stand for aquarium

[Ted Loehrke]

Has anyone ever built a stand for an aquarium? My step son bought a 40 gallon aquarium and would like me to build a stand for it. Filled with water the thing is going to weigh approx. 350 lbs. Also, he likes mission style furniture and would like this stand to have those features also. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Ted

[Steven Triggs]

I've built 5 aquarium stands so far, for the following size aquariums:
(2) 55 gallon
(1) 75 gallon
(1) 29 gallon
(1) 125 gallon

The 55 gallon stands were made to be quick and cheap, and I just used 2x4 lumber that I resurfaced to make it look better.

The other three I built as cabinets using hardwood veneered plywood for the carcasses and hardwood for the trim. One of them is oak, one birch, and the other walnut. For the 29 gallon aquarium, I used 1/2" plywood, but I used 3/4" for the large ones.

The ends are made of a solid panel of plywood, and the front and back were made like a face frame out of strips of plywood. I used biscuits and glue to join everything. The plywood box has outer dimensions just slightly over the aquarium's. In other words, it is like 1/8" longer and wider than the aquarium's footprint.

Then, I made a "chair rail" and a base board to wrap the perimeter. The "chair rail" is mounted high enough to cover the aquariums plastic trim ring. Then I made some corner trim by milling some wood down to about 2x2 and then cutting away about 1.75x1.75 leaving a .25 inch thick "L" to cover the corners and hide the plywood edges. I applied decorative edges to all of the trim with a router.

I made rail and stile doors.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about it. I just tried to cover the basics above, but I'm sure you may have certain things you were wondering about?

[Bruce Page]

Ted, I built this one for my 110gal. The top, bottom and posts are 8/4 red oak. The side panels are ¾ oak. The basic construction is pretty simple, the top/bottom/posts are assembled with lag bolts. I shot it with several coats of lacquer. The stand is about 15 years old and has stood up well.

[Jim Young]

I built this for my 75g a long time ago, and it's still standing. 3/4" cherry stile and rail design.

http://www.simoli.net/images/Woodworking/Projects/OddsEnds/jy_Fishtank3.jpg

More pics here (http://www.simoli.net/pages%20woodworking/Projects/Mics%20projects/fishtank.htm).

[Ted Loehrke]

Thanks to you all for the advice. I was considering using 3/4 ply but was wondering about the weight. Seems like that was not a bad choice after all. All of your stands look wonderful and I hope that mine will turn out as nice.

Thanks again,

Ted