This is a super easy project, but I don't see it mentioned a lot, so I figured I would post what I ddi for others to use or expand on.
Background:
My frag tank is a 40BR, so I decided I wanted 4 tiers of frag racks, so I could vary distance to the light. I ended up deciding on ~2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10" from the bottom of the tank. I may lose the 10" tier, as it is awful close to the surface, and I don't have anything that close in my DT.
I wanted to be able to vary placement within the tank, and leave some "open" space to either place things on the bottom, allow for larger rocks, or simply allow swimming space for fish.
The primary material for these racks was to be egg crate due to it's low cost and I had a sheet on hand.
We discussed whether to create legs from 3/4" or 1" PVC with slots cut in it to engage the egg crate, but eventually decided on creating them from more egg crate as there was plenty left over after cutting the shelves.
The final dimensions of each tier was 6" deep x 12" across, again this can easily be adjusted to your tank dimensions and needs.
HOWTO:
First decide on your dimensions - you may not be able to get teh exact dimensions you want, but you should be able to be close. I chose 2 racks, each with 2 6"x12" tiers, This would allow a variety of heights, and leave a fair amount of open space in my particular tank.
Once you know your dimensions, cut out your "shelves." They should be sized such that hey have a solid border. I found that I got the best edges by cutting the far side of the square my shelf ended on and snapping off the "nub" flush with the edge.
Then cut out your legs, one will go on each side of the rack. The inclusion of multiple tiers is important - it gives the rack rigidity. without this detail, a cross piece would have to run across the bottom, perpendicular to the top, so the rack doesn't fall over. Another important detail is that the tops of the legs have a half-unit nub still attached - this engages with the holes in the top shelf to help hold things together.
After that, it is simply a matter of using zip-ties to hold everything together - I used two per shelf and made sure they were quite tight, again this helps lend rigidity to the assembly.
Here they are in the tank, prior to the addition of water. As you can see, the 10" tier is not only very close to the surface, but it actually hits the bottom of my overflow, making it difficult to place the rack in the tank.
After filling the tank with water we discovered another problem - they were too light - if the did not float, they were blown around by the flow in the tank. We already had some 3" PVC elbows we intended to place in the tank to allow hiding places for fish, so I used larger zip-ties to attach them to the bottom of the racks and weigh them down.
Hopefully this information can be of use to someone else who is looking to undertake a similar project but did not know where to start.
Background:
My frag tank is a 40BR, so I decided I wanted 4 tiers of frag racks, so I could vary distance to the light. I ended up deciding on ~2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10" from the bottom of the tank. I may lose the 10" tier, as it is awful close to the surface, and I don't have anything that close in my DT.
I wanted to be able to vary placement within the tank, and leave some "open" space to either place things on the bottom, allow for larger rocks, or simply allow swimming space for fish.
The primary material for these racks was to be egg crate due to it's low cost and I had a sheet on hand.
We discussed whether to create legs from 3/4" or 1" PVC with slots cut in it to engage the egg crate, but eventually decided on creating them from more egg crate as there was plenty left over after cutting the shelves.
The final dimensions of each tier was 6" deep x 12" across, again this can easily be adjusted to your tank dimensions and needs.
HOWTO:
First decide on your dimensions - you may not be able to get teh exact dimensions you want, but you should be able to be close. I chose 2 racks, each with 2 6"x12" tiers, This would allow a variety of heights, and leave a fair amount of open space in my particular tank.
Once you know your dimensions, cut out your "shelves." They should be sized such that hey have a solid border. I found that I got the best edges by cutting the far side of the square my shelf ended on and snapping off the "nub" flush with the edge.
Then cut out your legs, one will go on each side of the rack. The inclusion of multiple tiers is important - it gives the rack rigidity. without this detail, a cross piece would have to run across the bottom, perpendicular to the top, so the rack doesn't fall over. Another important detail is that the tops of the legs have a half-unit nub still attached - this engages with the holes in the top shelf to help hold things together.
After that, it is simply a matter of using zip-ties to hold everything together - I used two per shelf and made sure they were quite tight, again this helps lend rigidity to the assembly.
Here they are in the tank, prior to the addition of water. As you can see, the 10" tier is not only very close to the surface, but it actually hits the bottom of my overflow, making it difficult to place the rack in the tank.
After filling the tank with water we discovered another problem - they were too light - if the did not float, they were blown around by the flow in the tank. We already had some 3" PVC elbows we intended to place in the tank to allow hiding places for fish, so I used larger zip-ties to attach them to the bottom of the racks and weigh them down.
Hopefully this information can be of use to someone else who is looking to undertake a similar project but did not know where to start.
