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I am currently converting my 15 , 10 shed into a fish room. As a catfish addict i want to look at breeding corydoras and a few lorricarae , L Numbers and the likes ( anything below 8 inches.) I cant decide on tank sizes and was wondering on any suggestions.

Im working on putting an 8x3 tank in my 9 x 13 space, and let me tell you im jealous of that extra square footage. My last fishroom was probably 20 x 25 and had a lot of large tanks and not many racks, just a hodge podge. For small cats I would lean towards 30 gallon tanks on the top of a rack with 20 and 15's underneath. I use mortar blocks and since three columns consume 2 feet of rack space it depends on how long the entire rack is to determine how much space is underneath, as well as which way the tanks are oriented. For some reason I feel 30's are the best balance of budget and volume, but just about all of my remaining tanks are acrylic and larger than that. A ten foot rack with 4 30g tanks on top could accomodate 8 20's underneath on two shelves. My racks are usually two 55's on top of 35's and 26's, more useful for territorial types.
Good luck, that sounds like fun.

for stand's, try to find a factory that is closing down or getting new warehouse racking and see if they can give you some . It's bloody strong and you will be able to get more tank space. As for tank size i would have one really big one and load's of smaller size's .

Kev.

If you go the route Kev is suggesting, please make sure there are enough center supports. I tried the same, but the US standards aren't the same. I tried a 10 gallon tank on industrial grade shelving. It was rated to over 20,000 lbs.per shelf. It was 18"x48". (I placed ceramic tiles between the shelf and the tank to make sure it was level.)The only problem was, no center supports. After a few months, the middle of the shelf started sagging. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound nobody wants to hear: drip....drip....drip...

The sealant gave way and I had a leak. I moved the inhabitants to another tank in the middle of the night and had to empty the leaky tank. The weight of the water made the shelf sag just about at the 24" point. This is where the tank leak occurred.

I invested in a level at the local hardware store. Also, anytime I buy the cheap, $10 10 gallon tanks at the LFS, I reseal them. I get what I pay for. I've recently fallen in love with the 10 gallon tank. I've started using them for growing plant cuttings, etc. I have 3 running at the moment, plus a 75 gallon. I'm going to reconfigure the 29 gallon tank as a river tank, when I've saved enough pennies. Maybe by the holidays.

I use wrought iron stands that I had custom built. Check with a local welding outfit for prices. My entire fishroom shelving was custom made for less than a typical pet store charges for a 55 gallon tank stand.
-Shane

Generally, you want a tank that is LARGER than 4L x 2L x 2L, where L is the length of the fish. Obviously, bigger is better, so for a 2" fish, you may want to have a tank than is a bit bigger than 8" x 4" x 4".

But for small fish like the majority of Cory's, a 10-15gallon (40-60L) tank is just about right. For bringing up the initial fry, even smaller might work just fine.

For bigger fish, you'll want bigger tanks. Small-ish plecos (up to about 5-6") go nicely in a 20-30G (80-120L tank).


As to shelving, industrial shelves are great. But if you can't find any of those, using 3/4" (19mm) plywood supported by 2x4 standing up (i.e. plywoood fixed to the narrow side) will tolerate a pretty decent load. Just make sure everything is perfectly level when you put the tanks up.

Also make sure you waterproof-treat the wood (at least to some extent) by painting/staining/oiling it.

--
Mats

mortar blocks and 2x4's are the only way I feel safe racking larger tanks, and its fairly cost effective, especially if someone misplaces a large quantity of bricks ;). You definitely dont want to rely on particle board shelving. I have a call in to my painter fishhead friend for advice sealing plywood and staining my interior paneling, interesting that you brought up that point.
Definitely no substitute for volume when it comes to growing out fry.

Eupterus,
As you can see, there are many tank stand ideas. I still say none of them beat custom built iron stands for strength and reliability. I live in a frequent earthquake zone and need stands I can count on.

This is the set up at Africa Northwest in Seattle.


My slightly smaller set up.

Nice fish houses. I have found a good supplier of box section steel. 50mm box with concrete block supports every two or three feet. Evenly spacing the tanks I should be able to use 24"x15"x15" tanks along with 36"x 15"x15" and fit two banks three high Totalling 12 smaller tanks (85L ) and 3 larger (120L). If all works out well this can double. I am also going to put 2 larger tanks 300L+
I figure by having the larger tanks i can section off if needed. I am working with the idea that you can section off to make smaler but you cant make larger.

Any thoughts

I would have to agree with Shane... steel is the way to go(it really is steel...probaly not iron). You could always contact a local technical college and find a student looking for some extra cash to weld up a stand or two for you. You can also find all steel(no wood shelves) stands at local home improvement stores. I also like pleco farmer's setup for river tanks in a smaller scale.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9957

you can get away with 20G tanks if they are bottom dwellers.. but I think a 29g long is a little better. Here's picture of my tank Closet... that is all the space I have in my apartment!


On top I keep all my supplies in bins. All the weight is on the bottom(2-twenty longs no substrate just cardboard under the tank... I learned that from a buddy).

Cheers, Whitepine