My diy stand!

[jagermeister]

Here's a pic of the start of my diy stand. I ended up not using the metal braces. Thanks to all who helped with their input!!

 

[jagermeister]

Here's the "guts".

 

[jagermeister]

And the finished product!!

 

[buzz]

Very nice. What size tank is that?

 

[jagermeister]

80 gallon

 

[ac]

I love the stain job, I've never seen anything finished that way. Very cool

 

[seaham358]

how much did that cost to make. I have a 55 and I was thinking of making a new stand for it.

 

[jagermeister]

The expensive part was the oak finish. It was $50. But I'd estimate I built the whole thing for around $100. I saved some money by getting a sheet of plywood for $2 and some 2x4's for $0.41 a piece out of the cull lumber bin at HD.

 

[eric4usa]

Awesome construction quality
I made mine out of 4x4 studs, might have been overkill
Remember people:
Since water is roughly 10lbs per gallon, make sure if you're going to build a stand that it is designed and build solid like this one.
I have a 300 gallon tank which equals approx. 3000lbs in water alone.
Take this into account as I had to reinforce the trusses below my living room floor before setup as a precaution.

 

[audisteve]

Was there any difficulty in leveling your tank correctly, or did you just do a superb job in building the stand and not have to worry about the level of the tank, also did you get the oak veneer at Home Depot.
P.S. It looks fantastic.

 

[jagermeister]

My superb craftsmanship allowed me to build a stand that was level to the ten millionth of an inch.
jk. It actually turned out pretty level though. I was surprised. I was originally going to put styrofoam under the tank but decided I didn't need it.
The oak is actually 3/4" oak plywood from Home Depot. About $50.

 

[javatech]

Originally posted by eric4usa
Remember people:
Since water is roughly 10lbs per gallon,
it's 8.34 lbs per gal
and One gallon of saltwater weighs 8.5 pounds

 

[eric4usa]

I must have remembered the weight of water wrong.
At 8.5lbs per gallon this stand is holding up 680lbs of water.
Mine is holding a revised 2500lbs of water.
It's still prety darn heavy.
The main thing to remember is tortional stiffness.
I've seen a few DIY stands that can more than hold the weight,
however if sideways force is applied (someone leaning on it) then they about crumble.
(unlike this one )