Aquarium shelf design: Need opinions

[Joseppe]

In advance, the 'drawings' of my idea are simply made in paint, I have no idea how to properly draw out a plan, hopefully these will make sense.

Currently I have a 2m high, 1.5m long, 60cm deep (6'6" x 4'11" x 2' roughly) DIY 'shelf' that is functioning as a rodent cage as of now. My chinchillas lived in there for 4 years, but due to my girlfriend moving in with me over 2 years ago and being very allergic to animal hair, after 2 years I finally made my heart a stone and made the decision to rehome them and allow her to breathe freely in our living room.

Currently I'm still looking for good homes for the chinchillas. As they live in an enormous cage right now, which sadly most people don't have or want to have, but I don't want them to get less space than they have now considering they're very used to... well... being locked up in there and not let out, due to allergies (chinchilla hair already gets everywhere even without them being let out), so I wanted to provide them with enough room to stay fit

Once they've been properly rehomed, that does however leave me with a MASSIVE skeleton of a shelf, with perfectly fine, almost undamaged MFP. (I used lamited layers ontop to protect the MFP against pee and such, to eventually repurpose it if I ever wanted to)

That's the material used. MFP 22MM thick (0.8"). I'm Currently using this as well for a stand that holds up my 50G and one of the 30G's. I'm confident enough in it's ability to hold up weight.

Inside the skeleton that I have right now, I plan to make 'individual' supports for every single tank, aside from 1, that will hold up my 50G and my 12G

Rough idea:
(double lines are double walls, which will hold up each plantform individually)
Front view:

Yes I know what you're thinking, why is that 110G on the bottom and why is there a filter next to it. The filter is actually slightly taller than the 110G. Rather than overflowing my tank into a filter and pumping water out of the filter, I'm pumping water out of my tank and overflowing my filter back into the tank. The pump within the tank is also protected with a fine grate, so none of the fish can get near it or stuck in it. It also houses relatively big fish that in no way can fit through the size grate I use. I'm also not doing this with a traditional overflow, I just have a hole drilled on the top of the barrel with a pvc pipe running out ending above my tank. That way the barrel overflows and stops when the pump is turned off (as the barrel will stop filling up). The inside is pretty much a sump. Seperate parts, goes through mechanical first then into bio media and into the overflow. Heating I do inside the tank.

Side view:

From a side view, the 110gallon will stick out a bit, as this tank has an enormously big foot. I did draw it a little bit too high though.

I would have preffered to place the 50g and 12g like this:

Sadly i'm 4cm short (about 1.6inches) of space within the skeleton.

The leftover space next to the 30 gallons I'm thinking of using to place a big bucket or 2, where I rest my water in before a waterchange.

I'd also work with a frame to enforce the flat pieces of MFP that I'll be using to hold up the tanks.

Opinions, improvements, criticism, advice, everything is welcome and helpful!

 

[skjl47]

and being very allergic to animal hair, after 2 years I finally made my heart a stone and made the decision to rehome them and allow her to breathe freely in our living room.

As they live in an enormous cage right now, which sadly most people don't have or want to have,

Hello; First I could not make out the plans for "shelves" to hold aquariums. Could not make any sense of the descriptions.

I did get a kick out of the strategy used with the rodents. You stalled for two years and now appear to be setting standards for their rehoming that are not likely to be met. I think I get it in that now you can say you really tried but get to keep the rodents. Very clever if that is you intention. However, please forgive me if I have misunderstood and colored your intentions falsely.

 

[Joseppe]

I did get a kick out of the strategy used with the rodents. You stalled for two years and now appear to be setting standards for their rehoming that are not likely to be met. I think I get it in that now you can say you really tried but get to keep the rodents. Very clever if that is you intention. However, please forgive me if I have misunderstood and colored your intentions falsely.

Kind of a missunderstanding, I really am looking for a good new new home for them. As much as I'd like to keep them. Reason I stalled for 2 years was that, if we ended up breaking up after a year or so, I didn't rehome what I had for no reason. Now that this is definitely long term I seriously should get the chinchillas out. She's caughing a lot, sneezing all the time and her nose always jams when she's home. Must not be very fun.. At the same time I also refuse to not give them a proper home. I've already got a pair of chinchillas out of the door to someone with a very similar sized cage as me. People like this exist, they're just very hard to find (especially in eastern europe) / not interested in more animals. I also rehomed my rats (which really shattered my heart) and plan to quit the rodent / mammal hobby and just stick to my aquariums for the next years until we get a proper sized garden and anything with hair can be kept outdoors then.

 

[markstrimaran]

The particle board is going to give you grief in the long term. It can swell over twice its thickness, and loses all of its strength.

 

[Joseppe]

The particle board is going to give you grief in the long term. It can swell over twice its thickness, and loses all of its strength.

I was not aware of this at all, that's really good to know for future purpose. Luckily it only has to function for 4-5 months. One of the reasons I'd prefer to work with cheap materials. After that time period I no longer plan to use it. As I'll have moved 600 miles from my current home, I have no idea yet how my future home is going to look like either so I was already planning to build something new - more permanent afterwards.

Would putting a protective layer on the surface prevent it from swelling up incase it gets wet?
The boards on which tanks will stand are laminated already.
I could very simply just cover it in another layer of plastic on top of that. It doesn't have to look good, it just has to function for a couple months. Hopefully you know if this is possible.

 

[skjl47]

Would putting a protective layer on the surface prevent it from swelling up incase it gets wet?
The boards on which tanks will stand are laminated already.
I could very simply just cover it in another layer of plastic on top of that. It doesn't have to look good, it just has to function for a couple months. Hopefully you know if this is possible.

Hello; No way to answer this directly. If it gets wet enough for long enough it will swell and fall apart. More covering and coatings can help. Some fiber composite boards are better made than others so will resist water better.
back in the 1970' and 1980" I installed flooring such as vinyl and carpet. Most times in a bathroom where the early composite subfloor was used it had to be cut out and replaced. The newer is supposed to be better.

I am afraid your plan to use this stuff makes no sense to me, but to each his/her own. Good luck.

 

[Joseppe]

Hello; No way to answer this directly. If it gets wet enough for long enough it will swell and fall apart. More covering and coatings can help. Some fiber composite boards are better made than others so will resist water better.

Thank you, given information is a very big help. I doubt I will ever get the material wet for long periods of time. I'm very careful in my waterchanges, aside from a few drips after taking out a hose, not much else ever touches the shelf. Unless one of the tanks decides to leak, but lets assume that will not happen in the next 4-5 months. (and the future too)
But extra protection is always good protection. I have quite a bit of wrapping plastic that I most likely won't end up using any time soon. I can always cover the surface with it, if spread out evenly it shouldn't look too bad either as it's transparent.

And about the plan, I tried.. I'm definitely not the best at making a plan of any idea. I just have it visualized in my head and work from there.
As soon as I start making it I can upload progress pictures every now and then which will most likely explain everything much better than any 'plan' I could make.

 

[skjl47]

I doubt I will ever get the material wet for long periods of time. I'm very careful in my waterchanges, aside from a few drips after taking out a hose, not much else ever touches the shelf. Unless one of the tanks decides to leak, but lets assume that will not happen in the next 4-5 months. (and the future too)

Hello; I also do not plane on having leaks nor spilling water but I do often enough get things wet and have had tanks leak. Good luck

 

[fishstix323]

honestly if you creat metal rack you can use solid wood from thehomedepote

 

[Joseppe]

Hello; I also do not plane on having leaks nor spilling water but I do often enough get things wet and have had tanks leak. Good luck

I fortunately only had to deal with a leaking tank once. That was a really old tank that my father used years ago and I picked it up in his attic and decided to keep a fish. (boy did that turn out to be quite a journey already, discovered a sleeping passion there) I also was present at the moment it started leaking and noticed it as soon as it started. Then again I've only been in the hobby for a little over a year. My tanks were all newly purchased, which should not leak any time soon. I've been told the average use of an aquarium should be around 10 years or so (please correct me if I'm wrong).

honestly if you creat metal rack you can use solid wood from thehomedepote

I've looked at metal before, but unfortunately that is not in my budget.. I live in Poland currently and the prices of wood over here are already outrageous (compared to what you earn here on average) metal is quite a bit more expensive than wood here as well. Where as wood is atleast afforable for our income. Ontop of that I have absolutely no experience working with metal. With wood or particle board I've atleast done a couple projects over the years and feel a lot more comfortable working with (and so does my wallet).