Under-tank organizer/fish-stuff-hider

[kortniee 452]

Last night I finally finished a project I've been working on s-l-o-wly for months. I have a lot of assorted fish stuff, and my tank has one of those wire frame stands with basically no storage to speak of. I had been using plastic crates on their sides to organize my stuff:

This worked well, except, well, it looked a little cluttered. Our tanks are in our living/dining area. Then my husband got a fancy new tank (on the right):

Which just made my tank area look worse. So I got my butt into gear finishing the organizer for under my tank, which we'd already cut out all the parts to months before but hadn't really done anything with since. Basically, it's just made of thin MDF pieces bolted together with angle brackets. My apologies to anyone with any actual woodworking skills... this is basically the quick-and-dirtiest job (if something that tanks months can be called quick...) I've ever done on something. It's not meant to hold more than a few pounds of stuff, so it doesn't have to be awesome, and we don't have the tools to create awesome, anyway. So... this is what we ended up with!

Now there is a wall of black to swallow ALL THE LIGHT (sorry about the darkness of the picture). Here's what it looks like on the inside:

You can see that the top shelf is completely open on the back to accomodate the various wires and things. My favorite part is the silverware sorter tray thing that fits perfectly on my little shelf and holds all of my random little bits of fishy things:

We are more small hobby/craft project people than actual woodworkers, so if we can do this, you can too! I think it's an awesome way to make the most of the bottom half of those cheap metal stands.

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[Mr.B 2,535]

I think it's great. I wish that I had half the skills you do. I really like the silverware tray idea. I'ma use it. Really nice!

[dnalex 13,633]

Courtney, Kansas is not that far from Arkansas. Please come and make this for my tanks

[cathface 161]

that looks awesome! I wish I was as DIY as you lot

[tithra 4,917]

that is awesome!!! I love the idea of turning a metal stand into a cabinet great work!

[Acro 698]

That is great! While looking at your pics, in the old setup my eyes were drawn below to all the clutter. In the after pictures, my eyes were drawn to the fish tank, where they should be.

Good work!

Edited January 26, 2012 by Acro

[Lucerne 218]

Looks much better than it did! good job! :]

[ShawneeRiver 2,720]

Great work!!!

[shellbell4ever 1,381]

I think you did an amazing job

[dogsbykat 22]

That looks fantastic, great job

[number20121 2,663]

Very cool, I love it!

Thanks to how my stand is, I simply keep this one here underneath it to store (half of) my fish stuff away http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/07/31/49/08/0007314908798_500X500.jpg

[spillie 64]

It looks great! Super good.

[kortniee 452]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone.

Before you get too jealous, you should know that the sides only really match up on the front. The back of it looks a little bit Escher. But that side is toward the wall, so oh well. The doors don't hang quite straight either. But it works.

Fang, I looked all of the places to find something to hide my fish stuff in along those lines, but I didn't find anything I liked that wasn't a million dollars. So I made my own.

[coco 27]

i'm impressed and thank you for the DIY, i have abit of OCD, monica gellar of friends, and anything messy drives me insane, and i would have an insane need to organised it... :rofl