Do the additional centre supports need to be right in the centre?

[Daven]

So I am hoping to build a 60"x18"x20" tank and will of course need a stand. I was thinking of building the inside of the stand to also house my corn snake and two leopard gecko "tanks" instead of a sump or other storage. I was thinking that I could have the 3 feet on the one side for the snake, and the remaining 2 feet I would split in to two levels (top and bottom) for the separated geckos. My main thought on this is that it would be ugly to have the centre boards right in the middle, making a random joist 6" from the side of the larger side. My question is, will it matter if I shift the "centre" supporting boards to be slightly off centre? (There would be 2feet to one side, and 3 feet to the other)

Hopefully this is is clear enough for you guys to see what I'm hoping for. Also, I will be using joeys stand design and just adding boards inside to make the different areas. With sliding glass doors likely for the front of each

[Meep]

No the braces do not need to be centered, the 'span' between the uprights is what is important, not their locations... Center is just the easy option as it creates two equal spans, as long as the overall span between uprights (be it the center and outside leg or two centers) is not too great you can move the braces around...

Also by design these common 2x4 stands are almost always completely over engineered, lots of give in the design before things go south...

[Daven]

I made a quick drawing to show the basic design thoughts

[Daven]

Thanks for the reply! That's what I had thought it would be, but I definitely wanted to be sure lol