2x4 Fish Room Racks

[ahud]

Hello,

I'm planning on making large 12' and 15' racks versus several smaller 3' or 4' racks for my fish room. Making one large rack removes the extra vertical supports and ends up saving a decent amount of room. It ends up being the difference between having plenty of walkway space versus things being tight. I'm trying to keep 3.5-4' walkways so its not cramped. Any issues building them this way?

The plan is to use one 2x4 to span the 12' and cut dado's into the vertical 2x4 support. Same thing for the 15' rack. 2x4 come in 16' long lengths, so as long as I can find a straight one, this should work? Example the 12' rack would have a total of 10 vertical supports.

And for versatility, can I make the racks 24" deep and top them with 3/4" plywood? That way in the future, If I wanted smaller tanks I could face 15's or 20's short side out? Will the 3/4" plywood support 40 breeders sitting in the middle of the rack and not on the horizontal supports?

 

[fishguy1978]

12ft= 144in which would mean you are placing a vertical support every 14in. How are you going to fit a 40B that is 36in x 18in? If you mean 10 total verticals, 5 across front and back then you are spaced at 28.8in. Accounting for trim a 40B will be closer to 36 5/8in to fit 4 end to end you will need a rack 154in long. Using 3/4in ply will make your rack more sturdy and able to hold more weight but will not support the weight of a 40B full of water without sagging. Now, if you were to run horizontal supports perpendicular to your front and rear frames so that the ends of the breeder tanks were supported under the ply that would work.

The Sagulator – WoodBin

 

[ahud]

12ft= 144in which would mean you are placing a vertical support every 14in. How are you going to fit a 40B that is 36in x 18in? If you mean 10 total verticals, 5 across front and back then you are spaced at 28.8in. Accounting for trim a 40B will be closer to 36 5/8in to fit 4 end to end you will need a rack 154in long. Using 3/4in ply will make your rack more sturdy and able to hold more weight but will not support the weight of a 40B full of water without sagging. Now, if you were to run horizontal supports perpendicular to your front and rear frames so that the ends of the breeder tanks were supported under the ply that would work.

The Sagulator – WoodBin

Yes, five across the front. Did I add wrong...two supports will be on each end, and then a support between each tank. Your 154' is probably right, my number came to 151.5", but thats not counting the trim. That whole wall is 15'10" so I still have some room, but doubt I can squeeze in another 40 breeder.

I can run the perpendicular supports. You just mean "16 supports perpendicular between the two horizontal rails holding the tanks?

 

[fishguy1978]

Yes, perpendicular supports.

 

[ahud]

Thank you.

The other rack will have three tiers, (9) 20 longs and (3) 33 longs.

And then finally, a rack of (4) 125's. I'm thinking the 125's is where I may get into trouble and need to double up the vertical supports and use 2x6 for the 6' span. I'm pricing out having metal stands made for the 125's, but its been annoying finding somebody local so far. I need the 125's to fit into a 13' space.

Doing all of this in phases, beginning with the rack of 40s.

 

[fishdance]

It's not difficult to modify the position of end vertical posts so adjacent racks can be flush beside each other without taking up double the post space.

I place cross beams where tank edges will sit and don't bother with plywood bases which would need to be waterproofed otherwise. I also use strips of polystyrene rather than whole sheets of polystyrene so a single top light can illuminate each tier below. Saves equipment cost, installation cost and electrical running cost. My fish room is not a display room.

If you want to reduce the number of vertical posts to save space, consider using steel box for horizontal beams. Thicker wall so it doesn't bow. Can still use wooden vertical posts and wooden cross beams if you prefer. If you do use steel vertical posts, place some plastic HDPE board under each to keep the feet dry as moisture is kept for weeks after any water spill.

 

[ahud]

Do you have pictures? I cant envision what you are describing about not doubling up vertical supports if sitting two racks side by side.

im on the fence on doing 2 high. Im trying to come up with a 3 tier design I can live with (far enough off floor to see, and not too high).

If I do a 3 tier rack with 40 breeders on the first two levels, and fork out the cash for 33 longs for the bottom tier. How do I place vertical supports since I’ll have different length tanks?

 

[fishdance]

Hope the sketch is clear enough.

To solve your issue of racking different tank sizes, I would rack every tank three foot length or less end side out. You can literally double the number of tanks in your fish room that way. Fish hang out at the front when you walk past and breeders appreciate the extra privacy at back if secretive . I stack tanks 4 and 5 tiers high as there are lots of fish you don't need to clearly view all the time but I have several hundred tanks probably with different priorities to you. I constantly run out of space so all my fish rooms have 3m walls now.

Another possibility is to use steel horizontal beams. You can get 3m spans between vertical posts so work out the best span length that would accommodate your different tank sizes.

 

[ahud]

Sketch clears it up. Thank you. Thats very clever.

Im going to face the smaller tanks end out, but I want all of the 40’s viewable. I think the 17” height of the 40 breeders make them too tall to stack three high…I have been playing with sketches and laying it out on the wall with painters tape. I dont want to need a ladder to feed the top tank.

the very bottom tank has to be far enough off the ground to drain properly. Im drilling all of the tanks for an overflow and at the 50% mark.

The next design to play with will be stair stepping to see if I can get the overall height shorter.

 

[fishdance]

The main drawback of wood racks is the amount of space consumed. I hang 3 foot long- 18 inch high tanks sticking out 100mm unsupported into the air so I get more clearance into the tank. (The wooden rack is 100mm away so the clearance gap between the tanks is greater) This also saves me in PVC coupling costs as I don't have to extend past the wood before a horizontal pipe run.

You can also stagger shorter tanks back like a pyramid if you need more clearance

For top row tanks, I use a custom feeder on a stick. Easy to feed without climbing up. Almost all my tanks are central filtered so easy to flood feed all tanks by dropping food into the sump pump too.

If you change to a water change by displacement method, you don't need much height off the floor.