Solid Oak Aquarium

DrPhilG

Hi folks

I'll add a pic or 2 of my tank to the thread shortly, but I have a question.

I have a 180l Aquantlantis tank that I got cheap from someone who needed rid of it. It has of course rekindled my old obsession (used to have a 4ft tank years ago but sold it after a heater malfunction wiped out my stock:( ).

I'm looking to upgrade later this year to something around the 400l mark. Maybe a little smaller, maybe a little bigger!

I'm in Donegal, and the best thing I've seen is in Coleraine, a Boyu 500l tank with curved corners for £700 but my only issue with is is the same issue I have with so many standard cabinets, the finish of the wood. It just looks like cheap flatpack MDF furniture.

The result is I'm looking for a solid oak cabinet. The only place I have found is Maidenhead Aquatics in Belfast, but I'd be looking at around £1100 for a 4ft setup. I wasn't even prepared to pay £700, never mind £1100!

I have 2 choices, wait and hope for a second hand setup, or go DIY.

Has anyone ever gone that route for a stand/cabinet? I was thinking of getting a kitchen maker to see if they could do something, or is it not worth the risk due to the serious weight involved?

él statutorio

I made a big cabinet a good few years back.

I totally over engineered it though. I made it from MDF (it was to match an existing kitchen) I had 400-ish Liter tank on it and it was fine. The downside was that without the tank the unit weighed a tonne and was a total pain to move anywhere.

A kitchen maker could do it but given the weights involved you'd need them to be confident it'd take the weight.

An alternative would be to get a steel fabricator to knock something together and then clad that in wood. Basically use a strong steel frame to carry all the weight and then pretty it up with whatever wood you want. If I was doing things again this is what I'd do. It has the bonus of letting you swap out the wood if your decor changes.

DrPhilG

Mind if I ask how much your project cost?

él statutorio

It didn't cost anything as I built it out of scraps that were lying around the shed (we had a business making kitchen cabinets & fireplaces).

It was 15 years ago but with just the basic MDF sprayed up I'd imagine you could get it done for round about €300-ish depending on how much detail you wanted to go into (drawers, doors, beading, beveled edges etc)

Sleepy

Another option could be to just look for a good solid wood side table and drill it for any pipe work after. My brother in law has his tank on one that he got in a furniture clearance sale...

I'd have a look in the Merchant's Quay market, they often have beautiful old furniture that hasn't been sold in the auctions and some of the antique stuff is extremely well made since they're from an era when craftsmanship was much more of a focus in furniture making.

DrPhilG

Sleepy wrote: »

Another option could be to just look for a good solid wood side table and drill it for any pipe work after. My brother in law has his tank on one that he got in a furniture clearance sale...

I'd have a look in the Merchant's Quay market, they often have beautiful old furniture that hasn't been sold in the auctions and some of the antique stuff is extremely well made since they're from an era when craftsmanship was much more of a focus in furniture making.

My original thought was to buy a solid oak table or sideboard etc, but my worry is whether they would be fit to carry the weight.

I looked at an oak sideboard online as an example but it said it had a maximum weight limit of 45kg. A 400l+ tank could be 10 times that.

Ranchu

Just be aware that there will be no warranty on the aquarium if you do not use the manufactures stand.