journal My first attempt at a rack build

[Trav80]

Howdy :)

I have had a few 2x12x12 tanks sitting around for a while now as well as a crappy old rack for them that I bought years ago and was thinking it would be good to use as a Cherry rack. So I checked out the tanks and gave them a bit of a clean up and made sure they still held water as they had lived outside for sometime, luck for me they held water. The rack on the other hand was a bit far gone as it had not been painted or sealed and was kept outside for years in the weather so I had to make another one from scratch.

I called a good friend of mine that happens to be cabinet maker and organised a time to drop around to use his truck to pick up the lumber and then to use this panel saw and other misc gear. After a quick plan was put down on paper I found that Bunnings didn't have 1 piece of straight pine in the 4 different stores that we visited, so we tried Mitre 10 and they had lots of straight pine and even price matched Bunnings. So after a fun afternoon of beers and woodworking I now have a 1700mm tall rack. I was going to stain it but changed my mind as I was inspired by Marcus' racks, I decided to paint it matte black and I also painted the sides and back of each tank as well :congratulatory:

I was contemplating multiple ways of filtration including HOB, internal filters, canisters, sponge or sump and have finally made my decision. I drilled a hole in the side of 3 of the tanks around 16mm from the top so that I can add a bulkhead and have them running to the bottom tank that will be used as a sump. I still need to figure out what to do with the sump like where to put the baffles and height/sizing of them but that will come in the next week or so, I will also put up a couple of designs to see of they will do the job and for them to be critiqued.

I still need to pick up some foam, decide on and order my fittings, design and build the sump, decide on which pump I will be using, order the power supply and parts for the LED 5050 Strip lighting I will be using, order black coreflute so it looks sexy, order UV sterilizer, plumb it all up and give it a test + when ever else I have forgotten. :)

Here are a couple of photos I took with my iPhone so excuse the quality, I never seem to have the DSLR on me when I need it :sorrow:

The rack once it had dried

Mmmmmm Matte black painted tanks, sure do look sexy once they are done, check out the dodgy old rack Im using as a stand to paint the tanks. It was rotten as it was out in the weather.

One of the holes in the left side of the tank where the bulkhead will be placed.

Close up of my dodgy hole saw work :p

Drilled tanks sitting on the rack till I can clear some space for the rack

More updates will be added once I have time and money to do more, hurry up pay day!!!!!!

Sorry I don't have pictures of every step as I always get focused on what I'm trying to do and forget to document it

Cheers

Trav

[al4n]

great work, can't wait to see it all functional!

[durro68]

Nice one mate ... it's going to look great!

[Aquathumb]

I like it mate. simple, functional and it looks great!

[Trav80]

I have compiled a list of all the gear needed to plumb it all up but it looks like I will be using 25mm PVC fittings and pipe for the water to flow out of the tanks and then I will be using 19mm tubing for the water to flow from the pump to the tanks. I will have 19mm barbed ball valves to adjust the flow back into the tanks.

I have also been thinking about the design of the sump and have come up with something, but I'm sure it can be fine tuned with a little assistance from the more knowledgeable member here :) The design I came up with is in the following thread http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/2163-Help-me-lay-out-my-sump-please-).

Please rip it apart so I don't have to build another :)

[Gbang]

Oooooooooo nice one :)

[Kitz]

Looks like its going to be a very nice rack, did you make the rack yourself or? It looks good in black.

[Trav80]

Hey Jeremy,

Yep I made it myself but used a friends equipment to build it to make sure everything was straight, square and the correct length.

[Kitz]

Time for an update Trav80!!!

[OzShrimp]

looking good, what type of paint did you use on the tanks ?

[Trav80]

Sorry, I have been pretty busy and have not had time to get it all put together. After having an in depth talk with Dean he has answered a few questions and gave me some pointers so the build will be back underway hopefully this weekend.

One of the baffles in the sump was leaking when I gave it a test fill so I had to silicon it again and the 7 days are up today.

Will update soon I promise :)

[emboli]

Very interested to see how this all comes together.

Take your time Trav - worse thing you can do is make a mistake by rushing things :)

[northboy]

Looking good mate, keep us up to speed with it.

It is always good to see something you have built come together

Bob

[Trav80]

OzShrimp:

I used Easy Surface Prep to first so that the paint would adhere well I then painted 3 or 4 coats of a flat black enamel.

When I first tried to paint my tanks a couple of years ago for my discus it all flaked off so I tried the ESP product and it works perfectly.

[John.]

Looks great mate! I'm watching this to see how you go, and get some idea's as the Minister of Finance has just gave me the go ahead for a rack build

[JohnH]

Nice build. Using the 2ft tanks makes it a real space saver. I'll be watching for updates:)

[Squiggle]

Looks good dude, very nice rack! :encouragement:

[CNgo2006]

Looks good dude' date=' very nice rack! :encouragement:[/quote']

Dude! That don't sound right! LOL!

[Squiggle]

Lmao, my words were chosen very carefully :victorious:

[Trav80]

Ok well its been some time since I started this build and I'm happy to say that its mostly finished. I just have to work out my lighting, purchase and attached some black corflute, wait for it to cycle and of course stock the rack :)

I ended up using 25mm PVC pipe to get the water into the sump and then from the pump back to the tanks I have used 20mm vinyl tubing with taps to control the flow.

I had some issues with the sump as one of the baffles leaked on me, so there was a good 7 days gone while I was waiting for it to dry and then it leaked again so I ended up going crazy with the silicon and after another week wait, no leaking :)

After it was also assembled and all the plumbing was in I head a *tink* noise and knew something cracked. One of the tanks cracked from where I drilled it one a angle up but ti was above the water line so all good. I filled the tanks with tap water and ran them for 48 hours with no leaks visible. I drained the system and put in some washed Tahitian moon sand just enough to cover the base and filled each of the 3 tanks with RO water, I then added some Saltyshrimp Sulawesi 7.5 minerals to each tank to around 300ec. I filled the sump with RO as well and added some seeded media, I will give it a couple of weeks and hope the cycle is almost complete.

I would like to thank Dean for all of his recommendations, products and time. I'm sure I would have made many mistakes if it was not for him. He even gave me a call well after midnight to discuss the plumbing and to give me some helpful hints and recommendations.

I only have 1 pic for now, I will put up more when I have some lighting, shrimp and mosses in them.

I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out so far.

[Squiggle]

Looks awesome dude, very well done :encouragement: can't wait to see it full of sexy shrimp :encouragement: