Rack em up

[Scott_sg]

Hi everyone,
I have been busy building and moving things around, and organising my fish better so there is progress at last.



It is nothing fancy - or expensive, but it does the job I need it too, and is probably useful to anyone considering low budget ways of making the best use of space. Especially these days when we don't all have the room we would like.

It is a simple storage shelf system, from memory 150kg per shelf so it is quite sturdy, although I would not start loading them with glass tanks. But for my small plastic tanks it works fine.



The reflectors and lighting is really simple stuff two sets of fluorescent bulbs per shelf, and the panel stuff I have no idea what it is called but that plastic corrogated material that signs etc are made of. On the inside I glued aluminium foil. For hinges after some complicated thoughts the simplest was strips of tape. It works better than the other things I tried.
I am still waiting on the local shop getting some more of the same colour so I can finish off the bottom shelf. But with some of the, aluminum foil and craft glue it works great.



The top shelf has mainly all the trays and odds and ends, and the bottom is really just full of junk at the moment, although later I will put some bigger tanks down there with some peltier devices for some of the more cool fish. Other things to do include upgrading the air supply which is really just a couple of cheap pumps at the moment, the lighting I will also upgrade as time goes on, although I am quite happy with how it works so far. I am also rigging up some PC fans at the end of each shelf to get air circulating through each shelf.

So for those of you worrying about cost and space this is a quite neat way of doing it. To be honest I would prefer to do things differently - glass tanks and tubular steel frames etc, but living nine floors up in an apartment there is no choice but to compromise. So for now this does its job perfectly and gives me lots of room to play.

The good news is I now have lots more room for tanks after moving them onto the shelves, the bad news is I now have lots more room for tanks from where the old ones were..

And this is some of the reasons why we put in the hard work...

A tank of S. constanciae ( with plants that are actually growing!)



A better pic of N. palmqvisti "mrima"



... If i can do it anyone can...

[zmzfam]

Scott,

simple and nice rack. I'm sure in time to come the rack will have a partner

[timebomb]

Nice rack, Scott.

If you're planning on having an "air circulation" system, I would suggest you do not use PC fans. They are noisy. There's a new fan in the market. It costs more but it's very quiet. Ronnie showed a picture of it some time ago but I couldn't find the post.

Loh K L

[RonWill]

Guys,
I think the fan in question is the Tornado. Gets my vote for cooling small tanks but inefficient in moving air for a larger space.

Scott, if you want a wall-mount ventilation fan (like those used in kitchens and toilets), drop by and collect it. Never used and project is shelved indefinitely, more likely I won't time for it. Call me.

[stormhawk]

Nice setup Scott. They definitely look like tanks within a tank.

The brown panel stuff makes it look like a glass tank was in place. By the way, what did you use for the base shelves?

[nonamethefish]

I like it! One question is how do you go about waterchanges in the critterkeepers with the lids they have?

[Scott_sg]

Sorry everyone for the late reply, I have to admit to being to lazy as my only excuse.
Joseph water changes are easy, the traditional method of siphoning, and the quick and dirty method of leaving the lid on and tipping the water straight through the lid. It just depends what I am trying to do. I don't use substrates so it is not normally a problem.
Jianyang the base shelves are 12mm plywood, it is a standard storeroom shelf system they sell here but I ordered some modifications thicker ply - up from 9mm standard and an extra shelf and I planned the size I needed in advance. One thing I wanted to do was make sure I get the most out of the space available, so I did not want huge gaps in the shelves etc and to waste the space.
All up 140 SG, i dont know if that is a good price or not but I am happy with it.
Ronnie thanks for the fan offer, I admit to being complacent at the moment since the weather has been cooler and I have not been in a DIY mood. I will probably panic though when the real heat returns. But so far heat has not been a problem. I put foil on the base of each shelf except the top so I think that helps to stop the heat rising up from the lights.
To be honest the price was not much at all, the tanks I can buy for 7SG for a medium and 10SG for the larger. 3.50SG for a sponge filter. So it is simple and easy and cheap. The most expensive things there are the fish.