Idea for a fish tank rack

[wckdkl0wn]

I have kicked around the idea of making a rack to hold 10 or 20 gallon tanks. I was going to make a normal rack out of wood to have 2 or more tanks per shelf and 3 shelves. But then I got an idea. What if I was to make a rack that had tanks side by side but had them to where they could be pulled out on tracks individually for easy cleaning. Sort of like how a cabinet drawer would work. But where would I get the tracks at to support the weight of a tank full of water? If I went with 10 gallon tanks I would say to be safe they would have to hold 100lbs min. This would include the weight of sand, water, and any decorations else that might be in the tanks. Has anyone ever seen a fish tank setup like this? if so please post pictures if you can.

Here is a picture of a rack kind of like what I am talking about.

 

[azntank]

you might run into the probably of when you pull out the racks, the water wont move as fast as the tank resulting in a spill...so you just gotta be careful when pulling the racks out

 

[NotoriousSway]

You will have to be careful when pulling these out or the water will splash everywhere.

Try you local hardware store or try contacting the website you got the pic from and see if they will sell you just the tracks.

 

[NotoriousSway]

ahh! You beat me to it!

 

[Liam]

I dono dude. the idea sounds good, but not practical. why don't you make the standard stand, out of timber for multiple tanks, but have a hose built in to each tank, so, you could have the tank, and have a hose in it always syphening, but it would have a ball valve on it to stop the water actually coming. then you could maybe add fittings onto the ball valve so you could hook a garden hose to it so you could pump water into it?

 

[ghengis]

No one mentioned the weight that the slide/rollers would need to bare??

It's a great idea, and I have seen something similar, but you'd want to be sure the thing wouldn't disintergrate or fall over under all that weight...

This was built by "info scavenger" on APC forum. The betta tank slides out for maintainence...

 

[Knowdafish]

They make super heavy drawer guides that can support 100 lbs per pair to well over 1000 lbs per pair. They're not cheap though. Your idea is a good one, but the roller bearing guides would cost a small fortune! Look at the roller guides on a good quality mechanics tool chest. They are designed to carry alot of weight and roll easily.

 

[RBE17]

I'd be concerned of the tanks blowing out during the move.

 

[Pharaoh]

I have connections to a place that custome builds and designs heavy duty drawer slide. Let me know if you want a quote I can pass along the information.