alright so I hav a 55g which is 48" long, I have a 30g sump under it, now my question is with a stand, do you NEED middle supports, or can I just have some 2X4's on each corner for the support? This is what the stand looks like. Note that in each corner there are 2- 2X4's making it total of 4 for each side.

from what I understand as long as the four corners are supported the tank will be fine. the weight is distributed to the corners where the glass meets (hope i explained that right) lol

alright thats what I had though but wanted to make sure. I figured it would be much of a problem seeing that the tank really isnt that big. Thanks.....if anyone else has any comments on this, please chime in.

hey glx, my stand doesnt have a center brace, and its a big tank. you should be fine, just make sure you run a 2x4 across the front, on its side, that will help support the middle.

glx
you should be fine without center brace. I custom built my stand for 156gal and milled the horizontals on a jointer which made them perfectly flat. That beening said after the tank was filled I noticed the corners were the only points of the tank touching. hope that made sense?

well I put the tank on the stand and water sand and rock is in there and all is good so far. I'm not so worried anymore, I think it'll be just fine.

Lee, Like Andy said, just make sure you have a 2x4 going lengthwise from corner to corner. This will transfer any center load to the ends. It would be best if the lengthwise 2x4 is sideways and rested on top of the first 2x4 on each corner. Here's a cheesy pic I threw together real quick, sorry about the colors, just wanted you to be able to distinguish between the different boards...




http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h46/244268/Fish%20Stuff%20For%20Sale/StandFrame.jpg






David

thanks david, but I just used the stand as it was and it seems to be holding...for now, lol. You can see it here:

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4672

basically the 2x4's are shaped like an L then the top 2x4 is layed on top of that....dang that almost doesnt make any sense....hmmm maybe you'll understand, lol. At any rate I threw the front and back 2x4 that I took out on the sides as added support but actually do nothing. Once the whole stand is built with sides and whatnot I'm sure all the supports will be a tad stronger so I'm really not worried anymore. thanks for all the help guys!