good job this is what i got for 50 bucks in wood at home depot i went the other route and put it right on the ground as my coffee table
Building a Tank stand for 65g
- Thread starter shinypenny
- Start date
Tylervsmith;1165220; said:thats a BEEFY stand.... good job... SO FAR
Thanks, The idea was to make it beefy as this is my first stand. It's better to spend an extra $5 on wood now than watch it all come crashing down in a few weeks.
joespence;1167990; said:
Kudos to you for trying something different. I like to be able to sit on the couch and have the tank at eye level, so I raised the stand. I had thought of coffee table stands before but never with sich a big tank (often floates ideas of using a smaller tank in a coffee table still raised). It'll be interesting to see how it looks once it's full of fish. Some of the bottom dwellers would look particularly good, as that is probably the part of the tank that you will see best.
ya the bottom does definitly look the best when its lit up properly its pretty clear even threw the top except where the condensation is dense i still gotta build the light hood and paint what i'm going to paint of it and add snap clips to hold everything together the idea was to make it so it was the same height as a normal coffee table but not look outof place in the room i made the box to seal off the space where the hoses go off to the filter and to prevent my cat from getting at it and getting hair in there and it give you more table space at the same time i might put a light in the top of the filter hood and then build a table length light hood so it can be real bright then just have independant lighting controls maybe on remote control i get crazy like that
when i get thisplace cleaned up and the tank it finnished i'll take some full setup pics you can get a better perception of what'd belike sitting there i had to stand on the couch to take that picture
when i get thisplace cleaned up and the tank it finnished i'll take some full setup pics you can get a better perception of what'd belike sitting there i had to stand on the couch to take that picture
So now I've got the base, top and sides done there is one piece left, the doors. I elected to leave the back open because no-one will see it and it makes plumbing easier.
So I had a look around, initially I thought that I would buy a pair of doors, and there was nothing! I mean unless you want to spend $40, which was about what I was planning on spending on the whole damn thing. So eventually I backed into a corner and decided to build my own doors. I think the wood for the doors must have cost about $4 total and the hinges weren't much, handles were 50c each from memory. So much better value all around.
Explaining how I built the doors is tricky, so it's probably easier to do it by showing you guys 'n' gals
The pic below shows the basic structure, the door is made up of vertical planks held together by a couple of horizontal planks. Nothing fancy.
So now I need to fit the handles and hinges, which is pretty straightforward, even for a novice like me. Note, I'm saying it's easy to attach a hinge to the door, not to get the door to hang straight.
So now I have all the pieces and I'm about to put it together, and I think about it, and it's all untreated wood. Maybe I should do something about that eh, not least to stop it getting water stains from aquarium drips.
I decided to clear varnish it, so it's quite hard to see from the pics, but the stand is now "finished".
Oh, except I still have to fill it with water, which is the worrying part. I mean anyone can build a stand, it's getting it to hold 550lb that's the tricky bit.
So I had a look around, initially I thought that I would buy a pair of doors, and there was nothing! I mean unless you want to spend $40, which was about what I was planning on spending on the whole damn thing. So eventually I backed into a corner and decided to build my own doors. I think the wood for the doors must have cost about $4 total and the hinges weren't much, handles were 50c each from memory. So much better value all around.
Explaining how I built the doors is tricky, so it's probably easier to do it by showing you guys 'n' gals
The pic below shows the basic structure, the door is made up of vertical planks held together by a couple of horizontal planks. Nothing fancy.
So now I need to fit the handles and hinges, which is pretty straightforward, even for a novice like me. Note, I'm saying it's easy to attach a hinge to the door, not to get the door to hang straight.
So now I have all the pieces and I'm about to put it together, and I think about it, and it's all untreated wood. Maybe I should do something about that eh, not least to stop it getting water stains from aquarium drips.
I decided to clear varnish it, so it's quite hard to see from the pics, but the stand is now "finished".
Oh, except I still have to fill it with water, which is the worrying part. I mean anyone can build a stand, it's getting it to hold 550lb that's the tricky bit.
Merbeast;1179774; said:Good job. Wanna make one for me
Thanks,
It's not that hard really. I was a complete novice (the last time I made anything was fixing together some bird boxes with my dad when I was 8ish) and the stand turned out alright. I mean there are a few things i'd do to improve the asthetics next time, and a few things i'd do better just from practice, but to find out about these things you have to jump in and try it out for yourself.
Although, thinking about it, it'd probably be better to start off with a slightly lighter tank, then when you do heavier tanks you'll have refined the design to make sure that it's secure.
Do you think this would work for a 75g that is 60Lx13w I'm not sure the heighth...and yes I know it's an odd size for a 75 but that is the measurements. My cousin works at a welding company and was suppose to make a stand for me but it's been close to a year now and my tank is still sitting empty and driving me crazy. I was thinking about building a stand my self out of wood.
What type of wood did you use? If you already said I'm sorry I must of missed it.
What type of wood did you use? If you already said I'm sorry I must of missed it.
Lady G;1182814; said:
Hi,
I think that it should work well for your tank. I would make sure to put a few supports front-back because if is quite long+skinny. But the length should work to your advantage, you can use it to spread the weight over more legs, and have more storage space than I have
The wood I used was basic cheap untreated pine from the nearest Home Depot / Lowes. For the corner legs I used 2"x4" and for the center legs and the cross supports I used 2"x3". It all came in 8' lengths (I think) so a big car is helpful to get it home. other than that the wood on the side of the stand is cheap (less than $2 per 8' length) 1"x3" and the top is 3/4" plywood. The base of the inside of the drawer was made of 1/4" plywood, but that's just for asthetics and doesn't do a thing to hold the tank up in the air.
I hope you try it, it's definatly worth it. And once you've done it once, you'll be a pro!!
Seriously, one of the reasons that I did the stand was that this could save me major $$ in future if I graduate to a larger tank but have the experience to feel comfortable doing something similar for a stand. The bigger stands are very expensive.