When I started AquaLease Ltd. back in 1985, I came to the market with custom oak aquarium stands and canopies. We put them out on leases and provided maintenance packages.  Some of these units are still in use today.   Back then, if you wanted to purchase an aquarium stand from a pet store it was a wrought iron stand and the canopy was black plastic. 

Today, if you want to purchase an aquarium stand, it is black pressed wood and the canopy will be black plastic.

At AquaLease today, we build metal stands to support the aquarium.  Under the bottom of the box frame powder coated metal stand we install and seal to the box frame a 1/8” sheet of plastic.  This then makes the bottom of the aquarium stand act as a drip pan protecting your home or office from accidental spills.  Also, the plastic sheet helps to protect your floor from any damage from the frame itself.  In critical installations ( high rise office towers or apartments ) we will install a flood alarm in the bottom that will send you and us an email alerting us to the presence of water.

To finish the stand, we will attach panels to the metal frame with magnets.  The panels are easily removable and allow full access to the filtration equipment contained under the aquarium.  The panels can be customized to match virtually any style of cabinetry and can be ordered in over 70 different finishes.

For the canopy, we custom build our canopies out of the same material as our cabinet panels.  They sit directly on the top of the aquarium and have a piano hinge allowing full access to the top of the aquarium.  We hang the lights from the canopy so they do not need to rest on the top of the aquarium thereby increasing safety and ease of maintenance of the aquarium.