Good morning everyone. I'm probably going to bore the hell out of everyone but I wanted to talk about the 210 gallon build I did over the last year. Instead of posting a long series of photo's I'm going to limit them to the number I need to illustrate the build. Hopefully the build and my reasons for doing it my way will give new to the hobby members another point of view in how to go about a build. I started off like most of us trying to decide what size would be right for me. It's been decades since my 250 so I looked at tanks, size versus costs, versus what I wanted to do with the display. I ended up ordering a 210 reef ready tank. With the measurements of the tank it was time to decide on what type of stand to build. Haven't bought a stand since the metaframe tank days. Before most of your times. After a lot of research I ran across a 210 build that I immediately thought was overbuilt. After considering for a few days I decided nothing wrong with overbuilding so it was time to figure stand dimensions. I wanted the tank top at six feet above the floor. That way it was comfortable to stand and look into and sitting in one of the high bar chairs I have put my eye level at the center of the tank. Best viewing for me. Next thing to consider was the interior of the stand. I wanted to use a 75 gallon tank as the sump and the stand sized for the 210 was too narrow for the 75 to fit inside of. So I added 3 inches to the front to back dimension of the stand. I haven't been able to locate any pictures of the stand carcass before skinning it. It's simply all 2x4's. Jointed and glued together to form (8) 3and a half by 4 inch beams or posts. A little math gave me the lengths to end up with the size stand I wanted. Four 2x4's were cut to 73" and narrowed to the height of the 3x4's. Two were laid down on the floor and the four 3x4 beams were placed between the long 2x4's and screwed together. It's important to measure where the tank drains are located so the beams aren't in the wrong place. The eight posts were cut to length and screwed down to the beams. The two additional long 2x4's were screwed down on top of the posts along with the four remaining beams. Next came skinning. I used 3/4" birch plywood leaving one end of the stand with the end panel screwed in place so it could be removed at any time to slide the sump in. I took a piece of plywood and cut out for the posts and screwed it down inside for a base to set the sump on. Screwed down a piece on the top of the stand for the tank to sit on. At this point it was time to decide on how the outside of the stand would look. There are some really impressive diy stands on this forum from members who built a piece of quality furniture for their home. But every time I looked at one of them it was the stand that caught my attention and not the tank. So I decided I wanted a stand that you wouldn't look at twice. You'd walk up and see the tank instead. So I added only a little rope trim where I wanted to hide a plywood edge. Cut simple plywood panels for the doors. A 45degree routed edge to soften them up. A built up solid wood edge to the top panel with a 45degree edge. Finished with an oak stain and several coats of poly as a sealer.