33 Gallon fully planted tank build

[liquid_krystale]

As some of you may or may not know, this will be my first foray into the world of florascaping. I'm slowly collecting together what I need, but my first priority will to make a stand for the aquarium.

I wanted one tall enough so that the tank could easily be viewed whether one was standing or sitting, but not so tall that maintenance would be a pain. The last stand that came with the aquarium was a battered wreck of a particleboard one and really should have been headed for the trash long ago.

So...as we speak I'm sitting in a metalworking shop, getting a custom aluminum stand with doors and shelving fabricated. I will be posting pictures of the fab job along with progress pictures and reports of the tank as it comes along.

Cheers and happy holidays to all.

[Morainy]

Wow! I look forward to the pictures! I've never heard of anyone having a tank stand built at a metalwork shop. Maybe it's not uncommon, but it's never crossed my mind. It sounds spectacular, and definitely not particleboard. Very cool.

[liquid_krystale]

Here are some pics of the build.



The raw material.



Welding complete.



3 sides added.



Shelf added.

More to come...

[Captured Moments]

Wow.. An aluminium stand. Have you decided on the substrate choice yet?

[liquid_krystale]

Got the stand home today! It was powder coated black yesterday and we installed the handles today.





I might have been a bit ambitious in designing the stand to be 35" tall...makes filling the tank with a bucket a real pain and resulted in this...



I put down a 2-2.5 inch layer of ADA aqua soil I bought off of a forum member. Unfortunately I wasn't careful with the bucket during fill up and stirred up the soil. The visibility is about an inch right now, despite a half day of running the filter and stuffing it full of poly batting. I wonder how long it's going to take to clear up.



A pic of my marimo balls, one of the only 2 plants that survived shipment from overseas in the dead of Canadian winter. A valuable lesson learned...a whole bunch of plants I ordered by mail arrived as a brown/sludgy mess.

[gklaw]

Nice work and a tall tank !

[Treasure chest]

Fancy stand. Is it aluminum or steel? Nice work!

[bigfry]

Nice aluminum stand, light but strong.

Any concern about tank tipping over?

[liquid_krystale]

Gklaw: thank you!

Treasure chest: the stand is entirely made of aluminum.

Bigfry: thanks! It's tall, but it'll take more than a shove or two to tip it over. It's backed by a banister as well.

[Arcteryx]

Watching with interest. Outfitting a 33 as well in the near future.