Ginu's 120gallon journey

[Ginu]

My current holding tub surrownded by bikes and some other junk...
I barely have enough space to squeese to the edge and feed the tank every day:

[Ginu]

Well, the tank is ready this weekend (assuming it will be shipped out next week) and i figured it would be a good time to start working on the stand.

I was contemplating going with 80/20 aluminum but that fell through and went with a stand made out of 2"x4".
Started the construction a couple of days ago.
30$ worth of 2x4's cut from Rona and 2.5" deck screws 5$




I've never worked with wood or 2x4's so this was quite the experience, made some errors but it all worked out in the end:


I constructed the stand to 30" wide even though the tank is 24". The tank is 24" wide + 5" due to the external overflow, so I decided to make the stand wider so I can push the sump all the way to the end and have the pipes going straight down and I think having extra room in the stand will be beneficial.

The height of the stand is 40", so the total height will be around 65" for the tank and stand as I really hated the 28" tall stand on my previous 75gallon tank... always had to bend down to look inside not to mention working on the sump/skimmer was a painful chore. I really like the RMS S series and loved the height on the stand and the viewing height of their tanks so I figured why not go the same and have some extra shelving behind the tank to use if needed

The part which I'm going to have issues with will be the dressing of the stand. Does anyone have any easy ideas how to dress a stand? I'm looking to have 4 doors and I'd like a very minimalistic euro look... I don't like busy stands with lots of carvings, edges etc... and decided to add a shelf at around 5" below the top of the frame which will house all my electronics as i want everything inside and would prefer to have a clean look of the sump.

The middle shelf is 6" shorter than the width of the stand and the cables will be routed through this opening.

[Ginu]

Some more stand construction pics

[Ginu]

I've never made a stand or worked with wood, but I have to say this didn't turn out bad at all(besides the weight), quite impressed and it looks like the stand is level, based on my cellphone.

I'm caulkinig the inside and paining it white with a Kilz latex paint.

[Wildechild_01]

Nicely done. I always get a bit of a kick out of how solid we all build our stands. It is good that we do but pretty much every DIY stand we see is over built. Anyway, ignoring that little bit there, looks good and cant wait to see it come together.

[Ginu]

And some pics of the aquarium before it leaves Concept Aquariums

[NIVLEM09]

Originally Posted by Ginu

And some pics of the aquarium before it leaves Concept Aquariums

That's a sweet lookin tank.cant wait to see this thing up and running.