10 gallon rack!

[MoshJosh]

Building an aquarium rack. . . Again. . . This one will fit in the corner next to my 20 gallon rack, initially I had something different planned here, but you can always use another rack. That being said I am sort of breaking the rules of stand/rack building. . . Wish me luck.

The idea for this came from a different idea I had to build a rack where the aquarium weight is actually supported by bolts rather than directly supported by lumber underneath. . . if that makes sense. . . while I do like that idea and think it could work very well, I had already started gluing this stand together before I realized I hadn’t planned properly. I wasn’t going to have enough room to mount the bolts how and where I wanted them. I didn’t want to tear apart what I already had so I went back to the drawing board. I figured lag screws would be the next best option, however, why buy those when I already have tons of Timberlok Screws, which should in theory replace a 3/8 inch lag screws. Sheer strength of these screws should be about 210 pounds each, and each 10 gallon tank will be supported by eight of them. . . Plus a ton of wood glue (which is likely stronger than the screws anyway), but taken all together that should mean each level will be more than strong enough to hold a 10 gallon tank despite all the weight being held by glues and screws.

 

[Cowardlyslimeball]

Building an aquarium rack. . . Again. . . This one will fit in the corner next to my 20 gallon rack, initially I had something different planned here, but you can always use another rack. That being said I am sort of breaking the rules of stand/rack building. . . Wish me luck.

Idea from this came from a separate idea to build a rack where the aquarium weight is actually supported by bolts rather than directly supported by lumber underneath, if that makes sense. . . while I do like that idea and think it could work very well, I had already started putting this stand together before I realized that wasn’t gonna work for that design, for a few reasons. When I realized I wasn’t gonna be able to make the bolts fit because I used such small lumber and didn’t account for it in my design (2X3) I figured lag screws would be the next best option, however, why buy those when I already have tons of Timberlok Screws, which should in theory replace a 3/8 inch lag screws. Sheer strength of these screws should be about 210 pounds each, and each 10 gallon tank will be supported by eight of them. . . Plus a ton of wood glue (which in theory it’s probably stronger than the screws anyway) . But taken all together that should mean each level will be more than strong enough to hold a 10 gallon tank despite all the weight being held by glues and screws.
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Wow, I wish I had room to make a rack. Or at least more room for more tanks..
What are you planning on putting in the 10 gallons?

 

[Broggy]

watching. how many tanks will that hold?

 

[MoshJosh]

watching. how many tanks will that hold?

Just 3

 

[MoshJosh]

I’ll probably cut the legs down a bit, I know right now the two racks are the same height. . . which is aesthetically pleasing. . . But the top tanks will be different heights anyway. . . I don’t know. . .

 

[MoshJosh]

I couldn’t decide between 2 screws horizontally or 2 screws vertically. . . So I split the difference and went with 3. . . the pine did not like this. . . Despite drilling pilot holes I split 2 boards in the process but nothing some glue and clamps couldn’t fix . . . 2 coats of danish oil:


You do have to sideload the tanks, which kind of sucks, but it’s the only way I could really make it work in the space I had:

 

[Broggy]

I love that so much (my stupid exclamation point key is broken, not to sound unexited.)

 

[MoshJosh]

 

[MoshJosh]

Working on the lights. . . My local shop sells these little LED kits, so I made some aluminum brackets, I think they turned out well but I haven’t really decided exactly where to mount them. Look cool mounted right at the front because you can see the aluminum, but realistically it would probably provide more light if I mounted them directly in the middle. . .

These are “RGB red, green, blue, and white” according to the packaging. . . Looking pretty blue to me, but I guess I’ll try them out for a bit.

 

[MoshJosh]

So these lights do look really blue, I’m fairly convinced they’re not just blue, but still very blue. That said I’ve got the tanks up and running for the most part and don’t really feel like A. buying more lights and B. draining the tanks, moving a stand making more mounts etc. what do you guys think? I will say they look less blue in person than these photos.

 

[Broggy]

I have the same problem, it looks normal after you get used to it. I can hardly tell anymore

 

[thatguywhohasfish]

Building an aquarium rack. . . Again. . . This one will fit in the corner next to my 20 gallon rack, initially I had something different planned here, but you can always use another rack. That being said I am sort of breaking the rules of stand/rack building. . . Wish me luck.

The idea for this came from a different idea I had to build a rack where the aquarium weight is actually supported by bolts rather than directly supported by lumber underneath. . . if that makes sense. . . while I do like that idea and think it could work very well, I had already started gluing this stand together before I realized I hadn’t planned properly. I wasn’t going to have enough room to mount the bolts how and where I wanted them. I didn’t want to tear apart what I already had so I went back to the drawing board. I figured lag screws would be the next best option, however, why buy those when I already have tons of Timberlok Screws, which should in theory replace a 3/8 inch lag screws. Sheer strength of these screws should be about 210 pounds each, and each 10 gallon tank will be supported by eight of them. . . Plus a ton of wood glue (which is likely stronger than the screws anyway), but taken all together that should mean each level will be more than strong enough to hold a 10 gallon tank despite all the weight being held by glues and screws.
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Ugh, I need something like this in my life. So jelly. I may have to to unbox my man skills and build one.

 

[MoshJosh]

I couldn’t help myself, I added the white LEDs, I think it looks much better now:

 

[dwc13]

Interesting project. The white LEDs are a definite improvement. Would have been nice to have a little more room for the 10G rack.