My fish room for Malawis

[mattrox]

I am working on getting my fish room up and running. This is the progress so far.

 

[Aquarium1]

following looks awesome. Just curious, are you sure those stands can support the weight of several filled tanks?

 

[Frogspawn]

Wow, those would be some strong shelfs. what is your plan? a 55-gallon long would probably fit well on them.

 

[Walmart]

Sweet idea but 1g of water is 8lbs, then all the wet sand and rocks. idk if those shelf's are up to it. my 55g is like 550lbs

 

[mattrox]

The racks will hold the weight. Good ol' aussie steel! I got it rated when I talked to the sales man. Dexion racking.

They are rated for 350kg = 770 lbs for each shelf of the 4ft racks. The tanks will be 4ftx14"wx20"h . The long rack will hold a 6ft x 16"w x 20"h and is rated accordingly.

The top rack will hold 2X 2ft x 14"w x 20"h and the long rack will have 4X 3ft of the same dimensions with the 6ft on the bottom. Seriously thinking of putting in another rack for 2 more 6ft tanks and 3 more 2ft tanks.

The only hold up is that I can't get the backing until Tuesday because of our ANZAC day long weekend. Should be all up and running by next weekend.

Each tank will have about 2" of pool filter sand and only have terracotta pots as rock work. That way it is easy to get the caves out when netting fish.

 

[mattrox]

Forgot to say the 6ft rack is rated for 450kg = 990lbs per shelf.

 

[AgilityIG]

Following!

 

[Aquarium1]

Ok just wanted to make sure. That's awesome btw lol. How much did they cost?

 

[eja206]

i'm following too!

 

[Frogspawn]

does the shelf have feet? or just legs?

 

[mattrox]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

There are feet at the corners, metal plates.

The racking in total cost about the same as a timber cabinet and hood for a 6x2x2 tank in Aussie dollars. Don't like to talk money on the forum.

 

[mattrox]

I installed some of the power leads.

 

[Aquarium1]

Nice. How many tanks are you planning on setting up?

 

[mattrox]

So far 10x 4ftx14"wx20"h and 4X 3ftx14"wx20"h and 10x 2ftx14"wx20"h and 1 x 6ftx16"wx20"h.

I would also like to get 2 more 6ft and 3 more 2ft in the near future.

 

[Aquarium1]

Wow that's a lot of tanks!!! Lol. Wish I had the room for all those.

 

[Etunes]

How big is the room. From the pics it only looks to be 10'x15'. It has to be bigger then that though with that many tanks. Any particular species you looking to breed?

 

[mattrox]

The racks are going 3 tanks high. The room is 10'x12', but the ceilings are 11' high.

I'll be breeding peacocks, small haps and an assortment of mbuna.

 

[mattrox]

Here is a pic of the room to show the height. The top will have 2x 2ft tanks.

I built half of the last rack. I can't complete this without moving a 4ft tank and cabinet out of the room. For that I need tanks up and running to put fish in.

I washed 50kg (110 lbs) of pool filter sand.

 

[Etunes]

Well why is the sand not in the tanks then. lol.

 

[Andrewz00]

might i direct your attention to my recently started topic.... http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f60/precautions-of-going-larger-128616.html

Just something to think about...