# New rack - Pretty breeding rack



## tous (Jun 22, 2017)

I've really come to love breeding some fish(easy ones), I've kept em for a while but the most exciting bit for me, is creating a perfect happy little environment with babies being produced, everything triving.

I don't have a TON of space, and I do have a girl to report too, so I need to make it pretty, I want it low maintenance, I want it to be overall fun for me to build (which means it's gotta be a little complex). And I want to keep cost down obvs haha.

I have 4 tanks Im selling stripping to feed into the new ones. So I don't need any plants or really much livestock (have a few wish items im working on!)

I'm staying with 4 tanks, but downsizing to a more apt 20 long, for ease of lighting and just getting the space down. Some of you might have seen my designs a while back for 6, but yea dropped it to 4 for now.



Here is where I am at so far.



It was important to me to be able to see the outer corners of the tanks. Thats why I went with the "floating corners". These have three 2x4 cross mebers in the corner and are further supported by a heavy duty metal bracket + 2x4 up the back. These are only 20 gals so hope thats fine.

The tanks are going to be daisy chained into a sump (tank 4) which will be a bio-sump/refugium growing a ton of moss, snails, and cherry shrimp.

In that sump there will be two large towers (acrylic tubs) that are about 12 tall x 8 wide (see picture) these will serve as the primary biological filtration and will be fed off of the return pump. In front of the return pump I plan to place two 12x12x2 peices of poret foam to serve as the main mechanical filtration. With all of this in place this space is going to be fairly limited, but to me I still think will be fairly visually pleasing as I like the idea of being able to see this stuff in action. The two "canisters" have adjustable flow allowing me to hopefully use 1 as aerobic(matrix most likely), and 1 as anaerobic(not really decided). I don't like the return pump in the tank tho, so I am going to put a bulk head in the bottom and simply plumb it underneath.

I'm going to have the return pump plumb up to the two canisters as well as back into the tank, and I'd like to put two different items in the return line.

1) A two in one combo C02/02 dissolver, something with a top down flow that recirculates bubbles until fully dissolved. This is important because I want C02 to make it trough all 3 displays without gassing off.
2) Inline heater.

I realize this will KILL my head pressure, I've purchased an oversized pump to compensate. I'd also like another plumbing of my return going off stand, this will serve two purpose. I'd like to be able to pump water out of the tank if needed and or set up a temporary holding tank that would overflow back into the sump if needed for breeding or holding of fish for a few days (like collecting a bunch of fry over a few days before taking them to my LFS.

This side panel for the stand will also had dimmers for each tank (separate), the pump controller, my digital heat regulator etc. I"m toying with the idea of having this all below as well tho, not 100% sold yet.

The three tanks main focus will be small breed able fish, nothing crazy, but just stuff I know I can get a few $ for.

Display 1 is going to be my mixed narrow leaf tank. This is going to have alot of java fern, some sharp point amazon swords, and other similar sharp leaf. I want a mech of the back that I can attach even more java fern too, and I have a light driftwood already covered in it. Stocking will be be varied, as this is going to house alot of the stuff I just refused to give up from my old tanks, but I'd like a pair of super red BN to breed in it as the primary occupants. This tank will have a single 1inch overflow right into the tank beside it.

Display 2 is going to be round leadf. Very sparce hardspace with a large meadow of glosso. have some very round lead Bacopa to run along the back edge, and a large Ozelot that has some nice color to throw in a corner. Tucked behing that will be a small cave for my double red agazzi pair. These will be the primary occupants here, with a small colony of black/blue moscow guppies and a small colony of pygmy corries. This tank will contain a 3 spout herbie overflow down to the level below.

Display 3 is going to be a sand bottom with a colony of one of my favorites, the panda cory which I hope to breed. Sand bottom with alot of crypts, lots of open flow space, sharing the tank with my green dragon BN breeding pair, and if I can get a pair, possibly some Imbellis Betta, the so called peaceful betta. The pair might live in different tanks and only come together for breeding, I'm unsure yet.

All the tanks will be heavily planted with fairly low maintenance plants. Because I'm using poret foam as baffles in the sump that means that the water level will drop evenly across it, extending time between top offs I hope. I am also using glass tops to lower evaporation.

I will post more details about the plumbing/scaping as it comes together. Happy fishing.


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## Altumnut (May 12, 2010)

I have to question the missing corner supports on both ends of the top rack?
I'm no structural engineer but I would never attempt what your set out with your design. The weight of each tank will be 200+lbs when filled with water and all I can see is non corner support sagging and pop goes the glass pane.
Correct me if I'm wrong in thinking that is what will happen?

...Ralph


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## tous (Jun 22, 2017)

No by all means question everything. 

I think there are 2 things that are going to work here for it. First, it is a distributed weight. People tend to think that because that corner is floating that there's going to be 200 pounds pushing down right on it when a reality there is just as much weight being pushed on the back corner and the 2 corners of the opposite end of the tank as there. So while I'm sure the math is much more complicated, I think in reality, it's closer to 50 pounds on each corner, then 200 pounds on any one.

Second the metal brackets I used in that was corners are about 8 inches by 8 inches by 2 inches by quarter inch thick steel. And as I mentioned there are 3 2*4 screwed together forming the end of the shelf. That gives them a nice a solid feel that doesn't seem to want to flex at all. I was able to stand on that corner and I am close to 280 pounds. When I did so it flex less than a millimeter. The same when I did a field test.

It's possible over time that it could flex. I guess thats something I'm just going to have to keep an eye on. I want those outer corners visible low so if that did happen what I would probably do is cut some acrylic rod length and force them in to try and give a minimalistic appearance.


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## infolific (Apr 10, 2016)

tous said:


> It's possible over time that it could flex. I guess thats something I'm just going to have to keep an eye on. I want those outer corners visible low so if that did happen what I would probably do is cut some acrylic rod length and force them in to try and give a minimalistic appearance.


You might achieve a static equilibrium, but what about when you're working on the tanks and leaning on the edge a bit? What about hoses that tug a little? Doesn't a little flexing shift the weight which causes more flexing which shifts more weight? I'd be freaking out whenever I did anything 

The store in this video has racks with a nice minimalist design with a supporting post in the middle and the owner says it took them a few years to perfect the design:


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## tous (Jun 22, 2017)

I don't expect to be but even but even jumping up and down on those corners really didn't seem to cause any flex. The weight was transferred down the back and the hole stand wanted to move more than anything else. Because it's a narrow and tall, more concerned with her falling over, as I'm doing stuff more than anything else. So I'm probably going to bolt it to the wall.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

What I don't like about the design is that the weight is supported by the fasteners (easily fixed) rather than the uprights. As well those angle brackets don't offer the support a gusset would.
One of the considerations is that dimensional lumber tends to warp and twist as it dries out, so even if the cantilever is strong enough, there is still the possibility of the shelf twisting or warping.
Having said all that, I have seen far worse, with no catastrophic failure.


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## tous (Jun 22, 2017)

Indeed. The morphing has already been a challenge in that. I built this in a cold environment. I planed the surface plum and level only to have it warp when I brought it back into a warmer environment in the wood heated back up Even surface became not so. So I had to sand down some more to get a nice level surface.

I debated gussets verses the style of bracket for a while, and it really just came down to lack of availability of an appropriate bracket. I specifically left space on that back a support so that I could add one later when I find one that's the right size and decorative enough to warrant using it. I still need to build some sort of top shelf to hold my lighting and I'd like to have 4 matching brackets to accomplish that and add to the bottom support.

direct wood on wood supports are definitely are better and were this a larger aquarium I definitely would have the. The only place I could really add them at this point would be in the center there at the front and back putting in a single one by one. I debate about adding that as well but it just seems overkill these are again only 20 gallons.


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