DIY aquarium stand and canopy attempt (fail)

IMHO if the stand is built properly screws will be all you need. I'm on my phone, but when I get home I can post some pics of how you want to join everything together.

 

Great, i'd really appreciate that

 

The second link in this post really breaks things down and shows how things are joined together. As Todd mentioned, when building a stand you don't want any fasteners supporting any of the weight. The purple uprights are what you will have doing all the supporting with the screws just holding things in place. If you notice the green screw strips are a little shorter than the the over all height of the stand. This is done so they aren't doing any supporting and only there to hold things in place. One thing it says that you can remove the green screw strips, but you have to leave them in place if you aren't using pocket holes.

I used pocket holes on my stand and I know it might be hard for you to get you hands on one, but if you can get one it will make it easier. You won't need to drill pilot holes with this jig only the pocket holes. If you have to use regular deck screws, look on the box a lot of times they will put the size of drill bit you need to drill pilot holes.

Here is a corner of my stand



Hope this helps

 

Wow ok. I've got my work cut out for me. Like I said, I borrowed the tools but I think I gotta return the borrowed stuff and get some new tools on layaway. I would always find use for the tools. Maybe I can perfect the trade and start building stands for my clients and cutting out the middle man.
I will certainly work on my carpentry skills and hopefully perfect this project in the near future.
Thank you for all the help everyone. My gf was quite surprised to see how supportive everyone here has been. I told her this is why I prefer 3reef to all others.
Thanks again for all the input. Next week I will resume and implement everything that I've learned.
I will post pics as the project comes along.

 

One other thing if you are going to make this for the 55 gallon tank than you will be ok using 2x4's for everything if it's for the 125 than you will need to use 2x6's for the top red rails and top blue braces and end rails.

 

Ok great. Thanks a bunch everyone.

 

I put a shower pan liner in the bottom of my stand. I would highly recommend. It has already save me from a few floods.

 

You could still use what you have but put two vertical pieces on each corner. You want the weight to be on the added boards. Then make a duplicate of the bottom to put on top. Oops.. Disregard the arrow suggesting it goes all the way to the top. It would not go all the way because your top boards would look just like the bottom. They would be 3.5 inches from the top if you are using 2x4s.