Kat_Rigel

In theory, only the corners need to be shimmed, correct? That's what I'm seeing online, but just want to check. This sounds like a good idea, thank you. I'll start in this direction tomorrow unless another good idea comes up.

Do you think you could shim the aquarium itself??

That's a really good idea and I hadn't thought of it, but unfortunately I used Tightbond II wood glue. I tried separating some pieces I had used the glue on previously because I had made a mistake, and that glue was impossible to remove and separate. I'll keep this in mind for the second stand I'm building though.

Hi all, I recently built an aquarium stand which I have documented here: It's a little long though, so I wanted to ask a question separately with hopes of getting more eyes on it. I built the stand as best I could (first time build!) and while I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I have a big issue with the second shelf. My aquarium does not sit flush; there is a very obvious gap between the aquarium and the shelf. It was tough to get everything level and it looks like I failed in this particular instance. Is there any way to add some foam or a yoga mat or something to allow it to level? Right now a full tank would certainly crack and that's no good. If anyone has experience leveling tanks, please let me know. Most of the info I have found online talks about leveling the tank by leveling the stand, but that's not what I'm after. The tank is an Aqueon 20 long with a plastic rim (no fancy rimless tank or anything like that.) Thanks!

Thank you for the tip! I will look into this for the second stand. Aw shucks, thank you! I did, however, run into one problem as I started to set up the stand. It looks like the second shelf is not totally level, and when I place an aquarium on it, you can easily see that one side of the aquarium is not making contact with the shelf. Obviously this is not acceptable; torsion will cause the tank to crack eventually. It's fairly pronounced, so I'm not sure if I could use some sort of foam or a yoga may to stabilize it? Until I can get a recommended fix from someone who has experience, I don't plan to use the shelf for a tank. I do recall spending a lot of time with the carpenter's square when trying to position this shelf, but it looks like I was still a bit off. Top shelf Second shelf 😞 Bottom shelf (will be used for supplies, no tank.) Empty aquarium on second shelf. Clearly not going to work as-is. I'm open to suggestions. Worst case scenario I can use it to store more supplies, but considering I already screwed up the dimensions and can't have a tank on the bottom, I'd like to try and save it if I can. For the next stand, I will probably adjust so that the bottom shelf will hold an aquarium and the middle will just hold supplies. That way it is not as important that the second shelf is level (which was difficult to do.) The stand itself is very solid but was not quite level either. I fixed this with a small furniture foot sticker made of foam and it evened it out perfectly. The top shelf, however, is nearly perfect. Level, and the tank is not wobbling at all. I guess if I'm picky, the level bubble does tend to one side a bit. I am a little bit worried because because I wonder if a longer level would show that it is uneven. I plan to fill it with a little water to see if it is showing up as wildly uneven before actually completely filling and stocking it. I was also lucky enough to catch the 50% off aquariums sale at Petco last weekend and bought all of the tanks for these stands. 🙂

So close to finishing! I applied three coats of Varathane polyurethane crystal clear gloss, water based. It required two hours between each coat. I was anxious to bring it inside, but my husband wants us to hold off at least a few more hours. I am convinced that it is cured, but it won't hurt to wait. It might hurt to bring it in too soon, so he wins this time. The polyurethane looks white and milky when applied, but will dry clear and colorless. The boards all looked fine except for a few bumps on the horizontal shelves. I'm not sure if this is due to applying it incorrectly or if I should have sanded it more before application. If anyone has experience with this, please let me know. I am not upset about it, but if it is an easy fix then I'll do that next time. See pics of these small white bumps above. Due to these little bumps, I decided to sand just the shelves. I tried to do it by hand, but it was tedious and I saw that it was causing visible marks. I thought maybe the regular motion of the hand sander might mitigate this (and I thought hand sanding was tedious,) but the sander actually caused more noticeable scratches. I don't mind too much because it's going to be covered by the tanks or equipment anyway. After sanding, less bumps but more abrasions can be seen. I took some pics of the areas where I used the wood putty too. It's not terribly noticeable, but if you look at it and are close up, you can easily see where it was. But standing back like a normal person looking at furniture, it's not bad at all. Tough to even see the spot here, but as you look at this closest corner on the left side, and scan from the top down, you can start to see the different texture of the wood vs the wood putty. This is also where I glued in a piece of wood to fill the ugly gap. Here's a much easier example to see. There are 4 screws here and filled one with putty. Looks pretty good but couldn't be done for all of the screws. I'm not too upset by it; it's only a slight imperfection. I am VERY pleased on how it's turned out, mainly because it's level and sturdy. The staining and polyurethane is just extra. It looks pretty similar to the picture from my last post, but it's very shiny. 😁 Next post will include the piece with tanks, and I will also make a comprehensive list of everything I used as well as the cost.

Ooookay so I'm on the final stretch (I think.) This week I used some wood putty to fill in the screw holes, but... it wasn't very effective. I hadn't screwed the screws in far enough to have a hole, the head was just flush with the wood (or a tiny bit raised. Not perfect by any means.) However, I did end up being glad that I had the wood putty to fix some other issues. If you're reading this, you probably know that the wood selection at the hardware store is not exactly premium grade. Even though I had gone through the pile to pick what I felt were the best pieces (fairly straight, no crazy damage,) there were a few spots that were kind of weird and uneven. One spot in particular had a small chunk of wood that was coming off, so I used a combination of wood glue to put it back, the clamp to hold it in, and some wood putty to make the surrounding area smooth rather than pitted. I didn't take a pic of this because I was anxious to get it done. After that, I used a palm sander with 60 grit sandpaper to do a rough sanding. I wasn't looking for perfection on this, I just wanted to take off the rough, splintered edges left over from cutting and to provide a roughed up surface for the stain and polyurethane to come. I used Minwax oil based stain, colonial maple. Initially I was going to pick up two 8oz cans, but for some reason I thought the label said it would cover 100sq ft so I only got one. Not sure how I got that number in my head, but it got in there. In reality, the label says it covers 37sq ft, which was sort of playing chicken- will I run out of stain before finishing everything? Well, it turns out, yes. Yes I would. I was very close to finishing the piece but I just couldn't squeeze out any more surface coverage. Off to the hardware store! This time I picked up the quart can with the expectation that I would be building a second stand in the future. I also grabbed a few cheap foam brushes and cheap paint brush. I can always find use for those foam brushes in hobbies and projects. Just before leaving for the store, my husband informed me I had stain on me. "Nuh uh, just my hands, right?" No. My hands. Side of my knee. Elbow. Arm. Haha I was a messy person. Thankfully I had purchased a cheap plastic drop cloth for the patio so it was protected. Me, not so much I guess. I picked up some paint thinner too in order to clean up the brushes. (I hesitated to pick it up initially because it's tough to dispose of. I was able to find a brand that claimed it was more green than the average brand, but with out more research I won't really know if that's true. Luckily it was also the cheapest.) I came back and finished staining, and I think it looks pretty good! The color came out totally different than the picture on the can, but I still like it. I kind of prefer the light reddish tone. Can you see where I ran out of stain? No, neither can I. And neither can anyone else, so 🤪 Worst case scenario I can always decide to spray paint the entire piece instead. I'll note that my dog was extremely interested in the smell of the stain. I had to actively keep him away (I accidentally left the patio door open a crack one time) and finally placed him in the crate because I didn't want him sniffing up the fumes or making a mess. Weird dog. The smell is strong so I'm sure he can smell it from inside the house. So now I wait. Per the label, it takes 8hrs for the stain to dry. My plan is to apply the polyurethane this evening and hopefully I will have a finished piece tomorrow! I recently saw some absolutely adorable ranchus at my LFS and I am hoping I can pick one up once this stand is complete. (A little more research on care requirements is needed.)

It seems EXTREMELY solid. I think the way the frames are constructed helps prevent twisting. But there's no give in it at all, so I'm feeling pretty pleased.

I continued this morning and placed the last few braces. I expect sanding and staining to be less of a challenge since I do have a tiny bit of experience with that. I used the very last screw in that first box of 1 lb of screws. Guess what I found at the bottom? The very drill bit I had needed from the beginning. Honestly that's just poor design on their part; I wasn't expecting to have to scrounge through an entire box looking for the bit like some kid looking for the prize in a box of cereal. Dollar for dollar, the most valuable thing I picked up was the clamp. I had no idea how useful it would be! And at only a few dollars, you can't beat it. I managed fine with only one, but I'm sure having 2 or more would be even better. Speaking of tools, one that you simply can't do this project without is a good drill. You'll be using it enough that renting really isn't a cost effective choice; you'll probably end up paying more in rental cost than just buying the drill yourself. I have used this drill on many different things, so even if you are a poor college student, this is a solid investment. If you borrow from a friend, make sure they know it's going to get a workout. I ended up breaking two drill bits, luckily I had other bits to use. For this screw, I used the 1/8 and 7/64 bits and both worked fine. (I was using the 7/64 first but I broke it.) I do suspect that there is an easier way to do all this drilling. I think Joey has a different video detailing a type of screw that does not require pre-drilling holes for the screws. Even if this was twice as expensive, I would have invested in these had I known about them. It would have saved quite a bit of time... and two of my drill bits. Maybe I need stronger bits? If that's a thing? Or maybe I should just be more careful about angling the drill when the bit is in the wood. 🤷‍♀️ Note the embedded drill bit at the top. It lives there now. need to attach the plywood on the shelves but I want to stop by the store and buy a 20gal long to make sure the rim will fit properly on the frame. I would not be able to tell 100% if the plywood was already down. After that it is sanding and staining! Really hoping for a dollar per gallon sale soon. The timing would be perfect.

Yes, it certainly isn't a cost effective method at this point. If we are just looking at money, I would have been better off commissioning this to someone who already had all the tools and know how. However, part of this is for me to gain experience with the process. And for that I can say it has been obnoxiously effective! 😅 I am adding additional bracing under each shelf, but it is still supported by wood screws. Joey addresses this in the video by going over the sheer strength of each screw and how many screws each tank is being held by. His stand was for 30gal tanks and mine is for 20gal, but I used the same number of screws. It should be overkill... theoretically. I can understand how this design would make some people uneasy but I'm comfortable with it. If I were to do this again, I would probably choose a slightly different design which places a 2x4 bracing between the shelves to take the weight of the aquariums. Just another thing to learn!

Onward I continued with this project. As detailed in this thread, I had issues taking apart some pieces. I had pieced the wrong parts together, accidentally using the braces instead of the shorter ones creating depth of the tank. The first issue was removing some of the stripped screws. The screws I bought were indeed 2.5" #8 wood screws, but I didn't realize when I got then that they had a star type head. Luckily I had an array of bits to choose from, so I picked the closest one and got to work. This resulted in multiple stripped screws. In addition,, I hadn't realized that you needed to drill pilot holes. This made drilling the screws in really difficult before I figured it out,, causing multiple stripped screws. It wouldn't have mattered had I connected the right pieces, but they were difficult to remove. I first tried a manual screwdriver. No good. A bigger bit? Didn't work, and stripped it more. Putting a rubber band over the screw head for better grip? Completely worthless. The stupid rubber band just broke in half. I broke down and went to the hardware store again and purchased a screw extractor. Being cheap- er, cost conscious- I only bought one size (only a few dollars.) This was also a mistake. As mentioned, some of the screws were stripped to a larger size. Since I only had one size, it didn't work. It also just... didn't work in general. I watched multiple videos on it but never got it to work as easily as those videos. There was no grip at all, and it actually bored out even FURTHER into the screw. At this point I had really messed up this screw, and I was honestly worried the head would snap off. My last option was to use a dremel with cutting wheel attachment to cut a flat head into the top. This worked, and its a good thing it did because I did NOT have much play left. Proud to have removed these screws (which I had loudly complained multiple times were "never coming out"), I moved on to taking the pieces apart. The wood glue couldn't be stronger than the screws, right? Wrong. This was about 1-2 days after initially putting the pieces together. This wood glue was STRONG. I mean, these joints looked really good. They were really solid. But I really didn't want to figure out how to cut replacement wood, or rent a reciprocating saw, etc. There had to be a way to get it apart. (Spoiler: I didn't get it apart.) First I tried brute strength. This didn't work well since I am not much of a brute. I tried the saw from the miter box I had previously purchased, but I couldn't fit the blade in the narrow seem between the boards. I tried dissolving it with rubbing alcohol, and it got a tiny bit slippery but it could not get in between the boards. I tried the back of a hammer, no dice. And I wasn't going out to purchase a chisel, rubber mallet, or other one-time use items. I did more research online and found that the recommended method for removal of this glue was a heat gun. I had several projects in the past that would have been easier with a heat gun, so I went for it and purchased one. It too failed, although I hung onto the heat gun as a sort of consolation prize. I saw no difference in the strength of the bond. My last ditch effort involved using a small hobby saw. Surprisingly, this was the most successful method, but it was absurdly labor intensive and I needed to break at least 12 joints this way. At this point it was time to face facts- I messed up and needed to start over. I had intended to build two stands initially, but wanted to do one first as a test. Since I was going to rent the miter saw again, I also bought enough boards for a second stand and just cut all of them at the same time. I should mention that I used Joey's advice from a different video and used one board as a template for other cuts, rather than measuring with a measuring tape each time. This worked pretty well. I cut all the pieces and a few extra to boot. I had no problem once again doing this within my 4hr rental time frame. Keep an eye on availability of the tool you're looking for on the Home Depot website- it would really be a pain to show up and realize someone else had already rented it out. Now knowing that I needed to drill pilot holes, and having purchased a bit specifically designed to work with the screws I had purchased, I went to work. It went fairly smoothly but my back ended up killing me because, as I previously mentioned, I was doing all of this on the patio floor/ground, not a table. It occurred to me that the patio could possibly not be level, but I truly had no idea what to do if that was the case, so I just went with it. I decided not to use wood glue on the frames like I had initially. Luckily everything went together easily. A corner clamp would have been useful, but it wasn't strictly necessary. I used one foot to apply pressure as I screwed in screws from the opposite side. The result was 3 very stable, pretty level frames for the aquariums to sit on. I moved on to the legs. As I laid everything out, I realized I had miscalculated the height I needed for the aquariums to have enough space. I had accidentally forgotten to include the height of the frames themselves. Ultimately this was ok for me; I had only intended to put 2 aquariums on each rack anyway in order to use the bottom shelf for supplies. And secondly, I was NOT buying more wood and cutting more pieces! I used wood glue this time and used a squaring tool (builder's square?) to make sure things stayed, well, square. In my mind, if they were square, they would also be level. Thankfully this turned out to be correct. I used wood glue again for adding these legs. They were so strong on the other pieces that they would certainly add strength to the leg/frame connection. This is where some more of my cutting errors came to light, although it may have been due to the imperfections in the wood. There were some slight gaps, but I was very comfortable that the screws and glue would provide enough strength for the stand. The clamp proved useful on this step because of minor bows and curves in the wood; I was able to keep things fairly straight and even, and it helped keep the pieces together when screwing the screws in. I have attached a picture of what I ended up with today. I need to add 4 braces, one underneath each side of both shelves. I plan to use wood glue on these as well. I initially purchased two boxes of screws, but I am confident that one box would have been enough for a single stand. It might be a close call on the second one, and I had purchased my supplies intending to get everything I could possibly need so I didn't have to go back to the hardware store mid-project. (Oh, the optimism.) I spent about 1-2 hours actually cutting wood today (probably closer to one) and about 2 hours doing all the construction with screws, pilot holes, etc. I'm certainly not making pace with the 45 minutes Joey quotes in his video! But he is an experienced builder/DIYer at this point, so I should not have expected that kind of speed for myself. I plan to continue either later tonight or tomorrow. Ideally I would finish today, sand, and apply stain so that it can dry overnight. But even as I say it, I think that's overly optimistic and will take a good bit of time. I will update after that, and future posts will eventually include specifics of what I purchased as well as cost (although... I know I won't like the number that comes up.) Keep in mind that lumber is MUCH MUCH more expensive than it was when Joey made his tutorial video. Even if you get the cheapest lumber, it will be much more costly than the $25 quoted by Joey at that time. And it has been...

I certainly assumed so before I started this project!

The purpose of this thread is to document my trials and tribulations while trying to build a "simple" aquarium stand. And let me just say, I have mad respect for the King of DIY; he does a ton of giant projects all by himself! For us beginners though, there some things that he leaves out. This will hopefully help people see what they are getting into and to avoid the mistakes I made. I have minimal tools (dremel, drill) and live in an apartment. I'll show you how I tackled this and how long it takes, along with the *real* costs. You know what I mean, you did something wrong so you have to buy something to fix it, etc. Here's what we're trying to build, for 20gal aquariums: I began last weekend. Per Joey, it only took him 45 min to slap this thing together. I consider myself fairly handy, so I should be able to do that, right? LOL NO. Since I didn't have a saw, I was planning to rent a miter saw from Home Depot. My husband was dubious about this, so we got a miter box and saw to try to cut the 2x4s. This did not work. My husband is a pretty fit guy, but the miter box just wasn't a good idea. There were too many cuts and we couldn't even get through one. This was, in part, due to the fact that we didn't have a sturdy table (just those cheap Ikea ones that wobble quite a bit.) So I would say avoid this route unless you have experience using it. I decided to have Home Depot cut it for me. The first two cuts are free, and 50 cents each after that. I was not counting on the associate being high as a kite though. I explained what I needed and he looked at me with that dreamy "I don't care" look, so I just had him cut some plywood (to make the shelves useful of I ever stop using it for aquariums.) The 8ft boards barely fit in the SUV, but fit it did. Oh, and did I mention, you have to go through and pick out the best boards? Yes. You must go to the stack of 2x4s and look at each board. Some of them are not even rectangular. Some of them are very crooked. Some are missing chunks. You don't want any of those. Your boards won't be perfect, but they should be fairly straight with no major defects. For my project, I took home six 8ft 2x4 boards. Note that 2x4s are NOT 2" by 4". They are actually 1.5" by 3.5". Make sure your measurements/calculations reflect this. I rented the miter saw and reviewed the little safety video detailed in the instructions. It was actually really easy to use. I was careful to use eye and ear protection and gloves, although the gloves were not really necessary (they made it more cumbersome when marking off measurements.) To best use the miter saw, you are really going to want to use a clamp, and I dished out like 20 cents for a carpenter's pencil. It helps make marks more accurate because it can mark closer to the edge. (Not strictly necessary but nice.) As I said before, I did not have a sturdy table, so I opted to saw on the floor of my patio. THIS IS NOT ADVISED IN THE SAFETY MANUAL. Do so at your own risk. When you start drilling things together, MAKE SURE YOU DOUBLE CHECK WHICH ONES YOU PUT TOGETHER! I made this mistake, and that's why I am here doing this project a week later. I felt like a special smart person and decided "I'll even wood glue these together!" That was a bad idea. Additional updates pending. I am still working on this today so I will update after. Sneak peek: troubles include stripped screws, incorrect bits, trying to remove wood glue, and a broken drill bit.

Just an update. I was able to get most of the screws out, but one of them is being incredibly stubborn and everything I have tried has only made it worse. I bought the screw extractor but didn't have much luck. This is probably because I was cheap and only bought one size- I should have bought the set. I tried drilling down to create a new area for it to grip but it didn't seem to help. My next try will be to use a dremel to basically cut a flat head opening, but I am trying to be reasonably nice to my neighbors by limiting myself to 1 to 1.5 hrs of power tools during the weekday, so I'll try again tomorrow. I did manage to get it out about an inch but it is in there tight. Made a moderate effort to pry apart the wood from the wood glue and it seems really solid. I read that rubbing alcohol or water can dissolve it so I may need to do something like that. This craigslist tip was a really good one, I haven't made any contacts yet but there are lots of tools for sale in my area at a good price.

Thank you, I appreciate the offer. I'm in Northern California though.

These are awesome tips you guys, thanks so much! Hoping I will be able to take another crack at removing the screws tomorrow. (Slow and steady. I learned my lesson... I hope.)

So the front and back parts are correct but I accidentally used 13" pieces on the sides (the right and left of the tank) instead of the 10" piece. I was supposed to use the 13" pieces as supports according to the tutorial. Unfortunately it has been sitting for 24 hours and is pretty well cured at this point. Oh... and I stripped two of the screws trying to get them out. 😕 I might still be able to extract them but, uh, I guess I messed it up a little. Thank you, this gives me some hope.

Joey shows this design as well for his larger tanks. If I was doing something bigger, I would be all for it. That said, I'm already pretty deep on the current build and am not planning on changing the design at the moment (unless it is unsalvagable. In which case I'd essentially be starting over anyway.) I'll keep it in mind for a second stand if I choose to make one.

Hi all. I'm very new to any woodworking, but I consider myself to be fairly handy, so I decided to try and make a DIY aquarium rack/stand as shown by King of DIY in this video: My rack will be designed for 20 gal aquariums. So I was all proud of myself because I went to the hardware store and rented a miter saw to cut my wood up (the guy at the cutting center looked like he was high as a kite- better for him not to be operating dangerous machinery.) I started putting things together last night, really proud of myself because I even used wood glue in addition to the screws. I managed to finish all three platforms. Well I realized today that I put it together wrong. When making the frames for the aquarium to sit on, I should have used a shorter piece (which, yes, I had already cut.) I just got so excited to put things together that I didn't double check the tutorial. Normally I would just unscrew the piece and then screw it into the correct piece. But isn't that going to be a problem since I used wood glue? Is wood glue water soluble? How much of a pain is it to take it apart, or should I just throw it out and start again with new wood? (I did make a mistake when cutting one of the pieces- not sure how, but it ended up too long.) I do not have easy access to any cutting tool- just a hand saw and miter box. My husband and I tried to cut some of the 2x4s that way and it was not a realistic way to make the cuts. Just too labor intensive. I haven't been able to find anyone I know who happens to have a good power tool to do the job, so I would have to rent the tool again. I'm certain I can't be the first person to make this mistake. Hoping someone out there with some woodworking experience can help me out!

I actually think it's a female, but I suspect that the genetics should work out the same. Would be easier with a male though (one male and many females.) Do you think it would be more successful getting orange offspring with an orange male? Or is it more just the ease of having one male mate with multiple females?

I was pleasantly surprised to find an orange shrimp pop up amongst my red cherry shrimp colony! Due to this, I suspect some of the reds might have been culls from an orange line or something; it must be in the genetics somewhere. I'd like to propagate this and ideally start an orange line. I think it will be pretty tough, but I'd like to try- it should be good fun. Based on the classic color chart of shrimp, it looks like I should just breed the orange one with... any solid red? Thoughts?

I am in the Northern California area, think Oakland but quite a bit more inland. I may have gotten ahead of myself because last night we were looking at closing costs and we weren't really expecting them to be in the range of $16,000. 😕 Housing market is wild here.

Excellent tips here, thank you so much! Just the sort of info I was looking for. Thank you!

I am lucky enough to be in a position where I am currently shopping around for a new house. Foremost on my mind is keeping an eye out for a place to put my fish room, so I am looking for a few tips. Ideally I'd love a basement, but unfortunately that just isn't common in my area. Right now we are looking for something that has a first floor bedroom so that I can commandeer it for the fishes. I know there have been a lot of talks on the forum about how much weight a floor can take/how many tanks; my understanding is that once you start going over 60 gallons, you need to be careful and make sure it doesn't fall right through the floor. Right now we haven't been finding a lot of options with first floor beds; I think this is super important. What do you guys think? Second question is flooring. It will depend on what kind of subfloor the building has, but I think concrete would be ideal. However, I remember Cory saying something about using gym mats. Does anyone know why that might be the case? Because it's easy to dry and is not slippery? Obviously I'll keep a look out for water and drainage access, I plan on using Gladiator shelving, and I plan to install a linear piston air pump. Still working out whether to install an auto water change system... Initially I want to say "I won't have THAT many tanks!" But we all know how that goes... Please let me know if you have any tips for things that are often forgotten when scouting out a new fish room.

That's a good idea, I'll try that!