While getting an aquarium and fish is certainly a lot of fun, it can be really expensive. From the fish themselves, to the tank, filters, ornaments, and plants, you can really burn a hole in your pocket from getting all the supplies. One of the most expensive things, which is often overlooked, is the price of an aquarium stand. People forget that an aquarium stand must be sturdy and be able to hold a lot of weight. Many people don’t realize how much weight an aquarium stand has to hold. For example, a 20 gallon aquarium with water weighs around 200 pounds. This means you can’t just set it on a flimsy piece of furniture.

As aquarium stands and cost hundreds of dollars, many people look for ways to improvise and get creative. In today’s article, we are going to cover some of the best poor man’s DIY aquarium stand plans. We hope that you can use one of these strategies to help save hundreds of dollars by not having to buy a new aquarium stand. 

Poor Man’s DIY Aquarium Stand Plans

From cinder blocks to good old fashion 2×4 wood pieces, there are many different ways to make the poor man’s DIY aquarium stands. Read below to find some of our favorites.

Cinder Block Aquarium Stand DIY

You can view the whole video on how to make an aquarium stand out of cinder blocks here. You can make an aquarium stand with as little as 6 cinder blocks, which would cost under $20. There are also some designs for bigger fish tanks which would require around 9-12 cinder blocks.

Wooden DIY Aquarium Stand

There are many different ways you can build an aquarium stand out of wood. Here are 4 different designs that are pretty easy to put together. You can make any of these for less than $20.