I've posted some of the following pictures elsewhere on these forums.
Thought I'd make a thread on the build to keep everything together.

I have build 2 other fish tank stands, back in the late 1990's, early 2000's.
Over those years I had planted fish tanks and kept and bred Leopard Geckos.
The one stand was sold a few years ago.
The other stand now holds my Haworthia collection.

I saw a new tank from Fluval called the Flex and thought it looked really interesting.
Took the wife to show her the tank and she thought the same. So I ended up purchasing it.


I've slowly been building a stand for the tank.





















Hinges are not attached to the doors yet. Waiting till the stand is stained.

When I looked at the Flex tank, the lid seemed pretty flimsy. This was a concern because of having cats, which I'm sure they will want to jump up on it.
When I built the stand that my Haworthia are now in, I used spindles to make a top.



I'm thinking of how to build a shelf above the tank for the cats, and make it so I can remove it to access the tank when it's time to clean.

Wow! you must really love your plants to do all that work

gardengus said:Wow! you must really love your plants to do all that work

Fluval does make a stand for the tank.
https://www.saltwateraquarium....
It is underwhelming in all respects, especially for the money they are asking for it.

I looked at other stands and never saw any that I liked enough to spend the money.
So when you are picky and have some woodworking tools in the garage... you end up building what you want.

Had a major set back.

Bought 4 stains. tested on scrap wood. My wife and I both picked the same stain we thought we liked.
Ended up staining the stand with it and we both hated it.
I was so close to throwing the stand out.

6 hours to sand all the stain off the cabinet.

I'm glad I decided to spend the time to sand it back down. Got another 4 stains. Picked a winner this time.








I'm going to make a floating shelf above the tank so the cats don't try to jump on the plastic lid.
The thought is to make it removable to access the tank when I clean it.

I'm then going to make a cat house next to the stand so they can watch the fish from the roof.

Weather has been nice and I finally have been able to make some head way on my build.



I have everything for the floating canopy complete.
Canopy is upside down in the first 2 pics.





Now for my concern... attaching the floating canopy to the wall. The canopy is 33" long and 16 1/2" deep.
The canopy will be removable to access the fish tank.
I have 2 cats which I'm sure will be jumping onto the canopy... in fact I will be building additional shelves to create a cat highway for them along the ceiling.... eventually.

I will be able to attach the main mounting wood for the shelf to the wall hitting 2 studs. I'm also planning on using 2 butterfly anchors around the black X marks.



My original thought was to have the 2 support arms for the shelf be removable as well with using a 1" dowel. I'm starting to think, of not removing the arms, and glue it all together along with metal L brackets from the main mounting wood to the support arms.
My concern is the weight of the cats jumping to the shelf and it starting to sag.





If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

After doing some more research I decided to make a metal bracket out of 11 gauge metal to hold the canopy.
used 2 - 3/8" x 2 1/2" long lag screws into the studs. Added 2 butterfly anchors as well








I still have to put a few coats of polyurethane on the canopy.


I mentioned about wanting to make a cat house beside the tank for the cats to watch the fish and be able to access the floating shelf.
Found a box at work that is extremely close to the size I'm plan on making the cat house.


The start of the framework for the cat house.

Looks great Steve! Will you be putting an LED fixture in the canopy? Fresh or Salt?

crawgarden said:Looks great Steve! Will you be putting an LED fixture in the canopy? Fresh or Salt?

Thank you.
It does have 1 LED strip built into the lid. It is designed to fit 2 LED strips. I did buy a second one.
This will be a fresh water planted tank.
I only have a hand full of pictures of previous planted tanks I've had. A hard drive failure too many of my pictures years ago.

Here's a very old pic of my one of my setups from my 40 gallon tank.... This tank is now dry and holds my Haworthia collection.

Looks great, will you do CO2!

No CO2.
Low tech.

Always had great success growing plants without using CO2 in the past. I'm hoping to have the same success when I get this one set up.

Impressive Tank!!

I was trying to think of how to attach the canopy to the bracket so it would not shift when the cats would jump up on it.
Came up with this idea. Just tapped the metal bracket. Make finger tight, canopy isn't going anywhere.







Added the second LED fixture to the hood.



Did not like the filter set up.
Did some modding of my own.



Should have water in by the end of the week.

OMG, I've got water!...

Added 1 bag of Eco Complete red and 1 bag of Flourite brown.

The next hard part is trying to figure out how to decorate the tank.
I've been looking at stones and driftwood for some time.
Haven't seen any driftwood I like in the store. I thought about looking for some when kayaking, but just not sure what I'd end up with.
I may add some wood if I find some thing I like.


I was looking at dragon stone but afraid it was going to blend in too much with the gravel.


Went with the grey stone.



Now I need to find the plants I want...

Got some plants planted on Thursday.
Looks bad...hurry up and fill in. LOL

Looks good Steve!

The plants I started with:

Cryptocoryne wendtii - Green
Cryptocoryne wendtii - Bronze
Cryptocoryne wendtii - 'Flamingo'
Vallisneria asiatica (Corkscrew Val)
Ceratophyllum demersum (Hornwort)
Aponogeton ulvaceus
Hydrocotyle tripartita
Ludwigia repens - Tried this years ago with no luck. Didn't seem to working now either. Took it all out. Replaced with:
Rotala indica (rotundifolia)

Just added a few fish Sunday.
After the tank lights went out, cats seem to be interested...LOL

Steve Absolutely ..'Stunnin' . and the kittys are a riot
I like it that you took the time to label the plants . So nice...and beautiful 🤩
Kittys names ? Looks like trouble..
Can't wait to see the 🐠.

@bumplbea

Thanks.

Plants are filling in.
Ceratophyllum demersum (Hornwort) - Going nuts. Cutting around 3" to 4" off the plant every week and thinning out bunches of it.
Vallisneria asiatica (Corkscrew Val) - Doing great. Spreading quickly.
All the Cryptocoryne wendtii starting to settle in. If I recall it did take these plants a long time to get going before.
Aponogeton ulvaceus - Growing great.
Hydrocotyle tripartita - First time trying this plant. Not fading, but not seeming to grow either. I might not have enough light for this plant, plus CO2 would probably help this one.
Rotala indica - Just added this at the end of last month. Looks like it is settling in and starting to grow. Should have no problem. My old tank, that I posted a pic of, post 8, the right hand side was all this plant. Grew it great before, should have the same results.



Now as for the cats, we have Buddy.
He is truly a scaredy cat.
When he was younger he liked to hike with me. Then he stopped wanting to go. So he is now a house cat.








Chillen in the hammock.


We then have Ariel. I took her out a few times.
She to decided she didn't like it. Now a house cat.







As for the cats being trouble....never.....
https://garden.org/thread/view...

https://garden.org/thread/view...

The tank looks great Steve!

@elgecko. All your hard work has paid off. How beautiful the whole water village has turned out so interesting and mesmerizing.
The water plants are very happy and healthy and add a lot of depth. Like it that you named them all.thanks…
The water is crystal clear and has a nice balance. That is the secret, by keeping the plants, water and fish ratio balanced for the filters to keep the water crystal clear.

I see a couple of fish only a bit blurry.. what kind of fish ?

Your beautiful 🤩 kitties are so curious and very attentive. They are your babies. So many rewards we receive from our animals. They are such a true blessing.