My 75G DIY Stand

jon770

jon770

Member
I recently built a DIY stand for my 75 gallon tank, and decided to post the process for everyone to see and learn from my mistakes. In the end, I am VERY happy with the results, but there were definitely some bumps on the road…
Let me first say that I, by NO means, am a carpenter – or anything resembling one. I have pretty much never built anything in my life, besides maybe, a science fair project back in grade school…and even that was mostly completed by my father. I had some help along the way with the stand from a couple people, including the use of my in-laws extensive tool collection – but this was done mostly on my own.
Include the fact that I am a devout perfectionist…and this whole thing was one big headache.
Ok, enough of the intros – here we go...
 
jon770

jon770

Member
This is the top section of my support structure. For the front horizontal support I used a 2x6 instead of a 2x4. I did this because (as you will see later), I did not put in a front vertical 2x4 support beam in the middle on the stand (but I still have one in the back). I left that out because I wanted to have one big opening underneath the stand so I can mess around with everything inside. So I used the 2x6 to try and make up for some of the lost support in not having a center vertical support.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
This is a shot of the base with the vertical beams put in place. As you can see, there is no center vertical support in the front of the stand. I still have the one in back.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
This is the whole support structure complete. Again, there is no center support in front. However, last minute I got worried and added two more 2x4’s on each end in the front. I just wanted to be SURE that the stand was sturdy – and believe me…this thing can whole a Mack truck at this point.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
This is a shot of the back of the stand. I’m not sure why I’m including this picture – but here it is anyway…
 
jon770

jon770

Member
OK – now we’re getting somewhere. This is the stand after the skin was put on and the back piece was also put on. I decided to leave a small open strip (4-5 inches) on the back so that I could run the wires wherever they needed to go – but it is still mostly enclosed to reduce noise and light. On the front (like an idiot) I originally put on ½ inch red oak and planned on staining it after it was put on. Unfortunately, after they were stained I realized I picked pieces that were a little too ‘red’ and they didn’t match my pre-made doors. So…I went out and bought ¼ inch oak and pre-stained them before putting them on top of my badly stained red oak. I actually had to stain TWO sets of skins because I got a little ‘polyurethane-happy’ the first time around and it came out too shiny (I told you – I am NOT a carpenter of any sort). The second one came out really nice – and then I decided to use Liquid Nails to glue the pieces on instead of nailing them in with finishing screws. I figured since these were just thin finishing pieces it would be ok…which it is up to this point.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
Here is my monstrosity which I call an aquarium stand. This is actually when I was gluing on the front oak skins. I literally used EVERY clamp I could find to keep it all down. I didn’t want ANY parts that weren’t glued tick, so I tried to cover almost every inch of the wood. Those paying attention can notice some of my wife’s candles, an old barbell set I found in the garage, and stacks of my old law school books (which are FINALLY getting put to some use…I knew they would be helpful one day!).
 
jon770

jon770

Member
And this is the final project. I don’t really have any pics of the molding going up, so you just have to take my word on that. I put the molding on the top and bottom of the stand, and then some L-shaped thing on the sides (once again, I am not a carpenter…). They doors were pre-made and I bought them from home-depot. I think they cost around $40-50, but I thought it was worth the money b/c it gives the tank a nice finished/professional look.
I laid a 3/4 inch plywood on top and then I also put a sheet of 3/4 inch Styrofoam on top of that so that the tank will sit level and there would be no uneven sections of wood putting stress on the tank.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
This is a picture with the doors open. Nothing too interesting. I did the whole inside with polyurethane and then put silicon on all the edges in an attempt to make it somewhat waterproof…although I’m not sure how well that worked.
 
jon770

jon770

Member
Lastly, here is a shot a day or two after the move from the old stand to the new one. Before it was just on one of those black iron stands, so this was definitely a major upgrade. You can’t really see the stand itself…it was dark. Also, I don’t know why the pic came out so blue – it’s not that blue in person. Also, the tank is pretty much bare in this picture…it was before the restocking.
Although the process of moving the tank from my old stand to the new one was incredibly annoying and time consuming, there was one good thing about it: I actually managed to get out 3-stripe damsel that has been absolutely impossible to catch…FINALLY!
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
Very nice job.

I just finished my 125 stand (see post "building custom 125 stand") using some similiar methods.
 
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