Anyone here built a fish tank stand before?

[Robert Mayer]

Robert, if you look through this thread you will find a couple of examples of aquarium stands.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=3235

Remember to post some pic’s!

i did a search before posting this thread and didnt see that link. The tank with cherry wood is nice. Looks pretty close to what i sketched.

[Dale Thompson]

Robert,
Don't go overboard on the wood that you use. Visibility into the aquarium is of utmost importance and shouldn't be blocked by unnecessary structural members. I have a 150 gallon aquarium and a "store bought" stand.
I couldn't build it for what it cost me. The "footprint" is about 74" by 19" and, as you can see from the pics, there are no internal structural supports. The stand has been in place for over five years with NO problems. The trick is to transfer the weight (force) to the front, back and side supports. This is done with 1"x4" rails. The base is 3/4" Oak with a lot of openings in both the front and the back as you can see. If the frame is square, all of the weight is in the form of compression on the supporting members.

Consider this before you waste a lot of wood and obscure the action in the tank. Red Oak can support a load of nearly 4,500 lb/sq." in compression. What does that mean? DUH? What it means is that a standard 1x4 (3/4"x3 1/2") can support a load of close to 12,000 lbs in compression parallel to the grain. While this is an extreme example, it is theoretically true.

At 8.34 lb/gal, the water in my tank weighs 1251 pounds. Add 100 pounds for gravel and stuff and another 100 pounds for the "top", and we are dealing with something less that 1500 lbs.

OK! My point is: DON'T COVER THE FISH WITH A LOT OF REDUNDANT CONSTRUCTION MEMBERS!!

[Mark Patoka]

Here is the stand I built for our 42 gal aquarium. It is 3/4" oak plywood except for the solid oak raised panel in front. Since it's a hexagon stand, I have 4 vertical pieces that hold up all the weight. It's very solid and I'm not worried about it giving way. After seeing the stands in the stores, I built this for half the price and it matches our existing furniture.

[Dale Thompson]

Here is the stand I built for our 42 gal aquarium. It is 3/4" oak plywood except for the solid oak raised panel in front. Since it's a hexagon stand, I have 4 vertical pieces that hold up all the weight. It's very solid and I'm not worried about it giving way. After seeing the stands in the stores, I built this for half the price and it matches our existing furniture.

Mark,
The aquarium looks great and your view is totally unobstructed. It's obvious that you planned this well and didn't block anyone's view. KUDOS to you!

I was planning to build my own - but I didn't. A dealer in Green Bay had a 150 gal. system which he was trying to "dump". It matched our rec room furniture and was priced at $550. That included the stand, tank, heater, filters, thermometer and gravel. I had to buy the rocks, plastic plants and the fish. I even got a 20% discount on those. What could I do but "cop out" on a "store bought" unit? Forgive me!?

Dale T.



Dale T.

[sascha gast]

finally somebody getting into fish.
i have built these 2 systems withing the last year. 90g reef with 24g refugium and my monster 300g. i did all the woodwork, designed the filtration and had is built for me, did all the plumbing. the 90g is bubinga, the 300g is mahogany. i did overbuild, but the 300g weighs in at about 3500 pounds, it's built out of 13 2x4's. i love saltwater tanks, if you have any questions, let me know

sascha

[Dale Thompson]

finally somebody getting into fish.
i have built these 2 systems withing the last year. 90g reef with 24g refugium and my monster 300g. i did all the woodwork, designed the filtration and had is built for me, did all the plumbing. the 90g is bubinga, the 300g is mahogany. i did overbuild, but the 300g weighs in at about 3500 pounds, it's built out of 13 2x4's. i love saltwater tanks, if you have any questions, let me know

sascha

Sascha,
You do OUTSTANDING work my friend. Talent never ceases to amaze me and make me VERY jealous! I have never gotten into salt water fish. Even ONE of those beautiful creatures is worth more than my house and cabin combined. Anyway, I have always heard that a salt water aquarium is a hobby in itself. I just don't have the time for another hobby.

At my age, I'm stretched. My hobbies are woodworking, 1:32 slot cars, air hockey, snowmobiling, boating, 97+ year-old ladies and lots of naps. GADS! I need a nap just THINKING about it!

Dale T.

[Joe Scarfo]

Robert,

I've built a number of stands for local restaraunts and Dr.'s Offices.

In short....

First I build the toe kick. Basically 2 x 4 frame with the same skin that will cover the stand.

Atop the tie kick goes the base (usually 3/4 plywood) for the inside. It's screwed and glued to the toe kick.

I kreg jig (glue and screw) the 2x4's to the base. Two in each corner plus 1 every 18" or so along the front and back. I'll expand that distance on the front of the stand if I'm building doors for the front.

I also kreg jig (glue and screw) the top to the 2x4's. This top piece of 3/4" ply is where the aquarium will actually sit and MUST be dead flat. if it's not, the corner joints on the aquarium and may cause a leak.

Once the frame is build, I add the skin. usually raised panels made to fit. I keep the back open by only putting ply 1/2 up the back. This provides ventilation for both humidity and heat from the pump. O'wise the water may heat up.

Drop me a note if you need more info. I've built a number of these things for different clients. A local Aquarium Maint Co has found my number and contacts me to build them for their new clients.

Good Luck.

Joe

[sascha gast]

on a different note, i am very passionate about fish, but if you think about doing salt water, think twice. it's a ton of money. so far i have had about 8 tanks from 12 to 300 gallon. the last 2 that are left are about $6000 each in just equipment. my electric bill is about $850 for 2 months. the reef get 1100 watt of light for 12 hrs/day, the big one 880 watts. and that's just lights. both tanks have about 4000g/hour of waterflow on huge pumps.
please think twice to do salt, the critters will thank you.

sascha

[Robert Mayer]

Were definitely doing fresh water. My wife likes the Cichlids (sp?). We saw some people who really overstocked the tank with them and it looks very cool. The cichlids are pretty cheap. Right now I dont have a joiner. I just acquired a couple old stanley planes, but its going to take a couple weeks until I can get them tuned and learn how to use them. So I am limited to using wood that is already flat and square. I like the poplar the local lowes here has so Im going to use that for most of it and get some or the veneered plywood from the local woodcraft.

Any ideas for which type of veneered plywood to mix with poplar and what stain looks the best?

[Aaron Heck]

Anyone ever build a stand and canopy for the bowfront tanks? I had a 90g reef a while back and would like to get back into the hobby. I've been looking at the smaller tanks and the 47 bowfront looks really nice, excpet for the fact that they don't build a canopy for it. I guess you'd have to get into wood bending? Never done anything like that before.....

Aaron

[Bruce Page]

Were definitely doing fresh water. My wife likes the Cichlids (sp?). We saw some people who really overstocked the tank with them and it looks very cool. The cichlids are pretty cheap. Right now I dont have a joiner. I just acquired a couple old stanley planes, but its going to take a couple weeks until I can get them tuned and learn how to use them. So I am limited to using wood that is already flat and square. I like the poplar the local lowes here has so Im going to use that for most of it and get some or the veneered plywood from the local woodcraft.

Any ideas for which type of veneered plywood to mix with poplar and what stain looks the best?

Robert, just an FYI on cichlids. You will rarely find cichlids mixed in with other fish at the fish store. The reason, cichlids are very aggressive and will kill just about any other tropical fish. Cichlids come in a wide range of colors and live for years, even decades, but they are not community fish.

Enjoy!