journal Grande Plans

[Wraithie]

Well the reason I was pointed in the direction of this forum was that I mentioned building a rack and wanted some ideas and advice.

I've been thinking about what I want from my tanks, and how I would like to set them up and maintain them. It's been great being able to see how others have gone about this project and get some ideas on what to and not to do.

One of the requirements I have on all my tanks is that they have to be attractive and well maintained, so substrate and scaping will be necessary. I also love trying new scaping techniques to develop different scenes and vistas, and having a number of smaller tanks will allow me to try a few things at once and let them have time to grow without me fiddling too much. I want to keep and breed a few colours of shrimp as well as some endlers and smaller cichlids so have tried to design my rack with flexibility in mind.

I have decided on a rack-it system from bunnings, just the 1200x450x1800 to begin with, and a mixed 10 tank setup.

The top shelf will be 3x cubes 320 square which will be 'display tanks', each featuring a different aqua scape, probably with HOB filters to keep each independent.

The plan for the middle shelf is a bank 1000 wide divided into 4x 250mm sections, with flow between them that can be run with an external canister(and sponge filters). The aim here is to allow selective breeding, or to keep crystals (easier to run a chiller).

finally the bottom shelf will be 3 larger tanks 400x35 which are for grow out or breeding of larger colonies or small cichlids. I'm looking at running sponge filters here.

I don't plan on plumbing everything together, at this stage I don't mind being hands on and would like to keep it simple.

Below is my mock-up sketch (depth perspective is a little off).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or I'm doing something drastically wrong.

:)

Wraithie

[Eshrimp]

Good on ya mete .... I have done the same type of rack x 2 and they came out pretty good.

[Squiggle]

Looks pretty good Tess, I'm sure the rack will change a lot between that drawing & the finished product, trust when I say I know it will, lol :victorious:

[Wraithie]

Im still agonising over tank dimensions, i make a decision and then change my mind daily. Ill have to get the rack set up before i can confirm what i want (with a measuring tape!)

[BlueBolts]

If you have a mate that you can go and physically view his rack/tanks, it will give you a better perspective of tank size, spaces between shelve to top of tank....etc what filtration system are you installing, also consideration for a chiller, UV, etc...

[Wraithie]

At this stage running the top and bottom shelves on individual filtration(mix of sponge/hob) and the middle bank will be where i can fit a cannister/chiller etc (so that i can keep crystals etc).

I know its not the most efficient way, but it gives me some more flexibilty as i want to keep a range of water parameters.

[blackcat]

In the first pic u will notice that the plumbing joins this is no longer the case, I now have the middle and boytom tanks separated.

Top tanks for cbs crs (hence them being empty lol) they will have the shrimp soil in the bottom and fluval hangon filters so perams are easily controlled.

The next 2 run with plumbing to one cannister 1500L, then the bottom 2 same thing plumbed to another 1500L cannister ..

as the tanks are plumbed together I only need 1 heater in one of the tanks and as the water goes between both tanks via the cannister, temps only vary by 0.5C. Thats just my setup. ..I am yet to divide all the tanks into 3 :-)

I love the drawing u did and look forward to watching it transform :-), it will change ... mine used to run via a sump but didnt like that so worked out a way to run viaa huge cannisters instead.... less maintenence as shrimp have a low bioload :-)

Hope this mihht give u some ideas for your oen setup :-D happy planning

[Wraithie]

Update time!

You would think that buying a bunnings rack is easy, but noo...not in the length that I wanted. Only 1 store in the greater brisbane area had the 1.2m x 45cm setup that I wanted.

From that I was able to decide on measurements and it was then an anxious wait for the tanks to be built. It ended being fairly faithful to my original design.

For anyone that was wondering, even with these shorter shelves there is still some flex (do what those who know advise and go for 2nd hand pallet racking). The tanks I have aren't large enough for it to be a massive concern but I expect in the future I will put additional bracing in.

[Wraithie]

Some MrShrimp moss and heavyD sunkist (both of these guys are extremely generous)

[Squiggle]

Looking very cool & definitely very close to the original plan, well done! Now to fill it with more shrimp & start breeding some seriously cool patterns. :encouragement:

[ineke]

Great job Wraithie tanks look awesome.:encouragement:

[newbreed]

Great update! You must be thrilled with the new setup Wraithie, it looks brilliant!!

[cgm90]

Looking great :)

[Ronskitz]

Drooling all over my phone haha looks sweeeeet mate you must be stoked

[KillieOrCory]

Looks great :encouragement: I like those racks

[JPN07]

Sweet setup Wraithie. Good job :encouragement:

[durro68]

Nice one Tess!

... now for some Rili's ....

[Squiggle]

Hahaha!

[Wraithie]

Nice one Tess!

... now for some Rili's ....

Do you want to wait till its cycled or just throw them in? ;)

Theres a tester wild throwback cherry playing Canary as of last night

[Squiggle]

just throw them in? ;)

Skyhook them from across the room!! Hahaha :stupid:

[Wraithie]

The beginnings of one of my scape tanks

[Squiggle]

Very cool idea Wraithie, that's going to look awesome! :encouragement:

[Wraithie]

Sadly the hc I got from the auction hasn't survived the elements quite so well, so I'm waiting for it to bounce back, or to buy some more before I put water in

[Squiggle]

Are you going to try to dry start the HC?

[Wraithie]

I thought about it, decided against it but now you mention it I'm contemplating again