# My DIY 55g Stand and Slate Background



## bullonparade (Feb 24, 2009)

Hi. A few months ago I decided I wanted a new tank for African Cichlids. I did research mainly on this site and came up with a 55g for Mbunas. Here's how I made my stand and background. Pictures will be at the end. 

Stand Construction

First off I needed a stand. I have had basically no carpentry experience, so I asked my step dad if he was willing to give advice, or even give a spare hand in his spare time. He was happy to!
We came up with a basic plan and I bought the materials required. Fortunately he had all the tools, I just needed plywood, hinges, handles, and stain. I settled with 3/4" plywood (oak). I didn't take any pictures while constructing it, but I can give you guys a basic outline as to what we did. I constructed a box out of 2x4s for the bottom. 48.5" long and 15" wide. Ontop of that I placed a 48.5"x18" piece of plywood that would eventually be the bottom of the cupboards. It was nailed and glued.
From there we attached the two plywood sides that were 32" high and 18" wide. They were secured with wood glue, nails, and biscuits. We put another piece on plywood vertically in the middle for more support. It was also supported with glue and biscuits. We then painted the inside white.
After that we cut the plywood for the top and placed it ontop. We fitted it by routering (I think) a quarter inch off the bottom on the top piece of plywood, and a quarter inch off the inside of the top corner of the sides (does that make sense? Sorry if it doesn't..). It was then glued and nailed to the sides and in the middle.
We then added the backboard which was two pieces of 1/4" plywood. The inside of the was painted white before we nailed it on. We cut two pieces of approx 23 3/4" by 1 3/4" plywood for the front above the doors. They are held there nails, biscuits, and glue. We then ironed on the oak finish strips for the exposed edges of plywood. There was alot of sanding between all these steps to get everything smooth!
The 4 doors were cut at approx 11 3/4" by 24" high. Everything was stained twice. Then glossed twice. We attached the hinges and handles and it was done!

Sorry if that took long to explain, and once again I'm sorry for not having pictures of the building process.

Background

For the background I used flagstone siliconed to arena board (plastic). My step dad has built some hockey rinks, so he had some arena board lying around in his shop. I think we cut one large piece at 47.5" long and 19" high (not 100% sure though, can't remember). We then cut it in half to get it into the tank easier when rock was siliconed ontop. I googled arena board to make sure it was safe and apparently it's non toxic.
I sanded down the plastic to make the surfaces rough. Hopefully that allows for a tougher cohesion with silicone. I placed the rock randomly over the board and silconed them where I thought they looked good. The silicone used was GE I window and door. I used relatively large, flatter pieces for the two filter intakes and heater. I let the silicone cure for about 30 hours before placing the background in the tank. 
I silconed some styrofoam to the bottom of the tank for the background to sit on (approx. 48" long and 1.5" wide). We placed the two pieces of the background in the tank (which was lying on it's back) to make sure they were going to fit first. I then siliconed the back the the tank with quite a bit of silicone and dropped the background ontop. I let it cure for a good 24 hours before putting the tank upright.

Tank Setup

We transported the tank and stand to my house and I set it up in my bedroom :dancing:. I allowed a week for all the silicone to cure, hopefully that sufficed. I put eggcrate on the bottom. I found Sakrete play sand at my local Rona for about $6 for a 25kg bag. I cleaned all the sand in buckets and put enough in the tank to cover the eggcrate. I then found a bunch of rock at the river near my house and filled up a couple buckets along with some bigger ones I stashed in my car trunk. I cleaned the rock and put them in my tank. I put in more sand and was done aquascaping  .
I allowed another day or two for the silicone to cure more (just in case). I filled it up half way with water and emptied it again because the water was still a bit cloudy. I filled it up again and set up my filters. My filters are a Tetra Whisper 60 and Marineland C-220. Once my filters were running, I let the tank begin cycling. I put some fillter media from my established tank in my HOB filter and squeezed some sponge "juice" into my new tank (does that work?). Every day I added a little bit of that beneifical bacteria as well. After a week of cycling I took my water to my LFS and got it tested. I had 0 ammonia, very low nitrite, and about 5 nitrate. I figured it was fine to add a couple Danios, just in case.
I tested the PH today and it's hovering around 8.0 and my nitrates were still at about 5.

So here's what you've been waiting for.. pictures! They're not the greatest quality as you can see reflection of my messy bed in some of them  .

Set up:









Rocks and more sand:









Water in it:









View from my bed :wink: :









The inside (yeah, yeah.. I was a bit sloppy with the stain):

















The current inhabitants (two blurry Danios):









Comments/advice/criticisms/suggestions/hate mail are welcomed! :lol:

Hope you enjoyed! Sorry for the long post. Oh, and I love this forum... so many interesting topics, great people, and informative articles.

Thanks

Ray :thumb:


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## lefty101 (Nov 21, 2008)

good job on the stand and tank...... =D>


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## Maddog (Nov 7, 2008)

very ncie work


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## mncherie1 (Mar 27, 2009)

love the background, where did you buy the flagstone from?
I found some @ home depot, but it was glued to some sort of mesh, for walkways.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

is NIIIIICE in my country your tank would make number 2 prostitute in all the land :lol:


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## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

Tell me more about the doors. Are those just pieces of oak plywood with the edges banded? Thanks. Looks great.


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