Building a Fish Room

Part I - Stands

by Charles Pratt

A month or so ago at the time I was replacing a stand in my fish room I saw a note in the IFGA Forum from a member in Iceland, showing a photo of a small room he was converting for his fish. I mentioned what I was doing,  had a response from him, and from a couple of other people wanting more detail. That's the reason for this article. I have been raising guppies and other tropicals for over fifty four years as a hobbyist, wholesaler of tropical fish and now mostly a breeder. Building fish rooms and stands, adding to them, moving them, building more is a continuous process. I have been doing it all my life, and I expect many of our readers have also.

During this time I have used all sorts of designs. I have frequently set up with concrete blocks and boards, and this works well, but they simply take up more room than wooden stands. In recent years I have refined my stand design to normally  use 2" x 3" uprights that have been notched to accommodate 2" x 3" boards the length of the stand. This can easily be adjusted to use 2 x 4's throughout the stand, or even 4 x 4's for the uprights, depending on the weight you expect to put on the stand. It is very useful to have a table saw to make the notches. I make several cuts with the table saw and then use a chisel to cut out the rest of the notch.

	This stand is actually made from 2 x 4's rather than 2 x 3's but the basic construction is the same. It is a stand I built a few years ago and I had not yet thought of using 2 x 3's. I normally use a stand with tanks three high now, due to a low ceiling in my fish room. Also as we get older it seems better to not have to get up on a ladder as often as we might once have done. It is important to have working room above the two lower rows of tanks to be able to get into them effectively. I use mostly 15 gallon tanks in these large stands, and those tanks are 13 inches high. I allow at lease 8 inches above each of the two bottom rows and it works out well.
	This is the stand I just set up, so it is new and nice and clean. It is made with 2 x 3's. You will notice the screws in the front board. They are generally 2 1/2 inches long and I use two screws on each joint. You will see I did that in the joint where the "B" is marked on the rack. However you can probably also make out places where there are only two screws next to each other. That is because there is a short 2 x 3 running front to back there, with the 3" side up. This is because of a unique property of Southern California called earthquakes. In many places you are probably safe to support the tanks only on the front and back beams. But in Southern California it is a good safety precaution to support them on the sides also so that in case of an earthquake the top tanks don't fall through and destroy both themselves and the tanks below.
	This close up shows the underneath of the top shelf.  One of the uprights comes up and a notch the size of a 2 x 3 is cut into the top of the upright. This supports the long board on which the tanks rest. You can see there are two horizontal supports attached, one on each side of the uprights and they are tied into the long front board with one screw going into each. As my stands are usually 24 inches deep these and all the other cross pieces are normally 21 inches long. The other three inches is the thickness of two 1 1/2 inch 2 x 4's which are each actually 1 1/2 inches thick, not 2 inches.
	Here is a stand made with 4 x 4 uprights and 2 x 4 horizontal pieces. It will hold four 10 gallon tanks on the bottom and middle shelves, five on top. I  put down a solid sheet of plywood on each shelf which gives the tanks a good platform and helps strengthen the shelf as I do have four 10 gallon tanks on these shelves. It helps with the earthquake problem also. In addition I am using older metal framed tanks with Pecora cement, which after a number of years might leak, so wanted good support.
	This is a photo of a top corner. You can see how a notch is cut out exactly to fit the piece of wood running the length of the stand. The back of the stand is done the same way. The top of my top shelves is usually 53 to 55 inches from the floor. I am 5 feet 9 inches tall. If you are shorter or taller you may want to adjust this height to suit you. If you go up you can get more room between the shelves, if you go down you may have too little room between them.
	This and the photo below show the joint for the middle row. The lowest shelf is done the same way. This shot is from the front, so we are seeing the front of the stand. In places where a screw goes through a piece of wood, and into the end of another, such as the two screws on the left in this photo I am likely to use 3 inch or even 3 1/2 inch screws. I like to use Deck screws, which are coated to prevent rust. I hope you have a drill with screw bits to put in all these screws. It is too hard on your wrists to do it all with just a screwdriver. Also, be sure and drill a starter hole almost the length of the screw to avoid splitting the wood.
	Now here we go around the corner and see an end of a stand. You can see both this one and the photo above, while of different stands, are notched the same way. I start the lowest shelf 5 inches from the floor when I use 2 x 3's, 4 inches from the floor when I use 2 x 4's as you need that extra inch between the shelves to have enough room to get into them. But 5 inches from the floor is best because you want to be able to get under them to clean. A few drying fish under your tanks not only smell but also attract roaches, ants and mice. Be sure and allow at least 8 inches in between the top of your tank and the bottom of the shelf above.
	This is the end of a stand, built much the same, but designed for a 4 foot long 50 gallon tank on the top and bottom shelf. The middle shelf uses 2 x 2's to hold 2 gallon plastic tanks. This demonstrates one way to alter the basic stand to hold different types of tank. It also shows the importance of a good finish on your stands. I use a primer coat of a good exterior primer paint, and then top it with a good quality exterior semigloss with a mildew inhibitor right in the paint. In this case I used a paint without the mildew inhibitor and you can see the result on the end of the top shelf. It gets worse fast.
	Here is a full view of the stand above. You can see the 50 gallon tank on the bottom, and much of one on top. I can fit 6 of the 2 gallon plastic tanks on the middle shelf with enough room to get into both the bottom 50 and the middle 2's. I actually found two old glass store shelves that were four feet long and just the right width for the shelves, and use them under these plastic tanks. The two gallon tanks are Lee Mar Kritter Keepers, available at most pet shops. The same tank is frequently used to display in the Breeder class at IFGA shows.

You can see in the above photos that I build my stands to hold 2 or 3 ten or fifteen gallon tanks between uprights. If you have a longer span than that you will probably get some unattractive and perhaps dangerous sagging of your shelves. Remember water weighs 8 pounds per gallon, making a 15 gallon tank 130 pounds. So three side by side are 390 pounds.

The four foot long 50 gallon tank above is over 400 pounds, counting the tank and the water. I use a 2 x 4 there, and would not go down to a 2 x 3. I also have some 70 gallon tanks and build a platform of two 4 x 4's topped with two 2 x 10's for them. It's safest to build more strength into your stands than you think you really need.

Remember what I said about using a drill to set your screws. Carpel Tunnel Syndrome is something you don't need.

Building your own stands is almost as much fun as raising fish. I hope this helps when you next build one.