72g Bowfront setup and DIY stand

[Sleepiness]

Hello RC, in February me and my girlfriend moved into a new place. Of course I had to use this as an opportunity to upgrade my tank. After finding a decently priced used tank I decided to save some money and build the stand.



I did not really calculate how much stand I needed, instead I just went overkill on the project.




After finishing the base of the stand I decided to get a little creative and use some left over tiles from a past bathroom restoration.
You can tell I ran out and had to use to different color pieces of tile to finish the top.Sorry I did not get any pics attaching the durock, tile or cutting the whole for the overflow. They were all messy processes.


I just used 1/2" oak ply and finished her up. This is the stand in its decided resting place. The top of the stand is removable and made it much easier to get the dang thing into my apartment.


Having so much room for skimmer made me really happy. I tried to have a 10 gallon tank drilled for the refuguim but the tank was tempered and shattered. Instead I used an old sump I had lying around which ended up working out pretty well.


Since I have reinforced the sump due to some bowing I noticed.


I plan on adding doors farther down the road but for now I just have a plywood cover that does not look half bad.

 

[Sleepiness]

Finally the skimmer came and it required some assembly which was quite fun. I should have took photos of the skimmer build but I did not The fit was perfect.

 

[Pife]

Looks good. I'm surprised you put durarock down under the tile. How long did all of this take you?

 

[Sleepiness]

I could only put work into on sundays. But only took me 2 days to complete, longest process was waiting for the cement, grout and wood stain to dry. On the third day it took me maybe an hour to put the finishing wood on the stand.

 

[Sleepiness]

This is a pic I took last week with final rock work setup.