Tank stand for a 5'X2' tank

I started building my own aquarium stands a few years ago when I became frustrated that I had to spend more on the stand than I did on the aquarium itself. When costing my first stand, I found I would not save money but I would instead get an all wood construction with the hardware and finish I wanted.

I bought this odd size tank last summer and built the stand this fall. I've been meaning to post this for a while. I'm not suggesting this is best design but it's pretty close to how commercial stands are built. All of my stands are this basic design, pine boards for support and a thin plywood veneer.

Below is the frame constructed of 1" X 6" uprights and 1" X 4" top and bottom
 step__1.jpg   40.11KB   1 downloads

Next I prepare the veneer plywood by marking and cutting the doors and install it. I also add light bracing near door openings and areas where the plywood needs a little extra support. Sorry about the dirty lens.

 1_001.jpg   35.36KB   1 downloads
 1_004.jpg   17.11KB   2 downloads
 1_005.jpg   24.25KB   1 downloads

Now I install the trim and make the door. I use the same piece I cut out and add a hearty rectangular trim to assure a good fit on the door.

 1_002.jpg   20.96KB   1 downloads
 1_003.jpg   16KB   1 downloads
 1_004.jpg   23.88KB   1 downloads

Next I sand, drill holes for required plumbing and apply stain.
 1_002.jpg   21.05KB   1 downloads

Then I give several coats of urethane and install hardware.
 step__5_.jpg   22.09KB   1 downloads

And last, add aquarium,water, fish, filter and lights. Well, a little more than that goes into the last step but you get the idea.
 complete.jpg   54.68KB   3 downloads

Very nice! I like the red plywood/lighter trim look. That's, what, a 80-90 gallon tank? Would you use 2X4 uprights if it were a taller tank with the same footprint?

I'm building a stand for a 55 gallon, and all the uprights are 2X4s, just because I worry about these things. But commercial stands for huge tanks will have nothing thicker than 3/4" pressboard. Makes me nervous, that does.

Hehe...yeah, the commercial stands scare me too

The plywood is called luan (really inexpensive) and I would not hesitate to use a tank twice as tall on this same stand. I recall the tank being a 90 gallon.

I have used 2 X 4's way back in the day and I simply found it doubled the weight since I still needed to have a certain numbers of uprights to help distribute the weight.

Nice looking stand and well built. I just had one made for a 210g and it's all wood also. It was actually a little cheaper to have my cabinet guy make it than to buy it from my LFS. The LFS stand was particle board veneer. Nice tank setup and beautifull fish.

Edited by octavio, 17 March 2008 - 09:20 PM.

Great stand! It's beautiful!

Thanks for showing it to us.

Very nice!
Much nicer than anything I would ever slap together.
I like that odd ball tank. Looks like it would make a great planted tank - nice and big but not so tall.

Very nice!
Much nicer than anything I would ever slap together.
I like that odd ball tank. Looks like it would make a great planted tank - nice and big but not so tall.

Yeah, it would look great planted with emergent plants.

What an interesting tank. The dimensions are very unusual.

You could probably get the lumber cheaper by making your supports out of 3/4" plywood instead of 1x planks.

I have never seen a tank with those dimensions. It really looks great.

Check out some of the tanks at glasscages.com that they sell as "coral tanks". They come in some odd sizes that have a huge surface area, but are not very tall. I think some of these might make a nice tank.

Rick