I have built a few stands myself and always rely on Murphy's law and gravity. Lots of good ideas posted here but I have found over the years if the stand is off an 1/8" as Murphy would dictate, gravity and several hundred lbs of tank and water on a floor that was built by "contractors" leaves the tank setup level in the end
^This!
A lot of great replies here for sure. Yes, shims will work, but having built a bunch of 2x4 stands over the years, as well as a few nicer stands, I agree with
@RoudyRick. Instead of using shims, place the tank on the stand and start filling it. The weight of the tank will compress everything down, and as long as you built it well it should be rock solid and level. If it's not level, you likely built it wrong or your floor isn't level. Then drain it and shim it as needed.
I've had 2x4 stands wiggle a bit without weight on them, but once you add the tank weight they settle right in. 2x4's will never be perfectly straight and true, and all wood can move (meaning twist, turn, warp, swell, etc.) when you cut it. When you cut a 2x4 (or any board), you are altering the wood physically and forces in the board that cause wood movement can rather quickly show themselves, especially with 2x4's.
Just today I built the following small rack setup for three 10 gallons and a 20L. I want these tanks to QT some future reef inhabitants and to temporarily house some freshwater fish while I reboot their tank. So I wanted something fast, easy and cheap, as this is something I will disassemble when I'm done with the QT and reboot. This stand had just a bit of wobble when I first screwed it together, but once I got the tanks on it the whole thing was rock solid. This topic came up in another thread, and I really believe that this design is the easiest way to build a simple 2x4 stand. Not the best design if you want to skin it or make it nicer, and technically not the strongest, but this is an easy and solid way to build a 2x4 stand.
That’s why I went with laminated plywood construction:
Here are some photos from my plywood laminated-style stand. The construction is made up of 3" wide birch 3/4" plywood strips, that are laminated into 1.5" beams. This strategy lets me always have side-grain to screw and glue with- I will have a photo below of what a section looks like. @JoshH I...
www.reef2reef.com
I am a huge fan of using plywood for stands. It's much more stable, meaning it doesn't move like other material, and it's easy to cut if you have a table saw or a circular saw and a guide. In fact, for those of you who don't know, you're local Lowes and Home Depot will cut plywood to size for you, just make sure you get an employee who's competent on the panel saw ;-) If you find a dedicated hardwood lumber dealer in your area that offers "millwork", you can get both premium cabinet grade plywood and these shops will cut your pieces to perfection (at additional cost, of course). But either way, then all you have to do is take your pieces home and screw them together.
When working with plywood to build a stand, there's lots of ways to join two pieces together including using "rabbet" and "dado" joints cut typically on a table saw with a dado stack blade or with a router. But, for regular humans (did I mean Mere Mortals?? (a joke for anyone that watches
these woodworking videos, which really are a great resource for beginner woodworkers)), a Kreg Jig or similar pocket hole jig is your friend. Ignore those "purist" woodworkers that tell you that a Kreg Jig joint is either insufficiently strong or simply "cheating", somehow. The "cheating" thing you'll have to decide for yourself, but it's been shown in real testing that the Kreg pocket hole jig makes a very strong joint indeed (when executed properly). I'm pretty sure
@RocketEngineer would agree on this point. It's my go to for building quick things, workshop furniture, and I've done two aquarium stands using pocket hole joinery, a 15 and a 75 gallon. The 75 has been up and running for about 10 years no problem (freshwater). When building "nicer" projects, I do try to use rabbet and dado joinery, but that's just me trying to up my woodworking game. There is simply no shame at all in using pocket hole joinery, in my humble opinion, and this is a very accessible option for for anyone who has limited tools and woodworking experience.
Here's the guy I mentioned above, Steve Ramsey, who is an "OG" of YouTube woodworking channels, and focuses on beginners. Here's his take on the Kreg Jig:
Here's a video from Kreg Tools demonstrating how to build an easy storage cabinet using a Kreg Jig. This cabinet would be plenty strong enough to hold smaller aquaria (don't do the "feet", just build the cabinet), and with some modification could accommodate up to about 125 gallons, I'd estimate:
Here's a little stand I did a while back for an IM Nuvo Fusion 15 freshwater tank. This is actually the tank I want to reboot, I managed to acquire some nasty hair algae and I think I have to pitch and start over with all new plants :-( But this stand is made from inexpensive pine plywood and 2x4's, which I did machine a little so they are straighter/cleaner than an off-the-rack 2x4. I used Kreg pocket hole joinery on the whole thing. This stand was always supposed to be a prototype. I actually hate this stand because it shows my inexperience. I don't love the stained finish at all :-( I have received compliments on the "curvy" legs. Now that I'm rebooting this tank, I really want to rebuild this stand using, I'm thinking, walnut for the legs and frame and cherry for the panels, and a tongue oil finish.
And to those of you that posted pics of your stands like
@RocketEngineer @Jedi1199 @ShakeyGizzard really nice work!!! I'm very impressed by what you've done, and it inspires me to rebuild some of my stands using some better materials and techniques.
