Aquarium Rack System!

[cobs00]

Can anybody please give some ideas, or even show me some pictures of their aquarium rack system.

I'm basically looking at stacking a couple of 20 Gallon tanks on top of easchother to form a wall. Maybe 9 or 12 tanks. Probably very close to what you would see at a fish store.

I will be building it from wood, so I need a little "idea" inspiration.

Just so there can be no confusiuon, and give you a small idea of what I'm talking about, please cheack this pic:

[coralnut99]

I've long since consolidated my smaller tanks to larger systems, so I can't offer any pictures. But I can offer a word of caution about what you have sketched out. Remember that the bottoms of smaller tanks aren't tempered. So that if that wooden support isn't very sturdy and on a even plane, you could end up with a tank that isn't suppoted evenly around the perimeter, or on two parallel edges. I discounted the weight a 10G could carry. When I realized that the wooden "rack" had racked and made the bottom split wide open and made for quite a disaster in the fish room. If you stick with something similar to what you have drawn up, think about some sort of support every 3 feet, and adding plywood to minimize distortion and racking.

[cobs00]

Thanks for the info.....the drawings not mine, its off a website. Anybody else???

[BeanAnimal]

what he said

The supports under that tanks need to be very rigid for that long of a span. Is your goal for looks or just function?

[Rhodophyta]

I used to have a setup much like that one, except for a few differences. It was about 11' feet wide. It had to stop to avoid covering a doorway, with a block support off center at six feet because it originally held a 180 and 120 on top.The 2 by 4's had originally been flat under the large tanks, so instead of flipping them, I added 2 by 4's and plywood "wings" underneath. If I set one up again to hold lots of small tanks, I'd make the supports out of plywood, route a groove in the center of four 2 by 4's and use the resulting "box" as a leg. Along the back, I'd do the same thing to support the tank shelves, and repeat and carriage bolt together for as many shelves high as I would want to go. I saw something like that at a house in the Phoenix area where the aquarist had really high ceilings in his house and at 6' 3" I still had to look way up at the top row tanks. I would not want to go that high unless there was no other direction to go.

[burris]

don't forget that tanks in the middle will get more light than the ones under the endcaps of the lights

[Rhodophyta]

Originally posted by burris
don't forget that tanks in the middle will get more light than the ones under the endcaps of the lights

Not necessarily. I use the screw in type power compact bulbs over bottom row tanks. On the top row, the lights can hang past the end tanks, if they are tube-type lights.

[thirty5]

I would be very careful of that span with all that weight. If it starts to bow over time then you will have a problem. Do you want this viable from both sides?? Or just one? In that case i would build the decks from dbl 2X4's with cross pieces of single 2X4 every 12 inches or so. I would also support from the backside to prevent bowing in the middle. Meaning you are now supporting on each end. Throw like 2 more 2X4's vertically at the backside to prevent bowing (attaching them to both decks). Also cover the decks with plywood. You can also use some sort of padding to help take up the imperfections if you are not totally square and plumb

[Pbrown3701]

you could do what you have in the picture but reinforce the shelves with Steel or Iron I beams

[cobs00]

Thanks for all the reponses guys. Really appreciate it. The picture I added in my first post was just an example I found surfing. It's not my sketch. I was looking for something like it, or similar to, and how to go about doing it. Also seeing some examples of others. Like this one below:

[Rhodophyta]

Originally posted by thirty5
I would be very careful of that span with all that weight. If it starts to bow over time then you will have a problem. Do you want this viable from both sides?? Or just one? In that case i would build the decks from dbl 2X4's with cross pieces of single 2X4 every 12 inches or so. I would also support from the backside to prevent bowing in the middle. Meaning you are now supporting on each end. Throw like 2 more 2X4's vertically at the backside to prevent bowing (attaching them to both decks). Also cover the decks with plywood. You can also use some sort of padding to help take up the imperfections if you are not totally square and plumb

Cross pieces.... can anybody explain what structural contribution they think these superfluous parts provide? Structurally they are bridging, and the purpose of bridging is to reduce twist and warp and to tie parallel joists together enough to average out bowing and sagging differences between each joist. I have done some remodeling so I've seen what old joists look like when you tear off all the drywall and plaster, and trust me, the bridging does not achieve its purpose very well, so how well can it perform when it has no purpose? Besides that, the useless bridging pieces block the space where you could install flourescent tube lighting out of the splash zone. And throwing 2 by 4's..... I have had a feeling for some time that there is a connection between the way some stands are designed and the typical government response to a problem, throw money at it. At least in building a stand, some of the 2 by 4's may end up where they do some good. Overbuilt and under engineered is someone else's phrase from here but it fits so well so often.

[JCTewks]

you could use laminated plywood joists to 4"x4" IMO that would be strong enough to support. How wide are you actually wanting to go?

[cobs00]

Bump! I need more input regarding this. Particularly with the 2nd picture.

[coralnut99]

The second picture "paints a different portrait". A pair of 20Gs, with a center span of something approaching 4 feet is much shorter than the 93 inches in the first sketch. Especially the way the joists are supported at the ends in the second picture, I think it would be just fine for a pair of 20G's(?). I think you're heading toward sliding 10G's into a similar rack. I think as long as you keep the length in the four foot range and try to emulate the way the joists are fastened to the end rails, I think you'll be OK. I'm not a structural engineer, so it's just my opinion that the first sketch proposed too long af an unsupported span that would eventually sag under that weight, and with the joists simply resting on cinderblocks, would aslo invite racking of the same joists. If you plan on going 20G or smaller, you're talking about untempered bottoms and that could be a real problem. hth

[rustybucket145]

maybe I missed it... but what will you be using these for?

[Rhodophyta]

Originally posted by Pbrown3701
you could do what you have in the picture but reinforce the shelves with Steel or Iron I beams

Natural gas pipe (black pipe) is less expensive and is very rigid. One of the old angelfish breeders here used it on almost all of his tank racks. Some of them had ten foot spans without any center support and showed no deflection.

[JCTewks]

again, how wide of a span are you wanting to cover? there is a big difference in designing a 4' span and a 10' span.

[cobs00]

8 feet span. 2 levels holding 4 20 gallon tanks on each.

[Rhodophyta]

Originally posted by cobs00
8 feet span. 2 levels holding 4 20 gallon tanks on each.

In the Cichlid-Forum, under Library, there is an article "A Wood Stand For Large Tanks" which would be very appropriate for holding eight 20 gallon tanks on two levels. It would not require any center support for an eight foot span, but if you wanted to make it modular, you could have two sections, each holding half of the tanks. That way the stand could be built elsewhere and moved into the desired location, and it would be flexible if you later wanted to reconfigure the tanks, say back to back as an island stand or peninsula or on either side of a window or door. Tank stands or any furniture eight feet long or longer usually poses a moving problem in any home with eight foot ceilings. They often can only go straight in to a room with an outside door, and won't manuver down a hallway or stairwell. When I sold my 520 gallon/ 250 gallon combo, I had to make a big hole in the outside wall of my house for an exit.