Hello! Welcome to my DIY 29 Gallon Tank Stand project. I'm sure this project
can be adapted to large (or smaller!) aquariums, and I can almost assure you
it's cheaper than buying a stand from a store! Granted, of course, that you
use wood that isn't too expensive and have some know-how of carpentry. If not,
it's probably a lot easier to just buy a nice stand and save your time. Just
a little note, if you are going to build this stand for a larger
tank, you might try bracing at every the end of each board, so there's two peices
supporting each corner. (I tried to draw this in Paint Shop Pro but it was too
much of a pain, sorry. Hopefully i'll get a better progam and put the diagram
online.) Please check out other websites, so you can see what other people have
come up with. I've linked to the sites that assisted me in this project on the
"links" page.
btw, this site does have PICTURES! lots of them! Just not on this page, really.
Well, let's get started then. the first thing Idid was, well, check out other websites. and they helped. So I sketched what I planned on making, and eventually threw it out. It's OK to over-build the stand, but my initial design was hardcore and probably would have resulted in a 400 pound stand that would have cost me 3 times what the one I ended up building did.
The next thing I did was talk to my dad. We came up with some
better ideas than the 400 Pound Waste of Money. Then, we headed off to Lowe's
Home Improvement store. We bought:
2: 2 x 4's, 8 feet long (2x4x8's)
2: 1 x 4 x 8's,
2: strips of corner stuff, 8 feet long
1: large sheet of vaneer, for paneling
This cost us $25 and some change. However... we had two use
2 more 2 X 4's, plus 40 inches of 1x12 to cover the top, and a peice of plywood
for a lower shelf unit... Don't worry, you'll see.
The screws we used were deck screws, 8 x 2 x 1/2", plus some longer ones
for attaching the legs, and small and large finishing nails for attaching the
paneling.
(all that really means is that it will cost you a tad bit more than what my
stand did, but still better than $100 like my local pet shop was charging for
29 gallon stand..)
The stand itself is 30" long, 30" high, and 13 inches deep. This is sorta easy for cutting wood, we needed
8: 2x4's cut to 30"
long
9: 2x4's cut to 10" long (2x4's aren't actually
2" by 4", they're 1.5" by 3.5", the shorter peices are assembled
between the long peices, so the width is actually 13".)
And that is it! for the stand, at least.
