Welcome!!
Update in progress: September, 2009. A reader sent pictures of her stand. I cannot get them to load but I am workig on it. Check back.
Most recent update: January 4, 2009: A few ideas on how to cover the front has been added after the building instructions if you do not want an open stand.
Fish keeping can get to be an expensive hobby. I recently, at the time of this posting, had to upgrade to a 55 gallon aquarium on a very limited budget so I needed an inexpensive stand. For my smaller tanks, I managed to use furniture on hand but this was not possible for a large, heavy tank.
I looked at stands for sale at pet shops and was horrified by the quality of the stands for the price that was asked. They did not look like they would last long. After checking out reviews online, it turns out many of them do not if they should get wet. If you are like me, I tend to get sloppy during water changes no matter how hard I try to keep the water where I think it should be. Also, any doors and other accessories tended to come apart with regular use.
I decided to look into building my own.
Note: I do respond to comments on old posts. 
