75 gallon build; from ground up

Neat and enjoyable thread. I built the exact same frame stand for my 40 gal breeder about a month ago but had to put the project on hold before I could get ply and doors on it...life got busy. I plan on finishing my build and hopefully get it aquascaped in the next month. How is your stand holding up and is there anything you would have done differently?

If wood was not so expensive right now, I would have liked to have built shelves in one side. And my dad wanted to put extra 2x4s on the inside for added stability (in the middle), these have kind of taken up space so maybe could have done without those too. I will say that it has been discouraging at times because I have faced every known disaster with this tank and haven’t even added fish yet! I have experienced a snail invasion from adding live plants. I ordered two rounds of plants; 6 in first order, 7 in second. The first ones I bleached dipped, but I think it was too harsh on the plants. The second batch I just rinsed thoroughly. I now have pond, bladder, and ram shores. I squish what I can daily, yes daily! I have had a brown and blue green algae outbreak. I found ultralife blue green slime stain remover works wonders, and didn’t hurt my rabbit snails or the shrimp.
Today I think I have discovered leeches!!! I got one out and killed it after taking several pictures. Then I spotted another in the tank. They are extremely fast and burrow in the gravel with incredible speed!! They swim kind of in an “s” pattern. I purchased a planeria trap (supposed to work on leeches too).
This has not been a cheap endeavor, but still looking forward to having fish in it someday.

 

If wood was not so expensive right now, I would have liked to have built shelves in one side. And my dad wanted to put extra 2x4s on the inside for added stability (in the middle), these have kind of taken up space so maybe could have done without those too. I will say that it has been discouraging at times because I have faced every known disaster with this tank and haven’t even added fish yet! I have experienced a snail invasion from adding live plants. I ordered two rounds of plants; 6 in first order, 7 in second. The first ones I bleached dipped, but I think it was too harsh on the plants. The second batch I just rinsed thoroughly. I now have pond, bladder, and ram shores. I squish what I can daily, yes daily! I have had a brown and blue green algae outbreak. I found ultralife blue green slime stain remover works wonders, and didn’t hurt my rabbit snails or the shrimp.
Today I think I have discovered leeches!!! I got one out and killed it after taking several pictures. Then I spotted another in the tank. They are extremely fast and burrow in the gravel with incredible speed!! They swim kind of in an “s” pattern. I purchased a planeria trap (supposed to work on leeches too).
This has not been a cheap endeavor, but still looking forward to having fish in it someday. View attachment 815361

Wow, that’s pretty wild. Good luck getting rid of the invasive species. I plan on doing a journal of my build once I get it all set up.

 

Wow, that’s pretty wild. Good luck getting rid of the invasive species. I plan on doing a journal of my build once I get it all set up.

I will be switching over to a journal as well after today. But here are the first 3 fish inhabitants of my tank. One African Butterfly fish and two rope fish. I only have pics of one rope, the other is hiding in the castle decoration.