Cracked panel in Perfecto Stand ! Time to panic ?

[mikerobart]

Noticed the other day the door on my standard cheapo perfecto stand would not close properly... now I see why. The wood panel at the point where the screws fasten the hinge hardware to the stand has cracked. This area has gotten a bit damp when my sock has overflowed and created some salt spray. Wood is dry now but almost appears to be buckled and the crack has me worried. I don't see any other cracks on the stand. The tank is *mostly* level... I have it shimmed underneath with cedar shims. Basement floor here is horribly slanted ... this was pretty much the best I could achieve.

I also see that there is a gap between the thin flat bottom plywood and the triangular corner braces in two corners.

If someone would chime in and tell me I am not about to have catastrophic failure that might help me sleep better tonight.

My easiest option to save some piece of mind would be to fit a plywood vertical tightly under the stand to provide support to the area this cracked vertical supports. I might be able to go to home depot tomorrow or if I'm lucky find a piece tonight I can cut and attach. For now I have my level wedged as a support but I think I might be over-thinking this a bit.

I swear I have hear some creaking and groaning in the stand and must have been this part cracking.

Ideas?

Cracked Section:



Corner brace lifted from bottom plywood

\

Front level


left side level


right side level



normal corner brace, no gap

[mikerobart]

In addition, the small piece of wood trim the doors close against (the top of the opening) appears very loose. What worries me is the center cross brace the tank sits on itself is supported in the front by this loose piece. Strange design... this piece of trim is attached to the rest of the frame only by some staples... and the weight of the tank on the center brace is transferred directly onto this piece. Normally you would want a support piece like that to be sitting on a vertical that goes right to the ground. Yikes. Looking more and more like I should put in a vertical support.

[bt]

That's..... hmm.

I'm trying to figure out how it's designed to bear the load.  Are there any vertical supports that aren't ply?

[mikerobart]

I guess a lot of it is some kind of hardwood like pine? Actually all of the vertical panels look like they are. There are three cross pieces that the tank sits on. The end pieces are supported by the vertical supports at each far side. The middle cross piece however... at least the front of it, appears to only be supported by this short piece of trim that is stapled to the rest of the paneling. I suppose this front piece may not actually experience much load and most is distributed to corners and along the back. I hope this is the case.

[salvini55]

The black trim is hard to justify a level tank with, Itself may not be square on the glass. But all in all those photos scare me  

[Cheebs]

Mike, I would not be able to sleep comfortably with this.. It may not be an emergency, but it looks very sketchy indeed.

[Yams]

Well... the biggest problem with this is, if it cracked a little, it will eventually crack more. Depending how long it took to get this far, it will only get worse, not better. I cannot tell from the photo's how the tank is supported, and I am not sure I fully understand with the explanation, but if it cracked there once, it will only crack further.

The water spilled on the wood might have helped it along, but its now at a point where you have a 1000lbs tank sitting on top of a structurally unsafe stand...which probably will crack further sooner or later. I'd make a plan to fix it, or get a new stand. As stated above, if it cracks once, it will only crack worse next time, and maybe fold under the weight of the 90Gal tank I assume is sitting on it.

(in my basement, one of the windows does not have a steel brace over it, and it had cracked due to the weight of the house being placed on a window with no brace overtop. One night, around 2am I hear "Smash" and the window shattered in the basement, guess the weight eventually instead of further cracking the window pushed it out, causing it to shatter. Well, now you have an aquarium... hate to see that break.)

[mikerobart]

Alright so for now I have wedged a piece of wood vertically to support the area if this cracked section failed completely. I am contemplating a more permanent solution.... which will probably be a more permanent extra vertical support in this area.

I hope I become comfortable with a fix in place solution as opposed to tearing down tank and replacing stand. I think I should be able to cut in some supports to fit perfectly and wedge these in.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.