UPGRADING.... Again! Show me your stands!

[Fish Werx]

Hi all, its been a long time since I got on here and actually participated. Sorry about that! Things are crazy busy at my shop, so not a lot of free time lately. Anyway, system is doing great! Actually so good that I am going to go ahead and bite the bullet and start my next and quite possibly final upgrade! Either a 220 gallon 6' tank or a 240 gallon 8' tank?
I will be purchasing the tank new.... Thats it. Im building the stand and canopy from scratch. The skeleton of the stand and canopy will be steel and powder coated. Then skinned with wood and painted white. Fortunately I have a hot rod shop, so welding and fab are second nature to us.

Here is a quick sketch just for size and placement. The light grey rectangles are tall windows. And yes, those are built in book shelves on the sides. I have a lot of books! LOL!


Once I start in earnest, I will start a build thread. But until then, show me your stands! Finished or in process. I have several ideas in my head about how I will go about building this thing. But if I can get better ideas, or something that works for you that I didnt think of now is the time to make changes. If you built your own, what would you have done differently? What would you have added room for? What would you have left out? If you bought your stand, what do you wish it would have included? Or upgraded?

Thanks in advance!

 

[rcpalmer1]

Are you going to build your sump, ato containers, and dosing containers?

 

[Greybeard]

I had a local shop weld up a 1.5" 11 gauge square tube steel stand, and had it powder coated... love the results. Not something I was willing to do myself, but the cost wasn't bad.

Top is painted, and covered with a 1/4" bar top poly. Eventually, there will be bookshelf inserts front and back, glass shelves, white LED light... No rush, but that's the plan

 

[Fish Werx]

Are you going to build your sump, ato containers, and dosing containers?

I already have those on hand. But yes, I built the sump with 1/4" glass I had cut at a glass shop. The ato is just a plain 5 gallon water jug. I dose by hand until I buy a pump, but then yes, I will purchase those probably.

 

[Fish Werx]

I had a local shop weld up a 1.5" 11 gauge square tube steel stand, and had it powder coated... love the results. Not something I was willing to do myself, but the cost wasn't bad.

Top is painted, and covered with a 1/4" bar top poly. Eventually, there will be bookshelf inserts front and back, glass shelves, white LED light... No rush, but that's the plan

Right on! That's the kind of thing I want to see. Nice looking work as well!

 

[Greybeard]

Right on! That's the kind of thing I want to see. Nice looking work as well!

Thanks I'm happy with it. The paint (see my build thread) was done by my daughter. She did a great job. Two gallons of pour on bar acrylic gives me a strong, easy to clean work surface around the tank. It was a mess to pour, but worked out very well.

A concept drawing of the soon-to-be built shelving units... Picture this, inserted in each open 'box' of the stand. On the outside, books, display trinkets... on the side towards the wall, liquor bottles and glassware. I'm moving my bar to the aquarium stand