Stand and Hood Sketch!

[Tjones]

this is my stand and hood im planning on making this weekend if i can get some alone time in the shop (Girlfriend may or may not be to pleased about it but we will see) but yea its for my 55G!

stand is to be about 4 feet wide, 3 feet tall, and 13 inches deep~!
hood will also be 4 feet wide, 13 inches deep but the hood will be only 12-14 inches tall :/ can't decide

most likely paint it all black, wear through all of the edges on the entire thing (that part takes alot of patience and some skill with holding a razor at the perfect angle :P ) then you have to scuff sand everything! after that i'll stain the whole thing with a light brown color that way all the places i wore through are darker than the raw wood. after that all i have to do is put the clear coat on it and let it dry!

once its dry put it all together (you would be crazy to finish such a huge cabinet in one piece -_- )

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/galalade/fishtank.jpg

i think I'll get some lighting to put on top of the hood for indirect room lighting too!

the lines on the far sides of each that are vertical is supposed to be flutes:P hard to draw but yea any suggestions to said sketch before i start building will be much appreciated i only have so much wood and I'm tired of watching the dumpster at work!

[renagade]

awesome. i would think about a night lighting setting, seperate/switched differently from a day setting, whether it is a dark fluro, or more artistically internal lit peices. good luck.
ren

[Azear]

Wow ! that's a nice project... I did my top myself too but didn't spent 200 hours on it... KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple) way... tho I screw up on the size so I have to modify something so it'll fit perfectly.

Btw, if you want to have a cheap night lightning, I'd suggest buy a blue LED strip on ebay... get a used ATX computer power supply and hook it on the 3.3V :) that's what I did and it works soooo great ! also, I hope you're not planning to finish that in the same evening ? lol ;)

Also, get some varnish for the interior... you don't want your hood to get wet and mess up...

Good luck !

P.S. get something for your Girlfriend to do/play/mess with while you'll be in the shop... I'm having some relationship issues when it come to building stuff too so... better be ready in case she gets "angry"... ;)...

[Lady Hobbs]

This will be very nice. You may not want it quite that high, tho. Hard to reach into tanks if the stand is 36 inches unless you're tall. Pretty sure mine are all 23 inches (thereabout.) Leaves plenty of room for canisters.

[Becikeja]

I like the height, you can always use a step, but I hate to bend down to see the fish. To each his own. One suggestion, Paint the inside with White cabinet paint. Down side is it takes a good 14 days to get completely dry, one day it's dry to the touch and you can start assembly but in 14 days it becomes virtually water proof. The nice thing about the white is that it reflects light. And when you do need to get inside, you wouldn't believe how much difference it makes.

Post some pictures along the way, I am in the "I'm gonna build a new tank soon" stage. Curious to find out all the new ideas out there in tank stand construction.

[Lady Hobbs]

I like the height, as well. I just mentioned it incase they were only 5 ft and then it can be a problem.

[Tjones]

no way im 6-1 shouldn't be to bad but i do have a step just in case its hard to get down to the substrate with the vacume.

but yea like beci said i am doing it at 36 inches to avoid bending clear over to get a good view of the tank!

can i maybe get more detail on that white paint? i was going to use an extra bit of polyurethane on the inside of the hood to avoid water damage as for the rest it should be ok since i can whipe any splashes or spills! unless i can find a 2 part product we had a demo of a few months back... the guy that made it advertised that you could run it through a dish washer everyday for a month and never see any water damage.... but we will see

Edit~ i put the first coat of cement on my custom back ground thing today too!! and my sister and her husband are going to Vegas tomorrow for work so i will get the tank late tomorrow night!

SO EXCITED so far i am about 80 into this tank prolly be around 400 in at finish but i geuss thats decent considering the stand/tank alone will prolly be worth a considerable amount more!

[Becikeja]

I use Dutch Boy Cabinet and trim paint, use 2 coats. You can pick it up at any DIY store. I shouldn't have said it is water proof, it's not really, but it works great to protect the wood from the occasional spills. After it gets good and dry water just beads right off it. I wouldn't run it through the dishwasher. Never had a warping issue with it, but I have never used it directly above an aquarium inside a hood either. If you vent the back and you have a glass top on the aquarium you should fine.

[sanjugalande]

hi friends i
does any1 knows online or .pdf frre plans avaliables on net?