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Buying a new 120 gallon aquarium locally?

EasyBay Newbie said:
I ended up downgrading my requirements as the locally available 120 gallon aquariums were all premium with a premium price tag or had to be ordered and shipping on a basic aquarium pushed the price into the premium category.

So my first tank will be a 40 gallon breeder from Petco with a 29G sump.
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A 40b is a nice tank, I think ashburn2k’s tank is the same footprint and is already drilled; price is more than right.
Petco is having the $1.00/gallon sale and the 29g you have in mind would make for a very nice sump.
Also at Petco, you may find a steel stand from their Imagitarium line; although are very basic, you can “skin” the steel frame with plywood and stain it to your liking.
 
Thanks for the advice, I already have the 40B and the 29 sump so I'll proceed with that for now. I also already bought the Imagitarium as it was on sale. The top is made of 3 parts and they are not 100% flush with each other. This seems common with this stand and people use a variety of tricks to try and make it 100% level. I was going to add 3/4" plywood on the top to make sure it's 100% flat, should I bother?

As for skinning the frame with plywood, I was thinking about using 1/2" plywood around the frame. Screw in the back and one side permanently, then attach the other side and the front/doors with strong magnets. Thoughts?
 
3/4" will be better to work with in my opinion; pocket holes for joinery.
To make the top level, you can shim the gaps between plywood and metal. To fasten the plywood top to the metal frame, you can use Self-Drilling/Self-Taping screws and paint them for protection or use the already threaded hole in the metal and get stainless screws in the same thread size as the SDST ones.
 
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