Ideas for 75gal stand...

Raynebowfish · Jun 14, 2008

I have a 75gal tank in my living room, and the stand for it REALLY sucks. Its basically 2x4's glued and screwed together. Its seems sturdy and such, but its WAY too tall for my liking, and it makes me nervous...

I need some ideas on how to build a solid stand, and one that can withstand constant vibration. ***I live in a mobile home, and the highway is roughly 50-100' from my house, and the traffic is constantly vibrating the damn thing*** I need it to have doors, as I have a 2 year old son, and another lil guy due at the end of September (also why I need a shorter stand, I will be too huge to stand on a step ladder comfortably to do water changes LOL )

Any ideas/tips on how to build one would be awesome. I want to make it look nice, yet not cost an arm and a leg. I would want the height of the stand to be maybe 24-26'' tall. I have the general idea of it in my head, but the last time I did any wood work was in high school LOL I think I read some where that putting foam or something like it under the glass helps with vibrations and such..but I can't remember.
Thanks in advance!!!
Sarah

Trippingpara · Jun 14, 2008

Here is a blurb from a post I did on the stand I made for my 55g. The beginning portion of it will give you a basic idea of how I built my frame. My stand was 36" because I am tall but you can make the height whatever you want it to be. I always use a layer of styrofoam under my tanks. This will aid in reducing the vibration. You can also put some under the stand as well.

Trippingpara;1785516; said:
I broke away from traditional stand building in that I did not make a separate top and bottom 'box' connected by support beams. I opted to make two separate sides connected by braces.

The front can be seen in the first photo. The three legs have been notched to accept the two 2x4s. Bottom and middle members were also notched a 3/4". The 2x4s were then glued and screwed together. I kept the bottom 2x4 approximately 2" off the floor so I would be able to make French curves on the bottom face plate.

I then made an identical side for the back. Once I had completed the front and back, I connected 9 braces (I know the photos only show 8, I forgot to put one in the very middle). All braces were connected with glue and pocket holes.

Once the front and back were all braced up, I checked for levelness and had a beer (or two) in celebration. Now it was on to the panels. I used 3/4" cabinet grade plywood. Those were glued and air nailed onto the sides. For the front, I used Grade AA Select Pine to cover the 2x4s. For the end pieces I made Cove moulding with a 1/4 cove router bit. I then made a pilth with a small block of 13/16 pine and used a Roman oglee bit for the bottom of each piece.

In the center brace where the shelves are, I curved the piece out for no other reason than to break up the squareness of it. Next came the doors. They are simply 3/4" plywood with three pieces of pine glued to them. The "drawers" were cut with a 20 degree tilt on the blade for edging. I then used European hinges to mount them. The bottom piece is one long piece with two French curves cut into them with a band saw.

The final piece was the trim to hide the bottom moulding on the tank. It is a large cove piece that I made on my table saw with a 1 1/2" piece of pine on top that has been rounded over.

Inside the stand, I installed an adjustable shelf on one side (although I forgot to show that in my drawings. It is on the side that does not show a door). I took a piece of pegboard for my template and made several 5/16 holes on all four braces. I then used brass pegs to hold the shelf.

Everything was then stained and heavily poly'd over for protection. Everything was purchased at my local Home Depot and Lowes. The total cost was around $125. (that cost includes the canopy too). I hope this makes some sense! This was also my first time trying to use Google Sketch It for the drawings below. They are a lot neater than my drawings although I have no idea why it started turning some parts of it blue! Feel free to PM me or post away if you have any questions. Thanks for all the feedback guys!!