MarineDreamer
Est. April 2nd, 2005
I was rather disappointed with what I was able to find when I was looking for a DIY Tank Stand plans on the web/publications. So I thought that I would share my adventures in my first DIY project and share with everyone what to my own mind is a darned good tank stand.
I’ve purchased a 110 gallon (60x18x25) acrylic tank, and I needed a stand to put it upon. I wanted a good looking stand that wouldn’t have my wife retching every time that she saw it, would have ample storage space under it, and not fall apart during any episodes of “As Niagara Falls.†The last two requirements eliminated any of the stands commercially available at LFS or furniture stores, and I was unwilling to afford a custom creation. That left me building a stand.
Sounds easy, right? Not a chance. Every wood worker will tell you not to nail/screw a 2x4 to another 2x4 and then drop up to 1200 lbs on it. The weight is being supported by little thin shafts of steel. You need Lap Joints. I started with the books that I have, moved on to the library for the books that they have, and then finally on to the web for more plans. I finally came across some plans that I liked at Aquarist's Den. They were pretty generic and easily adaptable to what I needed.
This first shot is a length of 4x4 cut to 65â€. My tank is 60†long, if you take a 4x4 that is actually 3 ½ by 3 ½ and subtract 1†for the lip that the tank will ‘sit’ in, you will have 2 ½ inches on either side, add those together with the length of the tank and you get 65â€. That’s how I came up with the 65†length. The notch you see here is actually one and an eighth inch deep. Reason being that if you make the frame 60†perfectly, the 60†tank won’t drop in.
I’ve purchased a 110 gallon (60x18x25) acrylic tank, and I needed a stand to put it upon. I wanted a good looking stand that wouldn’t have my wife retching every time that she saw it, would have ample storage space under it, and not fall apart during any episodes of “As Niagara Falls.†The last two requirements eliminated any of the stands commercially available at LFS or furniture stores, and I was unwilling to afford a custom creation. That left me building a stand.
Sounds easy, right? Not a chance. Every wood worker will tell you not to nail/screw a 2x4 to another 2x4 and then drop up to 1200 lbs on it. The weight is being supported by little thin shafts of steel. You need Lap Joints. I started with the books that I have, moved on to the library for the books that they have, and then finally on to the web for more plans. I finally came across some plans that I liked at Aquarist's Den. They were pretty generic and easily adaptable to what I needed.
This first shot is a length of 4x4 cut to 65â€. My tank is 60†long, if you take a 4x4 that is actually 3 ½ by 3 ½ and subtract 1†for the lip that the tank will ‘sit’ in, you will have 2 ½ inches on either side, add those together with the length of the tank and you get 65â€. That’s how I came up with the 65†length. The notch you see here is actually one and an eighth inch deep. Reason being that if you make the frame 60†perfectly, the 60†tank won’t drop in.
