Where to find aquarium stands that won't break the bank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
jvc66 said:
Building the stand really seems like the way to go. I have been thinking about it for the last day on how I would want to construct it since it would be going in a prominent area in the house so it would need to look good. Thinking about just doing normal framing and then having some sort of removable wainscoting fascia that wraps the exterior of the framing to make it presentable? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

you truly won't regret it, especially when you have company over and everyone is like "wow, that stand is beautiful!" and you can say "yup, crafted her myself :D"

but I like where your head is at, I think a finish like that would look absolutely amazing. Especially if you could somehow have your choice of finish or wrapping match what's going on in the tank (in some, slight but noticeable way...)
 
  • Like
Reactions: jvc66
Athletic_Amph said:
you truly won't regret it, especially when you have company over and everyone is like "wow, that stand is beautiful!" and you can say "yup, crafted her myself :D"

but I like where your head is at, I think a finish like that would look absolutely amazing. Especially if you could somehow have your choice of finish or wrapping match what's going on in the tank (in some, slight but noticeable way...)
Click to expand...

Lol hopefully it comes out that good! But I figured that would be the easiest way to cover it up without custom building the whole exterior of the stand with plywood and small doors. This way I can just pull the whole wrap off and have complete access to the sump and anything else hidden underneath. The real question is how to make it sturdy and not flimsy enough to bend when moved away from the stand
 
jvc66 said:
The real question is how to make it sturdy and not flimsy enough to bend when moved away from the stand
Click to expand...

speaking purely on simplicity, you could get some long window curtains and staple them (or create a nice looking brace of some sort) to just drape over the stand. Will conceal everything, and will be extremely simple to move out of the way when going under the tank for maintenance
 
Athletic_Amph said:
speaking purely on simplicity, you could get some long window curtains and staple them (or create a nice looking brace of some sort) to just drape over the stand. Will conceal everything, and will be extremely simple to move out of the way when going under the tank for maintenance
Click to expand...

that was my first thought but with two little dogs running around I figured it might not be the best idea or they would end up swimming in the sump
 
What one guy did sometime last year was to have a steel stand built and then he bought and screwed magnet strips to the back of some nicely finished boards and just stuck them to the stand all in a row so that it looked like a wooden fence type finish. Then, when he had to do maintenance he could pull as many off as he needed to, which could be all of them, in order to have a nice open space to work. If I were to ever look into a new stand for my current tank or a new stand for a new tank then I would definitely look into this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: markstrimaran
jvc66 said:
Luckily I wont have flying hot wheels cars for another couple years! But I will start to look into it now on drilling glass



I am just more nervous of shattering a $700 investment lol. Do you like those overflows? I was initially thinking about doing something like the synergy overflow to minimize and obtrusion's into the tank?



Building the stand really seems like the way to go. I have been thinking about it for the last day on how I would want to construct it since it would be going in a prominent area in the house so it would need to look good. Thinking about just doing normal framing and then having some sort of removable wainscoting fascia that wraps the exterior of the framing to make it presentable? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

If the tank is in a living space then the H2Overflow is pretty loud. However, it does provide excellent surface skimming. I ended up setting up two of mine to run full siphon, which has them sitting about 1/8" under the water line because the noise was too much in my living room. I then replaced the third with a low profile drain from Bulk Reef Supply that sits a little bit higher and actually stays dry while the other two are running full siphon.

I have seen some reed keepers on YouTube that were able to set theirs up for full siphon while keeping the top of the strainer above the water line so that they got good surface skimming and silence, but their tanks were much smaller and had a lot less flow.

I really do like having the whole footprint of the bottom of the tank completely open. With the black background on my tank these things blend right in and are not that noticeable.

IMG_1920.JPG
 
Hi, this is reply to inexpensive stands.....Cinder block stands.........Pile cinder blocks and cap them off with plywood or 2x4's, and then place the tank on top.........I make stands for 180's this way....Cost me less then $50 for a 8 foot tank.........
 
Drilling holes, the fast way, with a 60 ml syringe for water, no template, with a full speed drill. In 60 seconds.
OK So it is nearly "impossible"* . To break a 5/16" or thicker glass, with flowing water, a template, and a slow variable speed drill. Takes about 10 minutes.

20160507_162251.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom