Po boy's aquarium stand.....

[Amadhunter]

I'm no carpenter, and ain't got the bucks to buy a LFS stand for my 75. So, I went to the lumber yard and bought some 1/2 cinder blocks, and some shims. The tank is not sitting directly on concrete, so I figure it's ok. I'll get a better one soon enough, but this is how I solved the short term problem. :

[Amadhunter]

Oh, I also bought some black sateen type material, and some velcro tape. I'm going to put it around the front, and sides of the blocks to hide the hideous looks. I'm also going to wrap the hood with it for asthetic qualities.

Total cost about $12.00

[bikhu]

HI,
I don't see any prolem with it. You may want to consider covering the bottom of the tank though. It has been my experience that for some reason my fish are less jittery when the bottom of the tank is covered. Even when I had the tank on a stand that was enclosed all around but the bottom of the tank was exposed below they seem to have had a really tough time and darted a lot... COuld be my imagination but it seemed when I covered the bottom.... they calmed down.
Just a thought...
peter

[Carol_Roberts]

A piece of plywood, or styrofoam (wrapped in tan cloth) under the tank will work too.

[Denny]

That looks like a good setup. I was in a pet store in Green Bay and they had all of their tanks on blocks, and they only had them in the 4 corners. They had a 6' long and a 7'long tank set like that with only blocks on the corners. They said they had been like that for quite some time. It changed my views on what is needed for support

[ronrca]

Tanks that are manufactured by respectable companies 'over' build their tanks meaning that the bottoms do not have to be supported (basicly the glass itself can bear the weight of the water). However, custom tanks sometimes are not therefore its something to be careful of.

[LEM504]

It will work! We had one wall about 20 foot long, with tanks two high, done the same way. Tanks were all home made, and rested on the glass. We just put a couple 2 x 6 boards on top, and a one inch piece of styrofoam insulation under the tank. ( it will crush,
and compensate for any high spots )

Never had a tank pop.

We did start using caulk between the bricks, so nothing got knocked out of aligment, when we moved tanks.

If you want to get fancy, spray paint the bricks.
Looks better than a lot of comercial stands -

Larry

[discus_HI]

I got a 75gal on hollow tile blocks under the 4 corners and a 10 foof 2x4 cut in half Works great for me!

the guy at Home Depot said that each brick can withstand 5000 psi, I couldn't beleive it either so don't hold me to it, but that;s what they said when I asked how much pressure each tile can withstand.

Right now all I have is po boy stands, they are the cheapest but its a major pain to lugg all those bricks and you can't stack tanks either.