Stand Failure: Common or rare?

[FINWIN]

After my recent experience with a collapsed stand due to someone's ignorance, has anyone experienced a sudden or slow failure of a stand?

I've been fortunate on 2 occasions. The recent issue where I rescued the 40 gallon in time as the stand fell down, and

Three years ago the previous stand for the 225 (wood cabinet type) started bowing and giving way. The doors got so out of alignment they wouldn't close properly. I remember posting in my main thread pictures showing the vertical failure stress lines under the paint, right at the 2 x 4 joints at the corner on one side. Drained the tank in panic, moved fish to a spare bathtub and called Batfish Aquatics (they're a local distributor of Custom Aquariums where I bought the tank). Four guys came and put the tank on a dolly I have. It stayed that way until I ordered the current metal/aluminum stand. They came back out and put the tank back and it was all good after that.

When I had time to think about it I suspect the safety factor of the old stand couldn't have been much more than 1. It LOOKED sturdy with the built in table top (the back was partially open), but clearly was just able to hold the weight but not over time. The static weight was clearly too much.

I'm almost suspicious of any cabinet/or wood builds not done custom now. So for the 40s I'm moving on to metal, which was the plan from the beginning. The tanks in my office are all on metal. Only exception will be the boxy tank when I get it set up.

Ever see a stand with warning signs all over it?

 

[Midwater]

I had an eight foot tank on a custom wood stand, made from cheap MDF, that started to decay. I have had stands made from thin mild steel with a few spot welds, good enough to hold the weight until the rust sets in.

Now I am more careful, and pay much attention to stands. I have got a solid hardwood stand, a stainless steel stand with full welds, and for my twelve foot, I have a reinforced concrete stand.

 

[tlindsey]

Ever see a stand with warning signs all over it?

Yes a stand that was sold with a 180gal. The stand was built with pressed wood. Water got on the pressed wood causing it to absorb water and deteriorate. I noticed the stand started to bow and made me extremely nervous. Tbh the stand held up for years. The aquarium was assembled in 1995 according to the sticker beneath the tank. I'm assuming the stand was built around the same time. Built a stand for the 180 gallon year 2017.

 

[tlindsey]

Yes a stand that was sold with a 180gal. The stand was built with pressed wood. Water got on the pressed wood causing it to absorb water and deteriorate. I noticed the stand started to bow and made me extremely nervous. Tbh the stand held up for years. The aquarium was assembled in 1995 according to the sticker beneath the tank. I'm assuming the stand was built around the same time. Built a stand for the 180 gallon year 2017.

Tbh don't know how common or rare the failures are.

 

[FINWIN]

Tbh don't know how common or rare the failures are.

I dunno maybe my situation has been a fluke. But I discovered the wood stand for the 225 was soon "not available" and hasn't returned since.

 

[jjohnwm]

Stands with "I'm gonna collapse soon!" written all over them are frequently seen even here on MFK. People using old coffee tables and dressers and desks and who-knows-what else, usually cheaply constructed and falling apart from their own weight, let alone the added load of an aquarium on top.

But that's just silliness and cheapness on the part of owners. The really scary part is how many commercially made stands are offered...which are made of MDF, particleboard, chipboard, whatever you want to call it. Might as well construct a stand out of sugar cubes. Building an aquarium stand out of a material that is pretty much useless when it gets wet is utterly ridiculous, but it's cheap and easy and that's what is used.

It's obvious why they do it. On paper, the material is more than strong enough to support the weight in question. All they need to do is put in the fine print somewhere to keep it dry, and they're golden. The owner gets a stand that is...again, on paper...sturdy enough to do the job. Then one day, there is a leak...or an overflow...or a major spill...or something else that dumps enough water onto the stand and the cheap engineered-compressed-garbage material soaks it up and swells and cracks and...it's show time!