# Titan Eze Metal Aquarium Double Stands



## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

Has anyone purchased one of these? I'm in need of a stand for a 75g (48"x18"x24") and although I love DIY projects I don't know if it's worth building a stand out of dimensional lumber then waterproofing it when I can just buy one from fosterandsmithaquatics.com for $120 + shipping. I reaaally want to build a stand though for the sake of just becoming better with building stuff. The stand will be in the basement so aesthetics are not an issue. I'm more worried about how strong the stand is since it needs to be assembled and that bothers me since I refinished a steel stand this summer by stripping the rust and repainting it and it's ridiculously sturdy and heavy. Someone wrote a testimonial on the website but I'm much more trusting of the opinion of the members of this forum. It also says that another tank can be placed under it of the same size?! That would be a + since then I might not have to get rid of my 55g (48"x12"x18") tank with the 48

Thanks!

TLDR:

Need a stand for the basement, aesthetics not important, was thinking about the metal one from fosterandsmithaquatics.com, wondering if there was a better option like DIY or petco, petsmart, or LFS type annual sale that I should wait for...

have 3x tanks atm 2 using eheim 2217 and height factor comes into play, 30g eheim will be replaced with HOB and used to probably raise fry or something

75g 48 1/2" x 18 1/2" x 21 3/8" - planted shrimp tank
55g 48 1/4" x 12 3/4" x 21" - welcome to the jungle - endler brothel
30g 36 1/4" x 12 5/8" x 16 3/4" - nursery


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## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

maaan... how does my TLDR wind up being almost as bad as my original block of words =/


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## mmelnick (Mar 5, 2010)

If you just want a frame to hold the tank and aren't concerned with how it looks just get a few bucks worth of 2X4's and a box of wood screws.

you'll need

four 4' sections of 2X4 (so 2 10 footers should be plenty)
four sections that are however tall you want it to be. (so probably another 10 foot 2X4 or maybe 2 8 footers if you want it to be taller)

I would probably brace it in the middle as well. At least in the back if you want to have a 55 gal under it. If the 55 gal won't be there then brace the front in the middle as well.

If you want to you can then skin the sides with some plywood. Or just leave it how it is. This shold be a $10 project unless you skin it, then add in the price of a sheet of plywood and paint if you want.


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## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

I have plenty of 2x6s and 2x10s... I got them from someone who built a slasher movie set for an indie film... It was a shed in the woods and it has fake blood all over the wood 

I'm now thinking of making a table that is about 37"x64" and placing my 55g and 75g back to back and then the 30g along the side, making something that keeps all their tops at the same level, and then creating a siphon between all of them so that they all share the same water... haha darn crazy shower ideas! I've built a table beforethat was overkill for my outdoor aquaponics so I have all the tools to route joints for biscuits and will probably throw some bolts in there for the legs... Man sometimes I wonder how I change my mind so drastically in 30 minutes. The table might also solve a space issue due to an old chest full of holiday stuff. It just takes up space for 11.5 months of the year and just holds christmas tree decorations and other random holiday stuff. I figure I could slide it under the table since It's a tad bit shorter than the aquarium stand that I have.

Anyways, the only really annoying thing that I found in the past about using dimensional lumber is that sometimes I don't see the warping and it goes unnoticed until I try joining stuff together.  My skills are not yet up to par to deal with that kind of stuff. Any ideas on how to make the surface of the table/stand level in case I come across that problem? I see that people use foam for their rimless tanks but I'm not sure what I would use for a rimmed tank.

Only downside I can see about this setup is that I still need a quarantine tank but at the same time I won't have to go and buy another canister filter or use the hob althought extra filtration is always good right?


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Foam of some sort, like yoga mats or the mat Walmart sells to go under exercise equipment, will help a lot with the wood. Remember though on rimmed tanks, the weight is on the rim, not the glass, so only the area the rims will sit on needs to be really even. 

While biscuits are great for edge joining, the weight of a tank needs to be distributed to the floor. Lap and butt joints will probably be sufficient. 
Do some sketching before you start cutting. Consider the best ways to "transmit" the weight from the top pieces to the legs and/or to the base. 
I've got my design at the point where I can do a 48" X 18" or 24" stand for $20.00 in 2x4s and about $5.00 for screws and polyurethane glue. Every joint rests on solid wood. Now if I could find paneling in 48.4 inch widths. ;-) I don't like corner molding.


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## houstonhobby (Dec 12, 2008)

I had a stand like this once for 4 29 gallon tanks. You need to step the tanks down a bit for the siphons to perform right, ie top tank has highest water level, siphoning into next tank about an inch lower, then the final tank (with pump to send water back to the top) about an inch below that.

Or you can drill the back of the tanks and let the water flow out thru a bulkhead fitting. That is easier to deal with.


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## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

houstonhobby said:


> I had a stand like this once for 4 29 gallon tanks. You need to step the tanks down a bit for the siphons to perform right, ie top tank has highest water level, siphoning into next tank about an inch lower, then the final tank (with pump to send water back to the top) about an inch below that.
> 
> Or you can drill the back of the tanks and let the water flow out thru a bulkhead fitting. That is easier to deal with.


Hmmm they won't exchange water so that the water height is in equilibrium? I was thinking about using a very low flow pump to bring water from the first pump to the 3rd and have 2x 1"pvc pipes with a little filter floss on the ends joining each tank to bring the water between them like so

tank1 <=> tank2 <=> tank3
<=> are the 2x 1" pvc siphons

water gets actively pumped from tank1 to tank3

Perhaps some sort of box or something with a prefilter might be even better so that I can monitor the flow of water and be certain that the pvc/filter floss doesn't get clogged and tank 3 overflow water outside of the system.
Gahh anyways...

I have some table ideas. I'll post them later on as I have to run.

Thanks for all your input!

-Mike


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## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

Oo btw dbosman I'll definitely do a sketch before I build it... I'll check twice about making sure the wood is not severely warped b/c I didn't check on this table and it bit me in the butt.










All the wood used are 2x6 pieces except for the legs. The legs are some very old 4x4 cherry wood that was used in an old deck. There is also a center brace underneath the table running perpendicular to the planks on the top. Iirc I used 6" long bolts to join the legs to 2 side of the table.


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## houstonhobby (Dec 12, 2008)

A few years ago I ran a system with three tanks siphoned together for several years. It was a 120 with a couple of 20XH's that acted essentially as a big box filter (the media was jungle val . . . great bioremediation).

Anyway, my point is that siphons are a problem unless there is a fairly fast flow thru them. They tend to build up air at the top and eventually the siphon will break (and then if the pump does not have a shutoff you have a lot of water on the floor).

That is why stepping down the water level after each siphon makes a difference. The extra inch or two of head lets you draw water thru the siphon faster.


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