a large cupboard underneath????


Any carpenters here?

[Greebe]

Paddy I'll go and check out some cabinets for that size tank tommorrow (later today) and report back

I've looked at them before, almost bought that size or a 175gallon one about 4 years ago... anywho it's been too long and I've slept since then