Fish Tank Stand

hey everyone,

I was talking to my brother in law last night and we came up with an idea, so far we were unable to find any drawbacks to the idea, maybe some of your'll might find some...i have a 5ft stand for my 5ft tank, but the problem is that if i decided to move my tank to a new location i would have to drain out all the water, remove the decorations, substrate and hopefully not crack any of the glass panels...so, we were thinking of putting wheels on the stand, obviously its going to be the wheels you use on a 2 ton hydraulic jack, but the swivel type, my stand is 30mm tubing...3 wheels on each side of the stand, so the weight is distributed evenly on the wheels...any thoughts???

 

Thats a good idea Jesse, The wheels you are referring to are called castor wheels.

Just be careful, they have a load limit, so work out what you tank weighs and then get castor wheels that are up to spec. The really small one handle about 10kg per wheel, the bigger ones can go all the way up to 50kgs per wheel.

Just another thing, the good quality ones are expensive, but I'm sure that you'll understand that its worth not having one of the wheels collapse at 3am in morning.

 

9 wheels... 3 in the middle also?? Or as much as you can add.

I would do 13. 5 in front. 5 in the back. and 3 down the middle.

 

Moving something with water in it on wheels are always loads of fun

 

actually i was thinking of 6 wheels, lol...maybe i didn't explain so well, three in front and three at the back...

 

Vis has a point - fill one of those buckets with wheels on it with water and take it for a ride. You'll end up losing quite a bit of water anyway, and the decorations might topple as well.

 

some tiles may crack when those wheels hit a weak spot

 

luckily my floor aint tiled, stick on tiles...plus SA, i don't plan on moving it with 200l of water still inside, i would've syphon out about 75l...and then move the tank...

 

Jesse the way water behave when moved in something it will direct force to one of the panels
Of the tank so keep that in mind when moving it.

 

i think wheels would be fine, i did consider it when i made a stand in dec, just syphon out half of the content. and moooovee slowwwly

 

Hi Jesse

I ve built a frame with wheels, 2 front 2 middle 2 back on 30 mm of angle iron, just move it very slowely and drain your tank as empty as you can - otherwise you'll be fine

 

wow, thanks fonkie, but if i get this 200l container then i might not have to...but i'm glad that its been done before, so ican do it now

 

Good idea,jus remember that the wheels are not load bearing supports,whilst they may carry the weight(weight continually distributed on the circumferance of the wheel)they where not designed to carry a load on one point for prolonged periods of time,may collapse or not.I work on surety not maybe's when it comes to tanks...jus my 2c worth

 

Hmmmm.... everyone makes a valid point...

Let me put my take into perspective:

200 litres dispersed over 6 legs = 33kg per leg. Not too bad.

A wheel is round (Duh) so the 33kg's would actually be acting on a single point of the wheel. This load would be troublesome, in my opinion.

The other problem is that unless this castor is made of some magic material... the castor wheel would then land up with a "dead spot". Meaning when you push it, the wheel won't turn because the load would have flattened the underside.

There is also a problem in that the weakness of a castor is in the fork... and I think if pushed incorrectly, this fork will cause the wheel to buckle, and boom... there goes the tank.

Theory is great... but I think practically... this one won't work.

 

To be very honest I agree with you Zoom
but I supose to is also depends on the size of the tank, 30lt tank on wheels should work fine bit 200lt on wheels will be a disaster

 

hmmm, your all make valid points...and thanks for the feedback, just have to research stronger wheels i guess....

 

Check it out, these guys have castors that can handle up to 10 000kg per wheel!
You can move the whole Two Oceans Oceanarium on those babies!

http://www.castorandladder.co.za/castors.htm#LT Swivel Series

Some more info:
http://www.saladder.co.za/Extra_Heavy_Industrial_Castors.html

 

I have a 2ft tank that sits on a metal stand with wheels, can be moved easily, but its small and light compared to a 5ft...

Zoom brings foward some good points, I think the trich is in the size of the wheel.