Dual 12G NanoCube Stand

[sclark0548]

I have been surfing this message board for a while now and have gotten some great advice and inspiration. I have kept several freshwater tanks over the years, and have wanted to jump into salt for a while. I worked at a LFS while going to college and loved it.

 

I finally broke down in January and ordered a 12Gallon NanoCube DX. As my luck would have it, the shipping company lost it. I had to wait for the vendor to drop ship a replacement tank. About two days after I received the replacement cube, the original tank was found sitting outside next to a locked gate about 3 miles from my house. Long story short I ended up with two tanks (my wife loved this, one tank costs enough to stock, but two!)

 

I came up with this idea for a dual cube stand. After several revisions on paper and hours in the garage, this is my final design.

It is super sturdy and serves the purpose well. (The pics of the tanks themselves are kinda cloudy, it was right after I added the LR). I plan to post some closer (hopefully clearer) shots of my tanks later.

 

I appreciate all the good advice and ideas I have found on this site.

[shao-lin nano]

Nice score on the dual NanoCubes. If you're worried about cost of stocking both you could have unloaded one for a good deal to a fellow reefer.

 

The stands look really nice by the way.

[BigE22]

Great looking stand! I love that setup.

[Derby Reefer]

Very very nice. The whole things seems to flow just right. Love it.

[nanocube]

do you have any tips on how to make a stand for only one 12 g nano cube?

[shao-lin nano]

Those stands or bookshelves don't look home made, looks like premade furniture that just matches well. sclark, if you did make them then you did an amazing job.

[sclark0548]

Shao, I appreciate the compliment, it is home made. I could not find anything out on the market pre-built. If you look close up on it, you can see it was not a professional job. I am by far a very amauteur woodworker.

 

It took me a while to come up with the design on paper, but the building was easier than it looks. The hardest part was building the little door for the smaller side. I needed somewhere to hide all my aquarium cleaning stuff.

 

I built it out of 3/4" oak plywood (you can use cheaper wood if you are going to paint instead of stain it). I even had my local lowes cut the boards for me there. I didnt want to haul a 8x4 foot peice of plywood home.

 

For a single 12Gallon it would be pretty simple. 16" wide by 18" deep:

 

Get come 3/4 plywood (this stuff is strong!).

1/2" would work well also, but I wanted mine be super strong to support the weight of the tank and my two little curious children.

 

The two sides would be 32" x 18" (you can make this as tall/short as you like.)

 

The back would be 16" x 33 1/4" (I put on a solid plywood back to help support the weight)(again as tall/short as you like)

 

The top/bottom peices would be 16" x 18"

 

The two shelves would be 14 3/4" wide x 14" deep to fit inside the unit (if you are using 3/4" plywood).

 

Just build a square box with two internal shelves. I put it together with a good wood glue and several small nails. I covered the front / side edges up with 1" red oak trim boards (this hides the nails and rough cut edges). Make sure the top trim boards stick up about 1/8" around the top. This makes a nice little lip to prevent the tank from ever sliding off.

 

If you are going to stain it like I did, I would recommend putting at least 3 coats of good polyurthane on it to keep it waterproof. Mine constantly gets little spills on it, and it just just wipes clean.

 

I hope that helps. Unfortunatly, I didnt take any photos of the actual process of building it. I can post some closer shots of the stand if you want to see more how it fits together.