Hi, everybody Joey here again, and welcome back so in today's video. I intend to show you how I built my
375 Gallon Aquarium stand now to summarize this build the stand is 8 feet long
3 feet wide and 3 feet tall now some [of] the things that I intend to show you how and why I did was
starting with the frame
I went with a 2 by 6 frame
I then wrapped it in a 3/4 inch birch plywood and then stained it with [a] stain [that] contains polyurethane making it a one-step
Application to start off the build let's start with the frame now. I went with the design. I always use however this time
I'm using two by sixes and it's important to explain why when designing its tank stand frame
You need to know how much weight you're going to be putting on it in the first place and my tank weighs 400 pounds
[Empty] however the water. I'll be putting in it weighs about 3,100 pounds so the combined weight will be a minimum of
3,500 pounds with that said this is a live weight. I want to come to live weight
I suggest using a safety factor of at Least 4
Meaning the stand needs to support at least [4] times the amount of weight you intend to place on it
So in my case. I need a stand that will support a minimum of
14,000 pounds now in this design
I'm using 10 supports that will actually support the weight of the tank now if I went with two by fours which can support about
800 pounds on an upright that means that it would have only supported about 8,000 pounds which is not enough
so I went up to the next one which is two by sixes and ten two by sixes on uprights will support a
minimum of
12,000 pounds, which is very close to what I need but not?
exactly however
once you add in the
Shearing strength of all of the screws as well as the plywood that's going to be added which will also contribute to the overall
strength of the stand we get about
15,000 pounds of support
Now onto the frame build this is no different [than] any other frame that I've shown you how to do
It's the same design
We just simply make it bigger or smaller the only real difference that we ever make is if it gets center supports [or] not?
and if the tank is over four feet long
then it gets center supports [as]
Always we start with the top and bottom of this frame and we build it [just] like how we would build an aquarium
Where the front and back goes on the outside?
[and] the side of the frame goes on the
Inside with screws screwing into them and for this entire frame build I use number eight two and a half inch construction
screws
I use just over a hundred screws for this frame
That's something that you need to plan [for] is chances
Are you'll use a lot [more] screws than you think you will I start with the bottom and top of the frame for very specific?
Reasons these two have to be square
If these are not square the rest of the frame will not be square with the bottom and top frames done
I move on to the guides and these are actually what holds the braces in place as well as sets the height of the stand
These get installed into all four corners
[what] I like to do is install the bottom first then flip the entire thing over and install the top now
We can move on to what?
Actually [supports] the weight of the tank and even though the screws each have observing strength of about [fifty] pounds
meaning that they can support 50 pounds each before they'll break the
Real weight goes onto these supports that are attached to the uprights now again
I've shown you how to build this frame countless times in the past
So this is truly nothing new here the next thing is the cross supports and these serve a few
Functions the first thing is they support the uprights by helping holding them in place
So they don't have a chance to wiggle around or move
Second thing is these stop the stand from being able to twist and a twisting stand is the number one reason a tank will fail
The third thing is is that these support the weight of the tank if the tank does not have a bottom trim?
For example if you were to buy a glass tank they typically have a bottom trim which elevates them off the stand themselves meaning that
You only have to support the perimeter of the stand as opposed to the middle as well
now since I'm placing the acrylic aquarium on this which has no trim the weight is dispersed over the entire surface of the
Stand so I do need some center supports [as] well
I personally like this type of frame because it's simple to build we're using all [but] joints meaning that all you need is a mite
Saw to be able to cut up your lumber, and then an electric drill [to] screw it all together
It's also
extremely easy to scale meaning that you can take this design and use it for small stands or
Scale it up and make it for big stands
It's also Incredibly strong
[but] most importantly the fact that the supporting strength of this type [of] lumber is well known
Meaning that you can take those numbers and design your stand based on the aquarium that it's actually going to hold which is
Incredibly important when it comes to this design and strength of your stand you're not taking any chances here
[I] can tell you one thing for sure if I were to ask somebody how much weight their stand can actually hold
Chances are they will have no idea if you ask me that question I will give you exact numbers
To finish the frame off I added some 3/4 inch plywood to the top of it now this will help evenly
distribute all of the weight of the aquarium across the entire surface of the stand I
Then place the actual aquarium on the stand just to get a feel for what I wanted to do next
I
Decided I would be wrapping the frame in three-quarter inch birch plywood and then staining it
I bought a few sheets of this birch plywood and cut it up to size on my table saw now because I went with three-quarter
Inch Birch plywood which was shop grade?
I didn't really need to prepare the surface
Which means very little?
Sanding and that's something you should consider is the grade of the plywood you're purchasing the more you spend the less work?
You'll have to do when it came to the front of the tank and the doors
I decided to go with one of the easiest designs you can which is cutting out doors that
Overlap the access holes and while this is one of the easier ways [to] do it it also takes up a lot of plywood
However, I think it looks really good [in] order to cut out these doors
[I] first measured and marked off where the [holes] should go and then
drill pilot holes into each corner
This would allow me to get my saw blade in and start cutting it also allows me to make turns
[I] then cut out the doors
[themselves] which overlap the access holes in the front panel by a couple of inches then of course installed the hinges now because these are
Relatively large doors, and there's four of them. I decided to install the doors before I installed the front panel on the aquarium
I then screwed all three panels in place
The front panel as well as the side panels it was now ready to be stained given the size of the stand I also had
To build it in place as well as stain it in place
Staining is next the first thing I needed to worry about was ventilating the room. So I opened some windows and inserted some fans
Sucking the air out of this room
However last minute
I decided to take my router and route off a quarter inch of all of the stand Corners
Giving it a more rounded look and I think this looked a lot better
I didn't stop there though, [and] I did a little bit of routing on the doors as well giving it all a more finished look
Now it was ready to stain for a stain. I went with Minwax polishing
I went with this simply due [to] the fact that it contains the stain as well as the polyurethane
all in one which makes it really easy to apply which is good for me because I hate
Staining the color. I went with is called [-] door all stains have their own names for the colors however
This is just a brown with a little bit of hint of red although
I'm not positive because I'm actually colorblind so I just went with whatever
I thought looked best okay, so here's how I get away with being a horrible stainer
But coming out with a pretty decent job
I don't really follow the
Instructions the [first] two coats are what really matters for me when?
Staining one of the biggest things you have to worry about is getting too much staying in one place and your overall job becoming blotchy
Looking for me to avoid this issue
[I] apply the stain with a brush and then rub it out with a rag to ensure [that] it is evenly
Distributed I do this for the first two coats in between Coats though
you have to sand it down with a
steel wool the reason being is that when some woods get wet with stains some of the wood fibers can raise up making it a
Rough surface the steel wool simply removes that after each sanding with the steel
Wool [you] also need some tack cloth this will help you remove any dust that the sanding
Created you do not want to get this in your stain now
There's a lot of different ways you can stain wood and a lot of different products however
I like to keep it as simple as [possible] after the first two coats the rest is really easy
This is because I already have an evenly distributed stain from now on
I just have to use the brush when applying each coat now. All I have to do is decide on how dark
I want it with each coat it gets darker and Darker the finished product took me about six coats and three days of work
Again now you know why I hate staining
There's so much work to do and a lot can go wrong
But arguably have done right to the right piece of furniture it looks amazing
[I] love how this turned out
And I will be doing it again to another stand that I'm building shortly the last thing I did was install the handles
Now with any handles you drill a couple of pilot holes and screw them in place not very difficult at all when it comes to
Installing hinges or handles like this there's so many different methods in ways you can do it that some even come with templates
You [can] follow
so that is how I built my
375 Gallon Aquarium stand I hope that you got something from video and hopefully found something useful in it if not
I hope that it was at least
Interesting for you to watch as many of you also know [I] wrote a book titled the ultimate do-it-yourself
Handbook for the do-it-yourself aquarist where an entire chapter within it is dedicated to stand building
So if you'd like to support this channel directly as well as get further information and details on building stands for your aquariums
you can go to the king of Diy comm
Where you'll have the option to purchase the [e-book] or the softcover if you get the softcover, it'll come signed by me anyways
I hope that you guys enjoyed today's video
I also wanted to thank you for watching [and] I'll [see] you guys next Sunday for a new do to yourself project