Exhibits, Shows and Displays

how can I build a really simple aquarium stand?

Problem is, I don't have a saw, etc.... I was thinking of buying premade cabinets at lowes, like a double cabinet for a bathroom sink or something...and putting a solid marble top on it...and then setting the aquairium on that. Would that work? Any ideas of other things I could use for a stand? The stands they sell at petco, petsmart, are expensive an dpieces of fiberboard garbage!

Public Comments

1. for starters the cabinet idea will not work if its anything over 50 gallons the cabinets will collapse and the marble will make it worse because it will add more weight there are lots of plans online fore stands that you can make don't have a saw? just get the measurements before you head to your local hardware store like home depot and they can cut it for you i know home depot does it for free then just put it together you could also just look in your local paper or craigslist for a used stand they go for 50- 100 bucks on craigslist and you could negotiate that price down
2. Your plan would work if the cabinets are strong enough. Just check how much weight their tops are supposed to be able to support. For example, a 55-gallon tank with water, gravel, tank lid, filter, light, heater, and other furnishings is going to weigh over 500 pounds. To have some safety margin, I would want the furniture I set the tank on to be rated for at least 600 pounds of load. If you want to use a marble or other stone top, also add the weight of the top to your calculations. A plywood top would be cheaper and lighter and at least as strong, but probably less beautiful (although the top is mostly covered by the tank bottom in any case). It's true that most of the commercial aquarium stands I've seen are not especially well-built. They are surprisingly strong, though: I've never heard of one collapsing, unless it was assembled incorrectly by the user. Wood seems to be a lot stronger than most people think.
3. Depends on the size of your tank. Once the water and everything is added to it, it will substantially add a lot of weight to it. Check the max weight limit of the alternative furniture and go from there.
4. In the past I've made stands out of cinder blocks for cheap enough to hold a big tank. It's good enough until you can afford to upgrade. Basically you stack the cinder blocks in wide columns and put some 2x4's on top of them. You can (and I always did) paint them black and they don't really look as cheap as they are. The blocks are a dollar a piece by the way. As far as no saw... If you pre-measure, home depot well cut your wood for you for free. Hope this helps. Here is the sight that I originally saw it form. http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diystandscabinets/ss/diyaqstand.htm