support under the tank

Just curious, is there any standard requirement on how wide from front to back you can have before you put support frame members from front to back. My old tank was 27 inches wide F/B, the frame holding the tank was 4inches from front and 4 inches from back, so there was an opening of about 18-20 inches. The 1 inch bottom of tank was sitting on a 1 inch particle type board 27inches front to back. I think there should be some support from back to font between the 18-20 inches. Is there a recommendation? The new tank will be 96Lx36Hx30W Any recommendations?

I'm not sure about a standard, But........You CANNOT over-build a stand! If you think there might be a support problem keep building until you feel comfortable! Steve

If its a really long tank I'd suggest a 2x6 or 8 for the length support. Beams work better for supporting weight horizontally. I have a smaller tank but I still overbuilt. I used 2x6 for the lengths, 2x4 for the width, and 4x4 for the height/posts.

Assuming your measurements are in inches, thats a 450 gallon tank, which will be 3735 pounds of water alone! That's 186 pounds per square foot. I tried to google for a span calculator for 2x4, 2x6, 2x8 etc. The best thing I could find was this: http://www.awc.org/technical/spantables/tutorial.htm Its a good read.

are you talking about supporting the bottom glass in the middle of the tank? You don't ever want to do that with tanks, if that is your meaning. The only support you want is around the rim of the tank. You can have braces bracing the wood frame, but nothing should ever be touching the bottom

I'm curious to know if your going to add extra support to the floor joists under the tank? Obviously if it will sit on concrete there will be no need for the additional support. What ya think???

This is 1 inch thick acrylic, 'not glass' there has to be support on the bottom from front to back (bracing) depending upon how wide the tank is going to be. With my support around the tank there is a gap of 19 inches from edge of front brace to back brace. There is a 1 inch piece of wood sheating covering the top of the platform. But at some point there needs to be support under that sheathing from front to back. I am adding some to the platform now. but for the past 5 years there was not any. Now that I pulled the tank out because of some issue with seperation from the back panel and top panel in a few places, I was thinking did the lack of support on the bottom contribute to the problem on top.

Thanks

So you have this:

Yes, even thought the diagram is not lined up correctly, that is the jist of my question. I am atually going to install 3 supports, one in the center and then one each left and right centered between the middle support and the end supports. Just want to play it safe. Even thought I am going to loose some valuable space under the tank with those support beams. But I will survive. Thanks Much