Another proposal... two-tier rack... made of wood!

OK... so I looked into metal shelving at Wearing Williams... the corner posts cmoe to maximum of 6'0" in the E-Z-Rect line of shelving... I need 6'7" corner posts... and I don't want to get into cutting them... further to that, it was going to cost over $225 (CA$,or $175 US$) for the setup... so I think I will go with wood so I can customize the heights however I want.

Please remember from my previous post that my space the rack is to go into is 79" high, 53" wide, and 28" deep front-to-back. It's a former clothes closet with the doors removed, on a cement sub-floor in the basement of the house. A 150-gallon currently sits on the spot where i intend to slot my finished rack.

So for starters, I was drawing the basic shelf template each tank will sit upon. You can see the measurements, all in inches... and the orange lines are 2.5" wood screws.

I intend to use all "2x4" pieces which are accurately measured 1.5" x 3.5". I intend to use 8 of the 2x4 for the sides of the rack, and fasten the shelves to those sides. Below the bottom shelf, front-and-back, and between shelves, behind each tank, will be an additional post to distribute the load.

Please comment on this shelf design for now and let me know if you think this shelf will stay together as is or if I need to start from scratch right again. Please let me know.

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This is revision 2-a to my plans for a wood aquarium rack. Please note, as some of you haev been suggesting, I CANNOT place the 2x4's "on edge" with the 1.5" edge facing sky, as opposed to my current "flat" design with the 3.5" flat side facing sky. If I do this, my cabinet shelve space will be too minimal to hold the 70-gallon (48 x 19 x 21) tanks I plan to place inside.

I am now using 2x6 for the corner posts!

Please see my design and let me know what you think. The schemes for shelf, side posts, front, and back of rack are now shown.

PLEASE... let me know your thoughts.

SHELF


SIDE POSTS


BACK


FRONT

Hannys_Papa said:

Its also highly unsafe to only have screws hold the wood that supports the tank. You need to have wood sit on wood - not wood next to wood held together by screws. That might still work ok for a 20 or 30 gallon tank. Anything more i wouldnt do.

Click to expand...

I had planned to use wood glue where the wood contacted each other, drying, before inserting screws.

My inspiration for the notching from shelves into corner posts comes from here... http://www.winnipegfishforum.info/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1694&highlight=rack

Previously I had not implemented notching between the beams and corner posts. This notching will enable transfer of weight from the shelf beams directly into the corner posts, instead of relying on the screws / wood glue alone.

Hannys_Papa said:

OK i "stared" at the plans a while longer trying to come up with something constructive... now i have a bit of a problem understanding how exactly these parts are connected to each other (circeled red) because i dont seem to be able to see it in any of the drawings - or maybe i just dont get it lol. (view the attachment to see what i mean)

But the way it looks these vertical 2x4s would support the horizontal ones in the back. My main worrys would be the sides and especially the front as there is no support in the middle. (i am talking about the top tank - the bottom one should obviously be fine)

Click to expand...

In regard to the vertical 2x4 in the back, I would drive a screw through the bottom of the back beam of the shelf, UP, into the vertical. Repeat for next shelf... at top of rack, screw would go DOWN, into the vertical.

For the top tank, I assumed the weight would transfer along front beam, back beam, and even across the 4 beams spanning front-to-back on each shelf (see #1 diagram). Any vertical support on the FRONT of the rack would obviously obstruct view of the front of the aquarium.

Are you still confused? :0

I have reviewed these concepts further... about how my 2x4 are laid "flat" ni my shelf concept, thus resulting in a given shelf being 1.5" thick.

It has been pointed out to me by multiple persons that having the 2x4 "on edge" instead of "flat" would result in greater strenght... but would result in each shelf becoming 2.0" thicker... and 3 shelves total (2 for tanks, plus top shelf acting like canopy) would result in net addition of 6.0" to total height, which messes me up...

However, if I could come up with hinge lids that are say, 6" / 12" split for 19" flat glass hinge lid, instead of the standard 9" / 9" split, that would save me 3.0" on each aquarium level, which equals the 6.0" that were added above...

However, this involves making my own lids... I wonder how feasible this is!?

Here's the diagrams for Revision v3.b...

Notice the 2x4 all "on edge". Anyway... how do you think 2 x 70-gallon would do on this rack?

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Here's the images...

Aquarium Shelf Module | Additional Vertical Supports | Rack Floor Base | Rack Top Canopy | Rear View | Front View

For what it's worth, I now found out that the sales associate I spoke to at Wearing Williams misunderstood what I was asking about... and it turns out that the "EZ-Rect" Shelving does not stop at a maximum of six foot high corner posts. In fact, it appears quite modular in design. What the heck was this guy talking about?