DIY Tank rack/stand

[SvenRhapsody]

Hi,
I recently decided I'd had enough of pressboard stands and single serve aquariums. I decided if I was going to have the tanks I wanted for breeding I was going to need to get serious about it and stop putting up tanks one by one. I've had a room with 5-6 aquariums in it for a year or so now so I just need to make better use of that space.

I decided to make a large rack that could accomodate the forseeable future. To that end I decided to do a rack that can hold mostly 29gal and 40gal tanks. I find the 29s very useful for most small to medium fish which I generally prefer, and I've heard the 40s are particulary good for medium to medium-large fish.

I decided to make the whole thing out of 2x4s and plywood for cost reasons. I decided to support the weight using dado joints in the 2x4s. Following is my rather messy drawing of the structure.



I used the materials list from the drawing and went off to the Home Depot. I found everything I needed.


This is everything right before I left the Depot. The blocks are extras from another project. This made me glad I had my van!

[SvenRhapsody]

I made it home and am examining my plans.


Unloading...


Here's the new saw. I figured it'd take an eternity cutting those dados with a circular saw! I ended up being disappointed in this saw and returning it after the job. I'll note where it failed later.


How the hell does this thing go together?!


I needed some music, and the damn mosquitos were eating me alive. Luckily it wasn't really too hot. The fan helped with the bugs though.


Lily helped me unpack. In fact she helped with the whole project.

[IMG]http://www.mindspring.com/~wifraser/aquarium_stand/IMG_1247.jpg[/IMG
Putting the saw together. However, this stand is the part that failed later.


The saw assembled.


Making a test cut since I've never done a dado before.


I think this is the general principle.


New chisels. I couldn't believe it at the time, but I ended up taking these back too! The blades rippled and bent like I was working concrete on these 2x4s. The large one probably didn't last 50-60 chisels before it was gnarled like a saw blade.


Carbon doesn't help with anything. She did come out to investigate the excitement though.



Chiseling out the first dado on the test board.


Hmmm well the principle was right...



The next one was different, but not too much better. I figured I had the hang now though.

[SvenRhapsody]

I decided to try with the end b/c it seemed the most forgiving. I actually had enough extra length here to allow me to mess one up and then to redo it. It turned out though that these end ones were the hardest because of the mismatched length of board. This made it very hard to push it into the saw perpendicularly.


My beautiful wife. She helped me document and held some pieces in assembly.


Setup for day 2. I only got around 3 hours in on day 1 due to a fish fry I had to attend. Much of that was occupied assembling the saw.


A number of boards prepared for chiseling.


A nice fit if I do say so.


Notice the two outside boards here. I had begun to fatigue and apparently wasn't thinking straight. I messed up one additional cut, but after that got the rest correct. Not too bad for me.



Chiseling a middle dado. These were far easier. It was simple to keep the board perpendicular.


A nice tight fit. I had to knock it out with the hammer.



A slightly messy job, but most of it is sawdust which should wash away.


The first crossbeam. I ended up putting all of these on the same side. I think I should have put the left two on the outside, and then the right two on the outside. It's just aesthetics.



Every joint is glued and then screwed with 3" deck screws. I paid special attention to squaring everything here. Each joint with the middle beam had to be measured all the way up to make sure the board was being kept (or forced) straight.


The rest of the assembly had to take place inside as it will be to large to fit through a doorway.


Here I come with the horizontal beams. These are 12' 2x4s that I cut to 8'3". Which is the overall length of the structure.


It's not obvious from the other pictures, but this is about hour 10 on this day of steady progress.

[SvenRhapsody]

I decided that 7'3" would be a good height allowing for plenty of headroom over each tank, a nice storage area (mini fridge?) under the shelf, and almost 2' of storage on top for whatever. However, that meant that the ceiling fan would have to go.


The first horizontal is laid in place.


The first screw on a horizontal. Somehow, it seemed like this was really getting somewhere.



Each middle beam had to be measured to make sure it was in the right place. Here I made a mistake of sorts. My plans had these support beams located inappropriately. They are 29" from the ends. This makes for nice symmetry. However, 40 breeders are 18" wide. This means that I can only fit one in each section. Quite the dumbass move eh? Well worst case, I can cut the top support beams out all together since they don't really support anything. For now, I figure fitting them in where need be and focusing on 29s is fine.


Of course I used a block to knock it all into place thus saving the wood from dings. I only forgot once...


Two sets of horizontal beams in and flipping it over for the third.


I'm almost there!


Tada! You can see the sheet of 3/4" plywood that will top one of the shelves there behind it.


It's the next day, and I'm preparing to cut the shelf covers. I wanted solid covers so I can use tanks that might not fit exactly onto the beams. I think like this I can use a very wide variety of tanks. This is a pretty crappy way to have to cut plywood. I really needed someone else to handle the output as I fed it into the saw. This is also why I returned the saw. As I fed it the irregular receiver caused the saw to tip slightly and begin to scoot backwards. That's to be expected when using it in this way. I placed my food on the front brace of the stand and continued to push the wood. The front brace of the stand buckled like a wet noodle. I was very disappointed in the quality of the metal there.




I did get all the tops cut. Once the first one was cut from a 4x8 they cut easily. I put 1/2" on the top just in case I want to store stuff up there at some point.

Well that's it for tonight. I've recently moved the stand into place and begun thinking about getting it setup. I've also got plans to plumb in a sink and a drain this week. I'll keep taking pics and updating this thread.

All told the materials on the stand cost me around $80. The screws were $25, but I used less than 1/2 of them. The plywood was the second most expensive portion at around $12 per sheet.

I'm really irritated that I messed up locating the vertical supports. With the glue there's no real way to realign them even if I wanted to. I think that if I find I need more 40s then I will cut out the top supports and place 40s on that shelf. It should hold 5. Then I can use the bottom shelf primarily for 29s. Other than that I feel pretty good about the whole stand.

When I'm underneath plumbing the sink I'm going to make sure the floor looks good. I might add some 4x4 supports under there for good measure.

Sven

[craftyflalady]

Way cool! I really enjoyed reading through this. Would love to see it in place and a few tanks on it. Please keep us updated!

Thanks so much for Sharing!
Kathy

[AndrewH]

Yes, very nice picture journal.

I wish I had the time, guts, understanding wife, and space for breeding! Good luck and keep us posted.

[SvenRhapsody]

Well I got my sink kit and everything I expected to need for the plumbing. I've done a little bit of sweating copper before, and it's not really all that hard. I'm just not so good at it that it's not tedious. The sink is pretty cool, and you can see the box below. The kit came with pretty much everything except the fork for the siphon drain and the little valves that go between the supply and the flexible hose.


I also got my 6' 24 outlet surge protectors to go on my stand.

I got them from http://www.provantage.com. One of them came (FEDEX Ground) bent all to heck. I called provantage and they put in an order to have FEDEX come pick it back up. They also went ahead and sent another one out to me. I have yet to receive the new one.


This is everything but the pipes (1/2" copper).


Here's my plumbing kit and the pipes ready to go down and plumb that supply in!


I crawled back in there, and begin to suspect a problem. The room that my stand is in was built on the old garage by the previous owners. It looks like access will be difficult. I can run the pipes in though from the main supply here and then go around and attach them.

[SvenRhapsody]

Hmmm there is NO other access to this part of the crawl space. They must have put it together as they built it.


Another view into that area.


This is a view through that last hole. It looks like I might have some trouble getting in there even if it was accessible. Even if I presoldered the pipes and ran them through there and weaseled them up through the holes (never MIND the drain and the pain it would be...) I'd be hard pressed to get them through that duct.

[SvenRhapsody]

This room is about 25' x 15'. I'm not sure it's built to a decent code, much less strong enough to support my stand!


You can see two sides here. Are 2x4 joists acceptable!?! I really don't know, but it seems like a weird way to do it.


Here you can see the far corner and the right wall when looking in the hold. You can see the 2x4 joists from the picture before. You can also see a long 2x10 joist that runs lengthwise down the middle of the room. The widthwise 2x10s terminate into it. I'm concerned that I can't see any joists on this center beam. Just a few joists and (if the 2x4s are acceptable..?) I'm pretty sure this thing would hold what I need it to. Judging by my amateur reading of acceptable weights on 2x10 joists anyways...


This is as far to the left as I can see out of the hole. Not much here.

Well that's it for this sad story so far. I'm going to have to consult some experts and see what needs to be done. I can run the plumbing (around in ways that will work IF the floor is strong enough to support me. There's just enough access from the sides to get it in the room and then I can run it down the wall. Any opinions?

[SvenRhapsody]

I did pick up a little refrigerator via a craigslist wanted ad last week for $40. It's 1.6 cu ft, but it should do the job.


Yep, that's Sonic's Pleco Power Pellets and UncleRicks Better than Brine in there along with some larger brands.

[mr.dark-saint]

I see that you didn't turn the last side in so the 2X4 didn't stick out. Jig-Saw would've made the nibbing much faster (next time).

Okay this is how I'd salvage this. I'd cut the unit in half (length wise) then butt it up against the wall. And stack no more than two tanks (as in not use the top self (let the cats have it). Carpet it and make a kittie trail and a "bridge" to one stand to the next (I'm sure you got some plywood left).

Or cut the lower shelf off so you can have an island in the middle of the room then cut the top length wise and butt it up against the wall and use all the shelves (sorry kitties). But put the fan back in (in either case).

Now the sink. Since, you can't craw in to pipe you might want to pipe around the house? As for the sink I see the "Gray Water" senario. Which is basically find a wall less seen by folks (from the outside) and poke a hole with a hole cutter and run ABS pipe (less noticeable than PVC) through the walls and use it to water the lawn, flower bed and the likes. If you really want to go all "Ninja" locate the rain gutter then run the ABS in to the "Spout" that connect to the rain gutter from the back and let it drain that way. For the sink you can build a cabinet around it and hide the plumbing.

So that is my plan. Since you're going to talk to some "People" ask them about Gray water laws/rules in your neck of the woods.

[mr.dark-saint]

So Sven no up dates?

[SvenRhapsody]

I'm working up to one gigantic post. Here's a preview:

I've installed the sink w/ the hot/cold supply, 2" drain, and 1/4" line running from RO filter to pressurized tank under kitchen sink. I've figured out how to get some supports up under there and across the joists that will be supporting the stand. I'm ripping the boards for that today and hope to get them installed tomorrow. After that I install the filter and then it's all tank fromt here on out... ohh and more plumbing! heh.

You want to talk about fun? Try running 3 pipes and a hose 24' through a 6" crawl space into a room in the house above you...Did I mention the sledge hammer?

SR

[mr.dark-saint]

Originally Posted by SvenRhapsody

You want to talk about fun? Try running 3 pipes and a hose 24' through a 6" crawl space into a room in the house above you...Did I mention the sledge hammer?

SR

That's when you get your neighbor's kids to earn a buck (with their paren't permission first ) wouldn't want you to be noted as the "Buffalo Bill" of Georgia. Well, looking forward to the write up and pics.

[SvenRhapsody]

all right well I decided to go ahead and do what needed to be done to get it working out ok.

I went and bought the sink and most of the plumbing.
This is most everuthing but the pipes themselves.


I put it together a little bit...


Finally some real work. I take my brand new 31/2 inch hole saw and put it on my sadly underpowered Ryobi 18v cordless drill. I then chose my spot near the end of two boards and started drilling.


Well, with the boards on a 16" center I guess I had just under a 1:5 chance or so of that happening.


My dear wife Mrs Sven:


Stood up top looking into the hole while I slid the copper pipe around


She'd holler out loud when the pipe passed the hole and then help me line up the rotation so it could be grabbed. If I had it to do over, I'd probably use radios. It was a pain for both of us to be heard.


Easy-C helped too.


There the pipe is.


Carbon is still not helping.


A fun evening in the crawl space.


It's not apparent from this series, but i went up and back down into that crawl space about 10 times crawling 50 feet. I soldered all the connections except the ones back into the supply. I soldered them both twice, but couldn't get enough water out of them to make a good solder. I finally went back out and got compression fittings. I had to get it going to Mrs Sven could take her bath.

[SvenRhapsody]

The finished product.

[SvenRhapsody]

I ran in the drain line in the same manner. I didn't get too many pictures of the crawl space portion of this work.



I ended up running the whole drain with 2" PVC. In order to keep it going, I had to plumb it in about a foot off where it disappears into the ground. That was a 4" pipe that I cut and put a T in. The rest waas pretty straight forward.

Here's both supplies and the drain.


Here's some shots of the drain hookup and the water supply lines leaving the room.




I attached the sink to the supply and drain.



Of course I've already put two small tanks on here....whatcha gonna do.


Here's the whole area under the sink.


I ended up taking the American Standard Bath All in One utlity sink back to Lowes for a refund. We decided that we needed a faucet with a sprayer on the sink. That meant that I needed to buy a new faucet. I'd already bought longer hoses to connect it to the supply. This meant that I was really losing the break in getting the kit. Just so anyone knows too, the exact same sink kit is at Lowes and Home depot. At Home Depot it was $58. At Lowes it was $78. That's a pretty large difference. There's some shots of the new sink and faucet later in the thread.

[SvenRhapsody]

I had decided based upon allowable spans for floor joist charts and lumber strength chart that I would need to reinforce the floor of my room if I was going to put more than 1200 lbs on it. Since it will weight around 3800 when totally full I figured I'd do it.

I thought long and hard on how to pull that off. Finally a couple of my contracting buddies helped me figure out how to think about it. I don't actually have to jack the floor up and get the supports snug up under the joists. That's a good thing because it would be impossible to do it. I just need to get the braces in there close and when the floor begins to sag they will start to work. Simple but true. The point at which your pine 2x10 joist is pretty likely to break is apparently about 1" of bending. I aimed to get my braces in there within 1/4" of the joists above. That should keep me from getting stuck if the floor isn't level underneath.

Here are the tools I plan to use along with the supports which are 2x8's cut down to 55/8".


The first thing I did was bust out another concrete block and a bit more in order to have a place to work the braces in. Then I tied a long string to one corner of the brace. I ran it through a 10' peice of 3/4 PVC and tied the other end to the other end of the brace. I then threaded the brace in.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i2...y/IMG_1512.jpg


Using the PVC to push and the string to pull I manuevered the brace back and iinto position. The brace is 9' long. This means that if it was perpendicular to the wall of the fish room it would stretch one foot beyond the stand itself which sits 8' from the wall. However there is a duct in floor supplying AC and it prevents the brace from being perpendicular. As it sits it runs from about 3.5 in on the left wall down and at a slight angle. I expect it passes under the farthest joist at about 5-6 feet from that wall. The room is 13 feet across.

I then put in the second brace. It went in about like the first providing support on this side of the room, but not helping the far side too much.



Overall I'm pretty happy with this. I'd estimate that under the stand the longest span a joise makes is around 6 feet, and that length only occurs once. It the joists then come to rest on a nice board which sits on the concrete floow. This should handle the weight and then some. I also go some reinforcement on the near wall which is where I might put up another stand after I get all of this running completely.

I forgot to take pictures of my running the 1/4" OD polyethylene hose for the drinking water output on the RO filter. I plumbed all that drain in first which meant that I could no longer fit my hand down in the hole to the floor. I randa 1/2" PVC all the way back to the hole again. I then ran a 1/2" copper pipe through the remaining floor hole and placed it in the end of the PVC. I then worked about 12' of the hose into the pipe. I pulled out the copper and twisted the hose around the elbow on the PVC. I was able then to just pull the hose right on out all the way to the exit.

Here's a shot of me connecting that hose to the end that leads up to the kitchen sink.




Here's the filter all hooked up and the new sink too. You can barely make out the new faucet. It has a sprayer that pulls out of the end.


This is my filter I bought it from filters direct off of Ebay. I'm happy so far. It does 55-110 gallons per day. Just a note, I ran the drinking output (this filter has 2. One for drinking and one for the fish.) 50' from the filter to the sink. Even at that distance I'm getting good enough pressure for it to be useable. I think I can raise the tank pressure 3psi too.


Here's the pump I bought at Lowes. I called Water Ace and verified with them that it was fish safe while I was in the store. It's a general utility pump. At the maximum height on my rack of 8' the pump will put out 600 gallons per hour. It cost me $64 and should work fine for all these purposes.

The filter mounted.


I plumbed the pump with 3/4 PVC. Here it comes out of the tank, and then splits. One end has a standard garden hose fitting so I can attach the python or any other long hose. The other end is a barb for 1/2" poly pipe. I'm going to run this pipe to do the drip system.


Here's the float valve that should stop the tank from overfilling.


Well that's about it for now. I'll try and get some pictures of the sink tomorrow. I also have a few more tanks on there now, and I can get some shots of them too. I will be setting up the first drain and overflow this week to. First I have to raise my drain pipe. The end doesn't come up high enough over the trap. heh ooops.

[Gump]

wow man hell of a weekend project. looking good.

[mr.dark-saint]

Man I would've just gone with a steel "I" beam instead of the teetering piece of wood (I suppose the earth doesn't shift much down yonder ).

So are you going with central sump?

Looked like fun .