tank stand

[student]

I've read about foam being put under the tank to help with stabilizing/leveling the tank... I am about to build two stands for two ten gal tanks and would appreciate any experience, feedback, or links.

[Wonderwoman]

hehe fun~!

building tank stands isn't hard to do, but it's hard to do well, that's for sure. on the plus side, if you give it your bestest, you will probably come out with something ok, at least, and a 10 gallon isn't as heavy as a 55, = less risk and less damage if something does go wrong.

building a stand for my 20 long was my first attempt. my first piece of advice would be to make sure all your wood is straight and square (that's probably not correct woodworking terminology :P). if your wood's kinda warped, nothing you can do will make your stand sit level.

there are lots of good plans out there, you can just do a search for 'diy stand' or something and come up with a lot of pages. don't get intimidated though, some of those are superfancy

good luck~!

[p2kmon]

Yes, they say that you should put foam under the tank. I myself didn't do that. I haven't had a problem yet.. Not say that I won't in the future.

I built my own 55 gallon, and over built it, if you go and look on the web you'll find some plans, also another good way is go to the store and look at what is out there and how they built it. For example most stands now days don't have lips that hold in the stand, they just use the weight of the tank to keep it in place.

But, I built one with a lips around the tank, I had kids around, and they could bump the tank and break it possibly. It depends on how much you want to work on it.

It took me a good week to figure a really good, strong tank, that would stand up, for YEARS to come. And when you build your own tank, it is usually cheaper than store bought, you get a sense of pride, and learn from you mistakes, so next time, you can do better, or just buy one