I am really enamored with the idea of Discus. I've never kept them and don't have anywhere near the tank space to do it. I considered maybe building a plywood tank (glass front) that was nice and big and putting Discus in that. One downside to basement apartments is you really have to watch the humidity so tons of huge aquariums might be a deal breaker. I have a dehumidifier but I'm not sure how well it would keep up. Instead of going into larger and larger tanks I chose to go into a smaller Cichlid...
As far as stands go.... I am a fair carpenter and could build something no problem but dollar for dollar, pound for pound, I think those metal storage shelves they sell at the hardware store are pretty hard to beat. If you toss out the particle board shelves that come with them and replace them with 3/4" Plywood they are plenty strong. I'm not really looking for attractive display type tanks and stands but have rather chosen to go with a more utilitarian and industrial look.
I have to keep in mind that whatever I build I'll have to remove one day when I move away.
The humidity thing is definitely an issue. All my tanks except the 125 and my three 10 gallons are covered. It still produces a lot of humidity yet I don't run a dehumidifier. I definitely should with the amount of tanks I have running.
Yea, I looked into those but I was able to build a 3 tank rack for 20G talls, a double 75 gallon rack, a 125G stand, and a 210G stand for about $100. I needed quite custom and heavy stuff so I decided to just build it.
Yea, I have to keep the same thing in mind. That's the only thing that's prevented me from setting up and auto water change system. I've been able to pump out water changes quite quickly with the system I have (since the new pump) so I haven't set it up yet.
I did a quick video update because I moved my discus. I took the ones in the 150G and the ones in the 75G and I put them all into the 125G bare bottom tank. I'm going to keep an eye on them and see how they do. The 150G already looks more peaceful for the tetras and the 75G is basically empty with only a male GBR and an juvenile Electric Blue Acara. Both of which are for sale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N3STNGNgzU