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Building a New Rack

wethumbs

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
476
Mike, I understand why the 2" block works in your situation. In your case, the 8x8x16 cinder blocks rest on the 2x8x16 2" block as footing. The weight is evenly distributed on an 8"x16" surface.

Lets say your total weight of the stand and all the water is 10000lb. Each footing will need to withstand 2500lb. Dividing 2500lb by 128 (8x16) sq inches is 19.5 lb per sq inch. Lets take the same 2x8x16" footing and has 2x4 wood standing on it as the leg of the stand, then the 2" cinder block will need to have a compressive strength of over 381 lb per sq inch rating (2500lb divides by the area of which the stand is sitting on the block 1.75"x 3.75").
 

wethumbs

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
476
It will compress the area of the cinder block under it. The weakest of the 4 blocks will compress more and as the weight becomes unevenly distributed, the others will be affected too. It is similar to localize failure of concrete slab under excessive loading.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
How much compression? If it's anything under 1.2 cm/½" it shouldn't be a problem for tanks of average depth (<50 cm/20") - especially if set on a Styrofoam/styrene sheet. I personally would prefer to keep untreated wood (even if painted) off a frequently wet floor with something.
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
I finished the rack last weekend. I will post pics when I get a chance. This has been a huge learning experience for me. Most of the examples on youtube make everything so simple. I had a time cutting sizes to the hair...even with the right tools. I eventually recruited a friend who has better eye site then me.

The next rack (it will go across this one ) will be built very differnet from this one. Now that I have my first one under the belt, I understand all the suggestions made on this thread. I just could not see the difference many of your suggestions made until I made the mistakes. But all is good. I am quite happy with this. I hope it lasts till fall, for then I will take it apart and redo it following pointers made on this thread.

I did use treated wood. The less poisonous one. I can't remember its id number right now. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking. If anyone out there is planning on building a rack, just listen to what everyone is suggesting here...even if it seems small.

Thanks to everyone for the time and help.

george
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
I am almost done setting up the tanks on the rack and cleaning up the place so I can post some pics. In the mean time I am starting two small racks that will fit in the corner of the room. Each tank will be against a wall forming an L shape. Again I need help. I have a total of 5 tanks to fit on those two racks.
This is my ideal situation...I just don't know how feasible it is.

Rack One: Bottom needs to hold a 40G long 361/4L x 18 1/4D x 13 1/4H
Top needs to hold a 90 or 95G tank 48 1/4L x 18 1/2D x 25 1/2H

Rack Two: Top and middle needs to hold a 20G long each
Bottom needs to hold a 40G long (same size as the one on Rack One)

I think the best way to assemble this rack is as was suggested on this site and shown on Teds Fishroom video. My question is how to cut in order to accommodate the different size tanks.

Once again thank you for any help possible.

george
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I tend to be more visual oriented, so I use the 'paper tank' method. I cut out scaled outlines of each tank and then move them around in the available stand space until everything works.
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
If I understand you Mike, you are refering to the space in the room. I am asking about building the stand. I am unable to visualize how to put a middle upright in the middle of the 49" horizontal so it can support top and bottom levels and at the same time allow the bottom tank to rest on the bottom 49" horizantal. I am sure it has been done, but....????

thanks
george
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
All I was saying was that once you have the tanks laid out in an acceptable order (allowing space for stand uprights, etc.), then you can design the stands to match. My question is why do you need an upright in the middle of a 49" horizontal? That's only a little more than 2' to the middle. You shouldn't get much of a down-warp over such a short 4' distance. My uprights are spaced approximately every 5' (2-20L/side). If you're really worried, I guess you could brace the horizontal with a piece of steel angle iron.
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
I was not too sure if 49" was pushing it. Stuff I read some place. When I built the stand that started this thread i laid the horizintals flat. When In started laying some 29gal tnks the horizontals started bending just a bit. So I layed a second horizontal on top and that took care of it. I will get pics posted this afternoon I hope so you can see.....just excuse the mess.

I measured the space along both walls and have plenty of room. I would like to place the 90Gal on the second level since it will be set up as a display tank (there will be NO third level on this rack) and given the dimensions;

Rack One: Bottom needs to hold a 40G long 36 1/4L x 18 1/4D x 13 1/4H
Top needs to hold a 90 or 95G tank 48 1/4L x 18 1/2D x 25 1/2H
do you think such a rack is feasable?

thanks george
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Yes, I do. If you are using 2x4" framing lumber vertically oriented it shouldn't flex hardly at all over a 50" length. Wood is actually stronger and will flex less than the glass bottom of your tank. Think about it: your 90 gallon tank bottom - with sand, water and decor - is only supported around the edges - by a plastic frame!
 

lurch1000

Member
Messages
81
Just a thought, have you considered long span racking? There's some bolt less stuff at bigdug.co.uk for ideas. I know it's not quite what you were thinking, but if I was to do a fish room or rack, I'd probably consider this. Never had a fish room, so I can't comment from experience.
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
Thanks lurch1000, I was using similar things from here in the U.S., but by building racks to fit the room and the way I work in the tanks, speeds up maintenance. I just finished cleaning 3 55Gal tanks (4 sides of the glass, filters, glass covers, substrate syphon and a water change) in less than 90 minutes. For me that is a record time. Before it took me two hours.

I took some pictures, but the size was huge 3425 x 2280 271KB. I cropped and ended up with a file 2395 x 2247 size 180KB. If I keep cropping only a splinter will be left. So here is a link to photobucket.


http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/bareroom11.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/IMG_0128.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/IMG_0129.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/IMG_0127.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/IMG_0279.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc27/georgedv/IMG_0283.jpg
 

lurch1000

Member
Messages
81
Fair enough! Just a thought :)

My (pipe)dream fishroom would be racks, a freshwater feed to each tank, a drain tap at each tank and take it from there :)

Undecided what I'd breed as yet if I did have a room!
 

georgedv

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
335
Location
South Carolina
Are the links working for everyone? I have tried cropiing many ways to shrink the file size, but too much of the picture gets cut out. i will retake the pics and reset to lower resolution on the camera.
 

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