Advice on fish racks please

[RSBettas]

Hello fish fanatics! I plan to purchase a fish aquarium rack for my dining room. I have way too many tanks and they are everywhere!! I would love to see others setups, methods, designs, etc! I also have lots of plants I plan to spread around the rack. Help out with advice and pictures! Thanks for the help!

 

[BigManAquatics]

Depending on the size of tanks, i find utility racks available at walmart and other home improvement stores can work pretty great! I will have to dig later to see if i can find pics of my old betta rack, but i find units that can hold 350 lbs and up per shelf work well. Also, if a wire rack, it is good to put plywood on the shelf before adding the tanks. Then you can set air pumps on it too if needed.

 

[ruud]

I have two racks side by side, 3 tanks each.

The height of the top shelf, for both racks, equals at 60 inch, which carries a very shallow tank. Given my length, it's perfect for looking into the tanks while standing.

The height of the middle shelf, for both racks, equals at 40 inch - perfect for looking straight into the tank from a chair.

The bottom shelf is at knee height and contain "storage / surplus tanks" without any technology, not even dedicated aquarium light; both tanks have lots of plants and some Dario fish.

Bottomline: I'm not keen on having to bend while enjoying my tanks. I would contemplate on the height of the tanks. Once the tanks are up and running, it will not be so easy to adjust the height by a mere inch...

 

[Flyfisha]

My suggestion is to buy the heaviest duty steel rack system you can find. Why ? Because although steel rack systems that can hold 1000 kg /2205 pounds per shelf will hold the weight they look to be under load. A steel shelf that has even a half inch bend in the middle does not make a nice piece of furniture to look at when the shelves are sagging . Adding extra legs ( see picture) is an option but remember these are 1000 kg per shelf racks that are 8 feet/ 240 cm wide.
Other 6 foot / 180 cm racks are rated at 400 kg/ 881 pounds per shelf do not bend in the middle because of a shorter span .
I went all out and used marine plywood that is not affected by water . Ordinary plywood would need painting to avoid swelling as water is absorbed. In my opinion.

I choose to have the top shelf as storage for change water in a warm room. The bottom shelf is high enough to help vacuuming. I have given myself lots of room between shelf resulting in only two rows of tanks . Having to climb up to service tanks was something I avoided right from the start. At a pinch I can have 4 rows of tanks with the ceiling height I have. But don’t enjoy climbing up or lying down to work on fish tanks.

Short answer.
Spend a bit more and get the strongest available.Especially if you are going with racks wider than 6 feet /180cm.

Options on plants. While pothos is fun and a very helpful plant. Monstera adasonii and Brazilian pennywort are worth investigating. Extra leg in middle.


Water change storage on top shelf.

Another shot of the added leg required to avoid unseemly bends.

As ruud suggests try and plan the height before you add water. My choice was two rows .

 

[ruud]

Forgot to mention; I didn't trust the suppliers specs in terms of weight capacity once I set the racks up, like Flyfisha, I customized the shelves into something much more stirdy and moist-proof.

 

[RSBettas]

Thanks everyone for sharing you experiences. It's been really helpful!

 

[RSBettas]

Hello FishLore!
I'm officially going to pick up my new (FREE!) fish rack from a friend at a local reptile store. What should i do with it? I have tons of plants and plant lights I was thinking of putting on the top shelf? Anyone who has a rack, feel free to post pictures, and share helpful tips! I would also love to see some nice filtration systems.
Thanks!
And, by the way, I know I already posted one of these, but I wanted to freshen it and see if I could get some more varied responses.

 

[SparkyJones]

Hello FishLore!
I'm officially going to pick up my new (FREE!) fish rack from a friend at a local reptile store. What should i do with it? I have tons of plants and plant lights I was thinking of putting on the top shelf? Anyone who has a rack, feel free to post pictures, and share helpful tips! I would also love to see some nice filtration systems.
Thanks!
And, by the way, I know I already posted one of these, but I wanted to freshen it and see if I could get some more varied responses.

make sure it can support full aquariums weights would be a good step one, the reptile racks aren't meant for full tanks of water and just holding tanks for reps. a rep rack is far more light duty unless it was built with the intention of holding thousands of pounds of weight. and that's the next part, the location of this rack and how much weight the floor will support.

 

[RSBettas]

I live in a bottom floor apartment, and it's going behind my dining room table (just cleared space). So the guy Im getting it from co-owns the reptile store, and set up a full tank betta rack using the exact same rack style as the one i'm picking up. This one was extra (how lucky! amazon had the same one for 60 bucks!), therefore, free! It's also rust-proof, with thick bars.
When I go to pick it up, I will post some pictures of his rack system just to show how nicely done it is (way better than petco/petsmart)!

 

[RSBettas]

Finally got my rack in, which was heavily delayed due to unexpected circumstances! It's exactly how I hoped it would be, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of cords there are!!

 

[JustAFishServant]

Finally got my rack in, which was heavily delayed due to unexpected circumstances! It's exactly how I hoped it would be, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of cords there are!!

I deal with the wire issue by putting craft board, foam board, or corrugated plastic behind. Paint or color it if it's not your desired color. Place the wires behind the board. Extension cords fit well under the shelf. Like this:

Or if you have a lot of tanks, you might not need to put board behind it. Like this:

 

[RSBettas]

Yeah, the wires haven't been a problem so far. The only issues I had were with the plant pots, which I fixed by putting a piece of random cut carpet samples I found, under the pots.

 

[Flyfisha]

I have a battery operated water alarm on the floor .That is the only electrical item on the floor.
Maybe you don’t have to worry about electricity in the northern hemisphere? But when the safety switch trips out all the power stops . Should you be out of town for days anything could happen.

Putting a brick or two on the floor with the items on top will separate the power from inevitable spills.

 

[RSBettas]

I hadn't even thought of that...
I will definitely take care of that soon, I think I have a few bricks on my porch!