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My first attempt at a rack build

Trav80

By Trav80
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Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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:

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The rack once it had dried

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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.

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

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Close up of my dodgy hole saw work :p

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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 :mad:

Cheers

Trav

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Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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 :)

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Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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.

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  • 1 month later...
Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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 :)

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emboli Shrimp Keeper

emboli

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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 :)

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northboy Shrimp Master

northboy

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

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

Bob

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Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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.

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John. Shrimp Keeper

John.

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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 :D

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CNgo2006 Shrimp Master

CNgo2006

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

Dude! That don't sound right! LOL!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Trav80 Shrimp Breeder

Trav80

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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.

post-277-139909850541_thumb.jpg

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

post-258-13990984945_thumb.jpg

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Squiggle Shrimp Guru

Squiggle

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

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