Introduction

This article is Part 3 that outlines the construction of my DIY Aquarium stand and canopy that was built in the summer of 2005. This design is extremely strong and is adaptable to any 48" to 96" long tank. It is a little over-engineered on the strength, but it's on purpose. This stand will outlast the tank that sits on it, and you will feel a lot better at night knowing your big heavy tank is not sitting on a store-bought particleboard stand. The tank pictured at left is a Hagen 90gal tank with dimensions of 48" long x 18" wide x 24" tall. This isn't a "simple" or "beginner" tank stand, this article assumes you're somewhat comfortable with wood and wood construction. This combo also looks good, so you can actually put it in a living space. There is ample storage underneath, and the canopy has excellent lighting. This article is split up into multiple sections as it has lots of photos. You can click on any photo for a larger version. If you have any questions on anything in the article, please feel free email me at darkdep@sympatico.ca.

I treated the corners just like I treated the corners of the large panels...with quarter round glued and nailed in place. The single nail will be hidden by the next step.

Voila! Now I'm adding a layer of oak moulding that will be slightly darker than the rest of the stand when stained. Hopefully it'll end up looking good.

I wanted to make the top nicer, so I decided to try two pieces of Oak quarter-round (you'd think I love this stuff, I used enough of it) to form a half-circle at the top of the moulding. It was darn hard to hold in place, as I didn't want to use nails. I used tons of clamps and none of them was really holding well.

While the glue was drying, I decided to mount the door handles. In order to make sure they were on the same spot on both doors, I built a small jig to llay on the corner of the doors to line up the holes.

The result.

It took every clamp type in my arsenal to get the rest of the top quarter-round pieces put in place. I think by now I had decided that I hated moulding.

Although not sanded yet, the rounded top doesn't look too bad at this point.

Nothing goes perfectly on a project like this! I screwed up the placement of the middle BalticBirch piece that will go between the doors...resulting in one of the door holes being about 5/8" wider than the other. To resolve this, I cut a strip of plywood matching the grain as best I could and glued it in place. I used tons of clamps to make sure it lined up properly.

I'm so eager to get the doors mounted! Doing this is easier said than done. First I clamped a 1/2 inch piece of plywood as shown as a spacer for the door to sit on (hopefully it'll make the door level).

I bought these cool "no mortise" hinges from Lee Valley...they look cool, and I figured they would be easy to use. I lined them up with the door opening and drilled the screws in place. Unfortunately, THEY SUCK. The provided screws don't sit flat enough so A) the door won't close all the way and B) you can't open it wide enough.

I ended up forgoing the idea of the fancy hinge and got some standard "kitchen hinges" in an antique brass finish. Notice they let me open the door all the way. They also self close in the last couple inches and hold the door shut nice and flat against the cabinet.

Top view. I'm very happy with how the edging turned out on the top, with the rounded edge and all.

Side view. I have to put in some quarter round in the back corner, but I'll do that just before I put the finish on.

Here she is from the front. Try to ignore the splotches of wood putty, it will be gone soon!