"Double decker" tanks! Anyone?

mr. angelfish

mr. angelfish

Member
I have made up my mind and I am going for an 6 foot long tanks instead of 4 foot tanks. It is too hard to enjoy the hobby with just one tank. I am considering to build myself a double decker tanks. To save the space purpose. The floor will be concrete for that it should be able to hold such heavy weight of two tanks together.
One would be a 150 gallon (bottom) and a 125 gallon above.
I am drawing the plan for that I have to keep height under 90 inches as in general house ceiling headroom usually runs up to 96 inches from the floor. Except catheral-type ceiling room.
The bottom one appear to be easy to build as I can add support on each two feets (legs) by using 2X4 lumbers. For the top one that is somewhat a concern as there will be no "legs" to support the tank in the middle section but the ends. Would 2X6 lumber be strong enough to hold the tank without need the legs? For the ends I will use 2X6 at 90 inches tall lumbers would it be strong lumbers?
Secondly I want the furniture to be moveable; To reduce the risk of tip over, is it "a must" to have the furniture to be secure to the wall? would an 18"+ wide be able to stand secure with double tanks sitting on without the need to secure the furniture to the wall?
Filtration plan seem somewhat problem... It looks like I will have to custom my own refgumn for 150 gallon as I have to maintain less than 20 inches of stand (meanings around 16 inches inside the bottom) I may will have to use such as two EcoSystem Hang-On for upper tank plus one undecide cheap filter for circulation purposes. (too long way to the bottom and too long way to take water up back to the tank.)
Anyone whoever have such as this set up and please feel free to share your experience and recommondations. Thanks
 
joez

joez

Member
Supporting the weight of the top tank will be your main problem. Heh....unless your bottom tank has a cabniet built into it (hmm...sounds kinda cool having an artificial reef of metal down there....) you'll have to figure a way to keep it up.
 
joez

joez

Member
side-mounted lights with mirror reflecting the light downward at a 90 degree angle. You follow?
That could work...
 
benj420

benj420

Member
Well, let's see.....
125 gallons + 150 gallons = 275 gallons
275 x ~8.5 lbs per gallon = 2337.5 lbs (1060 kilos) in water alone.
I don't think it's moving anywhere. If anywhere it will move into a horizontal configuration on the floor. This design will be extremely top heavy and will be a disaster waiting to happen IMO. Cool idea, but make it a permanent rack that is bolted to the wall extremely well.
As for the 2x6's, yes you can use them, but I would suggest pressured treated, with a waterproofing stain on it. For that much weight, I would use 4 running the full length. Again, this is going to be heavy, so if you don't know how to build very strong frames, have it made for you, or get some good help. Shortcuts or bad design now = wet floors later.
 
melbournefl

melbournefl

Member
hmmmm well you have a major problem with the size of the tanks even ignoring the stand issue. 1st we have the height of the tanks themselves, if you have a 150 gallon tank that's 6 feet long and 18 inches wide, it's going to be 1" inch high for every 5.5 gallons = about 28 inches plus, let's say 8" off the floor so we're at 36" for the first tank sitting damn near on the floor. Now we need to add about 18" above that tank for access, lights etc. (I think even that's going to be tight when all is said and done) so now we have the *bottom* of the second floor tank stand at 54 inches off the floor, now we have the 2x6 adding another 5.5 inches and we're at 59.5 inches, call it about 61 inches with the 3/4" plywood supporting the top tank. Now on the second tank, 6 feet long x 18 inches wide yields the same 1" for every 5.5 gallons = about 23 inches for the top tank, we're now at 84 inches leaving only 6 inches clearance above the top tank. Keep in mind the bottom tank is now sitting only 8" off the floor making it rather difficult to view and the top tank is sitting at 5 feet off the floor, making it also difficult to view. All in all, as much as that much tank would be great fun to own, I'm thinking it's not going to be very practical or attractive as a "double decker." But hey as Broomer is so fond of preaching, "it's your tank ~~ your choice." If you decide you want to go ahead with this, drop another post when you can send us pics of your stand design and we'll be happy to take a peek and give opinions of structural integrity :D Good luck with whatever you decide! BTW you might be able to make an acceptable configuration if you go with 30 inches wide rather then 18 but I'd have to run the numbers again and it might turn out that then the tanks would be too short instead of too tall LOL ... let us know.
Just my somewhat worthless opinion!
Later,
Paul
 
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