Homemade canopies and stand photos

dagizmo19

First, I must start off by saying, I am not Bob Villa or anything, I have never really built anything out of wood before. So with the help of my father in-law, I was able to finish the stand you are about to see, the 55g tank is still in the process of planning (as you can see)

The stand is made from 2x4's and 4x4's, the 4x4's are notched to fit the 2x4 frame into them (helping with the strength). The frame is covered in an oak facade. All for just over $100 bucks, now I just have to work on the matching canopy.













My only regret is not figuring in the cork under the tank when planning how high the oak facade goes to cover the black frame of the tank . But, the black sand substraight should help cover that up.

onefish2fish

nice stand, is there livestock in that 55 now or still working on the canopy?

aspects

no such thing. these stands hold 8' tanks full of water and thousands of dollars worth of fish. if anything they could use an iron welded cage around the wood, just in case. lol.



oh, and i didndt build them. lol. but i would, in a heartbeat. my builds are all 2x4 and only a couple have bolts.

onefish2fish

oh, excuse me i didnt know they were for 8 footers. nice tanks!

dagizmo19

Still planning the tank out, its hard to find raw slate or granite in WI in the middle of winter :(

onefish2fish

awesome, whats the plan for the slate/granite? what live stock are you planning? plants, lights, filtration?

and you have a private message BTW.

dagizmo19

I was planning on stocking it with Africans of some sort, not sure if I want to go Mbuna, Haps or Peacocks... Going to be making some make makeshift caves, etc with the rock.

Filtration is an Emperor 400 along with a Tetra filter I got with the tank (mainly for circulation).

Sub-Straight is going to be a mix of Black Sand Blasting Sand and River Rock pebbles.

You have a PM as well

onefish2fish

awesome, the pebbles will eventually find their way under the sand.

heres something to consider:
http://www.fishforum.com/diy-aquariu...kground-19898/

dagizmo19

Thats true but I figure with the cichlids, they will uncover them when they are digging and "re-arranging". I have also read that they sometimes like to "play" with the rocks.

I have seen that rock wall before, that just looks to 'permanent' for me. After-all this will be my first stab at cichlids, if it doesn't work out (which I can't see, but...), I would hate to be stuck with that in the tank.

onefish2fish

yea i hear you on the permanent deal. thats really why i havnt done it yet.

im sure you can make a "sheet of rocks" similiar to how thats built to slide in and out of the tank. the only issues are the center brace (which im sure you can work around) and detritus getting trapped behind it.

i think when i have a spare 5 minutes i may just make a mini version from one of the 50 million tanks i have and stock it with cherry red shrimp and plants but i guess we will see. ive been swamped with construction in my room and my next tank build.

im guessing you added the eggcrate because of the rocks your going to be adding?