Project Great Wall o' Tanks

Sploke

Sploke

resident boozehound
Staff member
Oct 20, 2005
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South Windsor, CT
Real Name
Matt
Ok, so, in conjuntion with my giant sump thread, this is the plan for the basement. I have a layout of how I think the tanks best fit on the wall. There will be two 150s, a 55, a 300gal turtle pool, a 75, a 10 and a 30. The two upper tiers will all be on the sump, the lower level will all be independently filtered. Anyway, here's the plan so far...

tankwalllayout.jpg


The wall is 14' wide and a little over 7' tall. I know the upper 150 looks like its butted up against the ceiling, but I'll have about 8" over it to reach in. The main horizontal supports will be doubled up 2x6, with vertical 4x4s. The face is going to be a little strange, but all tanks will be supported all the way around, and will have legs underthe back corners, with intermediate legs where appropriate. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
 
Oh yeah, forgot to explain..the faces of the tanks will all be flush on the wall, and drywalled over all the stands and supports so its just a wall with a bunch of tanks in it. Its going to be a false wall 4' out from the real wall, with all tank access done from behind.
 
nice!
 
I think you really need to start getting help for that MTS man!
 
It will be cool, that's for sure. I agree in the 8" space issue. It's a pain getting the vac in and out, not to mention getting your arm in to move something or catch a fish, if you need to. Do you think you need another middle support under the top shelf and to the left of the turtle and 75 gallon tanks? Actually, maybe move those two tanks more toward the middle and add an extra support on either side under the top shelf for that 150.
 
I would put the large ones on the bottom, it would be safer.
 
Hey sploke...I'm currently designing stands for numerous tanks as well. Keep one thing in mind regarding the top tank, which I understand is 8 inches below the ceiling. While, at chest level, that 8 inches may work, think about the angle of your arms, your head level, and the depth of that top tank. "Pretend" the tank is there and step on a stool to see how you will be able to manuever your head and arms for a tank that depth at that height. Might be hard to reach in very far. I had to face the same realities as I design my fish tank racking system. That's why my larger/deeper tanks will be lower (chest level) and shallow tanks nearer the top. As one fishaholic to another, and as my sig suggests, there's always room to squeeze in one more tank!
 
Yeah I'm still trying to decide if that top tank is going to be an access problem or not.

I'm thinking about using doubled 2x8s instead of 2x6s for the front horizontals, since that won't be taking up access room and will provide a bit more support. I'm also thinking about using lolly columns for the center and outer supports for the upper shelf, will provide more stable vertical support.

The big issue with putting the big tanks just on the floors is that then I can't use an overflow system with the sump. One of the bigger factors in setting it up this way is that the top 4 tanks can be on one shared sump with overflows. If the tanks are low, they can't overflow and I'll have to spend a bunch more money on big canisters to filter them.
 
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