DIY Aquarium Rack for Fish Room: Design continued

DIY Aquarium Rack for Fish Room: Design Continued

This is a partial view of what the DIY Aquarium rack looks like when complete. To protect the wood from water damage, I used a deck stain/paint.  I’m happy with the wood protection but do wonder a bit about whether or not it is leaching chemicals.  I have not noticed any ill effects yet, but there have been instances where water has run off or spilled, subsequently flowing back into the sump.  That has generated more contact with the wood than I would have anticipated. No issues to report, but please use caution if you duplicate this step at home and do your homework to determine if this step is worth the risk.

As mentioned in the last post, I put 4 standard 10-gallon tanks on the top shelf of the aquarium rack and 4 of the 20-gallon high tanks on the lower shelf. The gap between the lower shelf and top shelf is larger than the gap between the top shelf and absolute top of the rack to allow for adequate space for tank maintenance.

For lighting, I used inexpensive ‘under cabinet’ T5 lamps from Walmart (less than $10/each). I have two bulbs mounted on the inside of the horizontal 2×4 stud on each of the two shelves. T5’s are low wattage/high-efficiency bulbs, which are ideal for the fish-only tanks that I will keep on this rack. The lights come fully wired and have mounting brackets for easy installation. They also can be ‘daisy-chained’ together, so even though I use 4 fixtures, I only have 2 wires plugging into the electrical socket.  This picture isn’t great (because of the brightness of the bulbs and my lack of photographic ability), but you can see where the lights are mounted.

Check out the next post here and see how I plumbed it.