Yet another new fish racks thread

[Imperialdiscus]

Several years ago, I purchased a quantity of custom made Pallet rack units, specifically for some tanks I had. Finding myself in need of more racks, and for cost considerations as I'm now sending 4 children to private schools, I'm building with wood.

A couple of probable misconceptions I made in the past are creeping into my current design decisions.

My steel racks are 18" deep, they were designed to accomodate my 36L x 18H x 18D tanks. I used 9'6' beams for these with braces.

I have always been under the impression that I should make sure that the tanks is supported on all 4 edges on the bottom with load bearing supports. That is why I purchased those racks with and 18" width on the uprights.

I never bothered with it until now, so as newb as this sounds, I'm wondering if it's structurally sound to build a rack, or buy more steel racks that would be 42" wide uprights so I can have rows of tanks back to back as long as there are supports in the channels.

Also, one thing I was told never to do, but I have seen done, is having tanks sticking out over the edge of the rack. I've seen more than a few racks that had 20's and 29's set on racks sideways with as much as 3-4 inches of the tanks hanging out over the fronts.

If I didn't describe this well enough, I can provide 3d imagery to indicate exactly what it is I'm going on about.

[Discus-Hans]

All my racks are build from 2" x 4" cheap and still holding strong,

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=61740

Btw. I hate sticking out tanks, but I also hate different sizes of tanks in one rack (probably just me),

Hans

[Imperialdiscus]

In the past, when I built stands I had used plain old kiln dried lumber.

Then I see people talking about using pressure treated lumber.

So I started this group of stands and made the very large mistake of using pressure treated lumber. What a bloody nightmare this stuff is to work with.

We spend several hours digging through the stock at the hardware store to get nice straight pieces. Got them cut to size, all nice and neat.

So we assembled the decks of the shelves, and set them aside. We had to take the 4x4 posts we bought to use as legs out to be DADO cut to fit the decks.

A few days later when we went to assemble the shelves, we found that although they had been laid out nice and flat, the decks we built now looked like "curly fries". There was nothing even remotely straight about them.

So now, we have to go out and buy more lumber to redo several decks as I'm VERY hesitant about using these.

This has been bad enough of an experience, not to mention grossly time consuming that I think I'm going to swear off of using wood construction for any future stands. It was actually far more cost and time effective for us to have waited on steel palette rack shelving. 10 minute assembly vs. 2 weeks assembly.

FYI, we did assemble the complete shelves with the legs attached, and with a little weight on them they did conform to proper alignment. My big concern is that even though a bit of weight forced them into place, they will make a constant shear pressure on the glass causing an eventual tank failure.

So would anyone concur with my fear on this?

thanks.

[Discus-Hans]

Legs, "decks" all, I build from 2 x 4" still holding strong, not pressure treated normal cheap studs. First fish house I just ordered a pallet with studs, because we had a lot cracked, not straight, etc. won't do that again.

For the second fish house I went Lowes and Home Depot every other day, new pallet, dig trough it, only the best. We had no problems with them,

Hans

[Imperialdiscus]

Legs, "decks" all, I build from 2 x 4" still holding strong, not pressure treated normal cheap studs. First fish house I just ordered a pallet with studs, because we had a lot cracked, not straight, etc. won't do that again.

Hans


The last time I built with wood (17 years ago) I just used plain old kiln dried lumber. Then I saw people all talking about using pressure treated lumber, so I made the mistake of using it.

NEVER AGAIN.

I fixed the twisting problem using a bit of ingenuity, I used turnbuckles and steel cord and pulled everything level again. Fortunately, it's BARELY noticeable.

We picked a bad area of floor to set on, so we have a bad slope. I drilled holes in the 4x4 legs, pounded in 3/4" connecting nuts and used a 3/4" x 2" bolt as an adjustment leg.

Now everything is nice and level.

Tomorrow I'm ordering more custom made palette rack. It's cheaper than wood, assembles in a fraction of the time and it saves me a large liquor bill due to stress. :)

[DiscusOnly]

If you want straight/square/level rack, your best bet is to get wider wood and run in on a table saw. I used 2x8 with my recent rack but took about 3/8 inch off to square it off. Even with that leaves with me 2x8 that has slight bow. The only way to really fix that is to use plywood as shelf to tied them up.

[Imperialdiscus]

If you want straight/square/level rack, your best bet is to get wider wood and run in on a table saw


Oh it was all cut perfectly neat and square and perfectly even and accurate on a very large arm saw. as the chemicals in the nice , wet, pressure treated lumber dried, it twisted and twisted some more and a bit more for good measure.

heh heh.... learned my lesson real good. Yup. Such a fun weekend :)

[DiscusOnly]

yes, it will twist and move if it's not tied together. Like I said, if you don't tied it together with a plywood on top, it will twish and move as it dry. I learn this the hard way a few years ago when I laid a bunch of joist on the deck. I didn't add the surface plank until a few days letter and learn I had to redo a bunch of joist cause it had moved.

BTW.. if you want a pefectly level shelf, built it on site and accomdate for the unven floor. You can have a pefectly built stand and learn that it's way off when you place it at it's final location.

[Imperialdiscus]

ok, so anyone have ANY reason for me to be concerned over my racks sitting on 3/4" bolts used to level them?

[DiscusOnly]

ok, so anyone have ANY reason for me to be concerned over my racks sitting on 3/4" bolts used to level them?


Yes.. not a good idea to put all the weight on the 3/4 bolts? If it was me, I would use 2x4 under the legs and shim. I wouldn't shim more than 1/4.

If the floor is that much off, using pre-built metal shelf won't help. You are still going to run into the same issue. When I did the rack in my garage, it was a good 2 inch difference between an 8 foot span.

[Discus-Hans]

I made my racks every were the same, legs, decks, etc.

When I put it together it was all so well hold together that on some places, e few legs didn't touch the floor but were "hanging". I filled under those legs up with slices of pressure treated wood.

Those who saw my racks, it didn't work out to bad.
The bolts???? I don't know, never tried and I think Vlam is right, lot of weight on the 3/4 bolts

Hans

[Ibanez540r]

Same as Hans, mine are all standard 2x4 studs hand picked form Home Depot. Works great. Sturdy, no problems whatsoever.

[DiscusOnly]

Those who saw my racks, it didn't work out to bad.

They look very sturdy, especially the really high ones.

[Imperialdiscus]

Same as Hans, mine are all standard 2x4 studs hand picked form Home Depot. Works great. Sturdy, no problems whatsoever.


It's pretty clear the problem lies in having used pressure treated lumber. First time I'd ever used it, and it'll be the last. Using plain old kiln dried lumber never caused this kind of hassle twisting and warping. I really wish I'd simply used that, I'd be a lot happier now.


thanks for all the feedback guys.

[MostlyDiscus]

I agree with Hans here too. I have 3 wood 2x4 type racks built with lowes lumber. I went to Hans and found that everything was holding up well. With warped pieces I just used a clamp to hold them flush with the verticals, then screwed them in with drywall screws.

Ed