DIY stand design - hopefully REALLY strong
 

I'm starting the construction of a combination plywood/2x4 stand tonight. It will consist of 3/4" plywood in combination with a 2x4 frame. I'm pretty sure it'll be plenty strong enough with the combination of 3/4" plywood and 2x4's.

The stand will be 48Lx24wx30h. The 2x4 frame will nest inside the plywood box. the 2x4's will be joined together by screwing the 2x4's to the plywood outside. It think this will be a very strong stand for the 90 gallon going on top of it. I chose a 90 instead of a 120 to give a 6" section of the stand to put junk on that'll need to be handy (food, liquid fry food, etc etc etc).

It's going to be a 90g malawi cichlid breeder tank with small tanks underneath for fry, juveniles and the canister filter. I'll be breeding haps and peacocks.

I plan on making my hobby completely self sustaining, cost-wise. Dennis and the bunch are gonna guide me through it for the first bit as I've never bred fish before. Looking forward to all the learning and parenting :)

Man I'd love to have the hobby be self-sustaining. Never gotten to that stage myself ... maybe one day.

Anyhow, 3/4" plywood with an internal 2x4 frame is going to be one solid stand. The stand I built for my 75g is built like that and I think you could drive a car onto it and it wouldn't flex.

Awesome!! Need a canister filter for it? I have an Eheim w/ media I could sell. ;)

We had a 150 gallon cichlid breeding ground on the go for a couple of years. We sold hundreds of red jewels, F2 yellow labs, red empress, etc. and found that best case scenario it paid for the food for the fish and the media for the filters.

You are going to need one huge system and a lot of interested buyers to make your system self-sustaining. It simply costs too much in tank space and food to grow out the babies. However, we are not professionals by any means. Wishing you the best of luck with it!