DIY 125g tank stand build.

Ulu

Potamotrygon
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BTW, I have a 75 and a 125 on order to replace my 55's. I must come up with three more stands: The 125's plus its hood & two stands as temporary homes for the 55g tanks I am replacing. I will buy a couple 55g Petco steel stands to save time, as they will be temporary, and one will be on the patio. But I might build one nice cabinet from the petco metal frame, as internal structure, with maple doors from my kitchen remodel.

The 125 stand and hood will be furniture quality, from hardwood. I will design it to require the minimum of fancy woodwoorking.
 

Niki_up

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I'm not debating or arguing that 1/8" standing proud is good, because it's not, i agree with you. All I said was that I have mine LEVEL!! with double ply on top and a layer of polystyrene on top of that. If you want to put your engineers hat on and lecture me about how my stand will disintegrate any minute now then feel free, I certainly won't be offended.
I was more or less wondering the reasoning behind having the short posts as I’ve seen several stands with them short.

How long have you had your tank up and running on your
Msg me I can help you with building a stand I’ve build a few
Will do!! After work!
 

Ulu

Potamotrygon
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I have invested a little effort to illustrate the matter in question, as the internet is 99% worthless without pictures.

GAPLOCS.jpg
This shows a section through a typical DIY stand at the posts.

No matter how good you are with a saw, there will be some slight gaps in the construction where I show them.
Those gaps will close under load.
For maximum stability, you don't want the indicated gap to close up first.
To insure this, the laps will always be cut a little short.
 
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Niki_up

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Just wanted to update this post...so I caved and ended up buying a brand new stand...work and school has kept me quite busy. I was unable to find the time to build my stand. :-( it was just worth the money to to buy a stand at this point in time. I also needed to clear out some clutter in time for Xmas as we will have a full house...

On a plus side I finally managed to leak test my tank, it doesn’t leak! Not I have approximately 8-9 weeks to swap tanks and sell my old tank (which isn’t getting any interest on a local selling site).

I haven’t lost my love of the hobby, I still maintain my tanks every week, I’m not losing interest in anything and am very much enjoying the hobby...but I am finding it difficult to find the will/interest to even want to do all this work to swap tanks....how do you get the extra boost you need when you need it?
 
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Ulu

Potamotrygon
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....how do you get the extra boost you need when you need it?
Self hypnosis.

But I cannot tell you how it happens.
Just that people do it every day.

It's often the reason behind seemingly unreasonable behavior.
Like owning ten aquariums. :shakehead
 
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Niki_up

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Self hypnosis.

But I cannot tell you how it happens.
Just that people do it every day.

It's often the reason behind seemingly unreasonable behavior.
Like owning ten aquariums. :shakehead
I don’t mind maintaining my tanks (and who are we kidding I’m close to 10 tanks, I’m at 6)

But this swap is killing me haha
 

Niki_up

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Well I found it...I found the motivation to change out the tanks....the bf asked me a stupid question and ticked me off so I just went and did it (with his help of course)

Now I’m mid tank switch and ran out of prime....fml
 
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