diy stand or used?

B

blackrose24

New member
I am a complete noob at reefing still but am extremely proud of my little tank only four months after starting it I have coraline algae growing on everything. When I started I was told it could take well over 6 months to a year to achieve this. So once I can get my camera working I will be posting pictures. Anyways I am starting a second tank this ones going to be 75 gal ( my current is 37). I was looking into DIY stands or used but wanted members opinions on which was the best way to go? I'm mainly worried about cost and overall endurance.
 
If you have the space an any handyman experience then building one is simple and easy and if planned out correctly you can customize it to no end. Using just 2x4's and some plywood for the skeleton and then you can make it as nice as you want later on by just adding panels. This is time consuming but you can make something really cheap of the top and then slowly customize it an add more money to it down the road to make it look nice.
 
I'm building a stand for a 40 breeder right now. This is the first stand I'm building and so far its going well. If you're going to build it yourself, go to home depot and buy the 2x4's off their cull rack, you'll save 85% on wood. I bought 40 feet of 2x4's for around $5.
 
I have used frame and hate it.
Build your own and customize it to your needs. You will be happier in the long run.
 
I recently built my stand as well and couldn't be happier, I still need to finish the doors, but I used a very similar base structure as the one you posted. I overkilled my project, on purpose ;) DIY !!
 
I also am building my own stand. It makes you even prouder of your self when it ask together. Then you can say I built it when you show of your tank. Added pride

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
 
I built mine in a few days. Turned out pretty nice considering I had no one to help and I'd never build anything before. :)
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saltwater noob
 
I agree with everyone here. Build the frame yourself. You can always hire a pro woodworker to skin it with more exotics wood down the road. I bought a used 220 with a frame stand that was used when the tank was in-wall at it's previous owner's house. I moved it to my house. Got it all set up and hired a woodworker to skin the stand and build a canopy with walnut. He used walnut plywood edged with walnut hardwood to keep the cost down. You can see pics on my profile page.

The upside of doing removable panels is that you can pop them off when you're getting serious down in the sump. Mine are held on with magnets.
 
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