chuck

Yes, you are looking at 8lbs/gallon plus the weight of the sandbed. Also, the weight of the tank itself should be factored in, as well as the weight of your canopy.

You can use various calculators to determine weight. Here are a few: http://www.dfwmas.org/calculators

My reef tank weighed 1200 lbs according to the trucking company who actually put it on a scale before delivery. I added 450 lbs of sand to the tank. There was at least 120 lbs of sand in the refugium, I believe. 2400 lbs of water (300g of water volume). The steel stand took four of us to move it, so I'm going to estimate it at 400 lbs. (Two of us were unable to get it where it had to go in my backyard upon arrival) 200 lbs of live rock was added. My system is just shy of 5000 lbs I'd say. And it sits on 21 square feet on a slab foundation.

A gallon of saltwater, at 1.025sg, weighs 8.7125lbs. The volume of the sand bed, will displace an equal amount by volume of water... Same can be said about the lr, although estimating lr volume is tricky.

All things to be taken into account when estimating te weight.

ty for the link very handy calculators

wow good thing you are on a concrete slab as that is one heavy aquarium!! make mine look like a picotope lol

so for my ~ 33 gal. nano setup (24x20x16) I will be looking at 264# water volume, 45# sand (2" bed) from the handy link calculator, ?? # live rock.... so a min. of 310# per shelf

I guesstimate at 10lbs/gallon.

Reefer's rule of thumb: If you can't park a tank on it, make it stronger! Make sure that there is even weight distribution like this:

This is an old picture, the stand is the same, but the sump and all that crud is now in the garage

@ Midnight lol very true can't be to careful was trying to get an idea of lbs / sq ft to decide on plywood thickness

i am working on designing an engineered masterpiece for my stand will post pictures when i get it finished

i also usually go with about 10lbs/gal. its definitely better to be safe than sorry.

when building my stand for my 45 i absolutely over build it, however considering all the time and money we put in to our tanks, the last thing we want is our stand to fail because we couldn’t spend the extra $100.

just a suggestion for the top of your stand. If you have a local stone countertop store see if they will let you pick through the scraps, i was able to pick up a beautiful piece of black granite big enough for my stand super cheap and you never have to worry about water drips warping it

@ baker.shawn it is funny that you suggest a granite piece for the top.... i have been contemplating doing that I have a stone countertop manufacturer that is about 10 miles from my house

I would definitely do it! i have about 6" of extra stone to the left and right of my tank, it works great as a small work station and wipes up extremely easy if i forget to wipe it...it doesn’t matter, no staining or warping not to mention my tank heats the stone so my cat loves to lay on it and watch the fish
PLUS when ppl come over and see granite it adds a bit of wow factor.

lol what do the fish think about the cat sitting there watching them drooling