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aquarium stand in raw industrial style

296K views 311 replies 116 participants last post by  Harley007 
#1 ·
i have made a few stands in what i guess is called 'raw industrial' style, like the interior of a Chipotle restaurant. i don't wish for my house to start looking (or smelling) like a Chipotle restaurant, but i like the effect in a small dose.

this one holds up a 65G Tall.



the next shot shows the corner joinery detail. these are galvanized framing connectors. the stand is rock-solid.



i have this tank all set up.r i have since added a painted and varnished plywood shelf that holds the canister filter and a couple of houseplants.
 
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#148 ·
Sorry to bump, but:
A) Love, love these stands. Excellent inspiration. Going to build one for my future 40B :D

I was wondering, however, what you guys would think about using the 90* corner brackets (For example, these, with obviously 2x on each corner. I was thinking about these because I'm planning on covering at least the back and possibly the sides with plywood anyway. Thoughts? Just go for the heavy-duty corner ties? I might try these on a small 10G stand I need to make for the wife's shrimp tank.

I will probably do 4x4 legs as you have done, but since a lot of DIY stands have 2x4 legs, i would assume 2x4's should be adequate for legs (probably for a 40Gal and under.. 55-75Gal not so much?).
Also, for those planning to do this, a "cheaper" way to buy the 8x corner braces would be to purchase their DIY workbench kit, which contains the 8 brackets and ~200 screws for 40$ (less than the cost of 8 brackets alone). Just a thought.

P.S. sorry for all the home depot links, just pasting what came up first upon googling part #s
 
#150 ·
Sorry to bump, but:
A) Love, love these stands. Excellent inspiration. Going to build one for my future 40B :D

I was wondering, however, what you guys would think about using the 90* corner brackets (For example, these, with obviously 2x on each corner. I was thinking about these because I'm planning on covering at least the back and possibly the sides with plywood anyway. Thoughts? Just go for the heavy-duty corner ties? I might try these on a small 10G stand I need to make for the wife's shrimp tank.

I will probably do 4x4 legs as you have done, but since a lot of DIY stands have 2x4 legs, i would assume 2x4's should be adequate for legs (probably for a 40Gal and under.. 55-75Gal not so much?).
Also, for those planning to do this, a "cheaper" way to buy the 8x corner braces would be to purchase their DIY workbench kit, which contains the 8 brackets and ~200 screws for 40$ (less than the cost of 8 brackets alone). Just a thought.

P.S. sorry for all the home depot links, just pasting what came up first upon googling part #s
2 x 4s legs are fine up to at least a 90 gallon. People use 4x4s either because they don't really know how to build solidly or because it makes it easier to cut the lap joints for the horizontal members.
 
#158 ·
So I poly'ed the wood, and assembled the stand today. It's came out closer to level & square than I thought it would! My only concern is this: Even though I based the dimensions of the stand on the bottom trim, and built it to have an extra 1/4" on each side, the trim comes right up to the edge of the wood in certain places. There is maybe 1mm of clearance between the trim and edge of the wood. There is no overhang, however. Also, there is about a 1/8" gap between the trim and all of the 2x4 cross pieces, which I understand is "alright" as the tank is designed to put all it's weight in the corners.

However, would it be a good idea to cut a flat top out of plywood, so that the rim is 100% touching wood, and if cut a wee bit larger, there is more wood between the edge of the rim and edge of the wood? IE cut a flat top, have an extra 1/2" on all sides, but obviously still center the tank so the edges rest over the 4x4s?
 
#159 ·
How big is the tank? When I have made these stands I have not used a plywood top and I have instead just leveled out the top edges so that the aquarium frame is supported almost everywhere by both the 2X4's and the corner posts; in my opinion this looks better than a plywood top. However, if you have a large tank it might not be good to trust support only in the corners and it is probably better to use a plywood top.
 
#162 ·
Oh, the stand is level. I'm not worried about leveling. I'm worried because there is little to no room between the edge of the trim and the side of the wood. IE i wanted it to be 1/4" wider on either side of the tank, but that extra wiggle room isn't there. The tank rests on the wood with no overhang, but I wanted a bit of room left on either side.
 
#165 ·
I just wanted to drop in and give some thanks to hydrophyte for coming up with a really cool idea for a stand, and for sharing it with the rest of us. After seeing your idea, I knew I wanted something based off it for my aquarium stand.

Right now I just have a small 12 gallon Fluval Edge, but I my plan is to slowly piece together a 29 gallon rimless tank. I thought it would be cool if I could design it to handle my Edge for now, and then the 29 when I'm ready. I also wanted to be able to hide my stuff since I plan on running CO2 and need a place to put my test kits, fish food, ferts, and the rest of the crap that I've accumulated.

Here is what I came up with after many hours in sketchup for what I want in the end with the 29 gallon rimless. It's 25" tall, 32" long, and 14" deep (there will be a 1" lip with the 29 gallon):



In the mean time, all I had to do to adapt it for the edge was add a top, which was all of $9 worth of 1x3 cedar. Here is how it will will look with my Edge until I get the rest put together:



This is my progress as of tonight. The stain is Minwax Red Chestnut, and I painted the brackets black. I am planning on painting the screws black as well, although they look kind of cool, so now I'm not 100% on that. Here is a pic of it without the top, so you can see how I reinforced under it. With the Edge, the weight won't be supported the outside edges, so I needed more support underneath the top.



As for the top, it's simply 6 1x3's glued together such that it overlaps the stand by 1" on the sides and front:



Put together, it looks like this:



What I have left at this point is just to cut the lower shelf and finish it, and then to build the doors and sides. I haven't started that yet because I wanted to get the frame together first so I could get more precise measurements. Google sketchup worked great for building it virtuall first and making my actual material list, but for the tighter tolerances I wanted it in front of me first.

So far I love it!
 
#167 ·
Those are some very nice looking design variations! I really like the door appearance. Since much of the attractiveness of Hydrophyte's original design is the proportions, any similar stand with those proportions is going to look good. But,, with this design, you have the whole package, in my opinion.
 
#170 ·
(I apologize if I'm hijacking the the thread, but...)

AnotherHobby,

Could you share how you have/plan to do the light fixtures for your design? I've been in the planning stages of doing a similar setup with three individual fixtures on a 55 gallon, but I'm clueless when it comes to working with metal. It looks simple enough, but not sure what all goes into it.

Any details especially where you bought the parts and what you used would be appreciated!
 
#172 ·
Sure. The plan right now for the poles is to use 1/2" metal conduit, and then I'll spray paint it black. It's strong, light, cheap, and easy to work with. Our building maintenance guy at work has a bender, so I'll just have him bend it for me, but you could buy/rent one from Home Depot or wherever. I'm just going to use 1/2" pipe straps to attach it to the back of the stand.

For the bulbs, I'm doing PAR38 LEDs. There are many out there, but here is one option I was thinking about: Dimmable, 15w, 6500k, 60° spread. That is just one example, but it's the brightness I want, is dimmable, and has a 60° beam spread (they have a 90° also). I rendered the light spread of two 60° bulbs placed 20" above the bottom of the tank and 14" apart. Coverage is pretty good, and I can adjust brightness with a dimmer. According to the image in the LED Lighting Compendium thread for the WingoLED PAR38 Bulb (which is of identical specs), it should be plenty of light.



There are a lot of bulb options, so I haven't made up my mind yet. It'll be around the specs of the above lights though. For the lights fixtures themselves, I'm not sure 100% yet, but I have a few ides — I'll probably DIY as well. One idea is just using a 6-8" section of 6" PVC pipe painted black. Maybe an upside down cheap metal mixing bowl. I'm not sure on that one yet, but actual "pendant lights" for sale can get pricy quick. I think I can make something quite attractive for cheap, but it might take some trial/error.

Anotherhobby, I love the unpainted fasteners on the black brackets/ties.

That looks great, especially with the 4x4 legs...adds to that massive look. Kind of like medieval construction.
Thanks! I ended up painting the fasteners though. I moved the stand into place last night and put my 12 gallon on it for now. I don't expect to really finish it off with everything until spring. Can't really stain/poly in my house and it's winter now in MN.

Here it is with the screws painted:



Here is where it goes (in the middle of aquascaping that tank right now).



For the doors and sides I'm just going to make small curtains from black cloth. I can hang them in the openings. That'll let me hide stuff until I make the real sides and doors when it warms back up in the spring.

That's the awesome thing about hydrophyte's idea — it's very easy to customize to however you want it!
 
#174 ·
AnotherHobby,

I've read about conduit pipe as well, and might try to go that route.

One idea I've had for the fixtures is simply taking a clamp light from Home Depot and remove the clamp. I would then likely cover the actual housing with something a little more attractive, like a cheap mixing bowl drilled and painted as you mentioned. The clamp lights are about $8 dollars and are already wired.

Hoping to start on this around Christmas and be done sometime mid-late January. I'll post pics when available.

Interested to see the outcome of yours, love your idea and I plan on pirating much of your design for my own stand!
 
#175 ·
Hoping to start on this around Christmas and be done sometime mid-late January. I'll post pics when available.

Interested to see the outcome of yours, love your idea and I plan on pirating much of your design for my own stand!
To make planning/customizing easier for anybody interested in using Sketchup, I've uploaded the model I made to their database. Sketchup is a free download, but there is a bit of a learning curve to it. Once you have it, just go to 3D Warehouse and Get Models. Then search for 29 Gallon Aquarium Stand. It should be in there now.
 
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