Where are all the stands???

[Joshua Jordan]

I recently purchased a 75 g aquarium (48"x18"x21") and I cannot find ANY aquarium stands anywhere!! I am tempted to purchase some lumber and build my own, as I have built a few small stands out of 2x4's, but they were small stands for cube tanks. I have been checking Petco/PetSmart for weeks and they have been out of stock. I checked on Amazon and they have a basic 75g stand but they are asking $700!!! I know that building my own would be much cheaper. (even with the price of lumber going through the roof...I figured that I could build one for around $80-$90, but made out of 2x4's it would be extremely heavy. Any ideas?

 

[DrZoidburg]

That same 700$ stand a few months ago was 229 ish if it was wood. Cruise local craigsL, sometimes you find good stuff on there. Tough place t be in right now if you do build one. The aqueon stands have maybe three 2x4's in them and in between some 5/8inch pine on end. A lot of diy stuff is over built.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Petco and petsmart have plenty.

 

[RMS18]

Shortage on wood... Wood costs have gone up from covid somehow and some products are scarce is my guess. End of last summer we tore down our deck and expanded it... From the time we were given a quote to the time the install happened lumber needed for the build went up a total $800.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

If ur serious about aquariums. Do urself a favor and have a metal stand built.
Weld square tubing from a fabricator or made and bolted together out of bosch 20/20.
Hths
D

 

[DrZoidburg]

Shortage on wood... Wood costs have gone up from covid somehow and some products are scarce is my guess.

I was watching something actually. Its because of the demand, everyone at home all at once decides to do projects at home they've been putting off.

 

[DrZoidburg]

There are some nice aluminum setups out there don't know how much it would be.

 

[Weasel1960]

Suggest you look thru the DIY thread here on the R2R forum lots of folks doing custom stands and canopies. Look for framing referred to as Rocket Engineer. A little bit of over kill for a lot of piece of mind. IMO.

 

[Fish man]

I made my stand out of sanded plywood. The base is 3/4" and the canopy is 1/2". I designed it so the tank sits directly on top of the plywood base that way the walls of the base carry all of the load. In other words the stand base is the same dimensions as the outside dimensions of the tank, plus 1/2". Then I trimmed it out with materials from big box hardware. Plywood is extremely strong. I've seen 300 gallon tank stands made completely out of plywood. This is a 90 gallon tank. I made it about 5 years ago for about $350. Comparable stands like this sell for $1200. at the lfs. I made an acrylic tray to line the bottom, large enough to hold the entire volume of my sump, best thing I could of done. Catches all drips, spills and accidental floods. (only had one) I wanted the back completely closed in to keep noise down, add strength and to have a place to mount stuff so I installed a small computer fan in the back of the base that runs 24/7/365 to exhaust humidity given off by the sump so it wouldn't degrade the wood. Painted it inside and out with 3 coats of sealer on the outside. Most stands you see people make start with 2x4's, I seen some even use 4x4's, (over kill) then skin it with plywood. With this design you don't need the 2x4's and it's way way lighter.