Planning my first aquarium! Looking for feedback and suggestions...

[Pondering_Free]

I'm in the planning stage of setting up my first aquarium. Space is a bit limited and the place I've found to put it won't be ideal to everyone's mind, but I've got to work with what I've got. I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts on what I'm planning and get some ideas for the stuff that still needs ironing out.

The space I have is in my home office. The house is an old one, so not as efficient with climate control as a modern build, but this room has double glazed windows and is easy to heat. There is a slight draft right at floor level but that's it. There are wooden floorboards under the carpet, and I'm not sure what the foundations underneath those are like. So considerations:

• The space I have for the aquarium is about 120 X 40 cm (47 X 16 in). Because I obviously don't want the tank backed right up to the wall (risk of damp and no space for wiring), I've got about 36cm (14 in) tank depth, and anything more tan about 115cm (45in) long would be scraping the wall on one side and my desk on the other. Sadly there aren't that many tanks over 80cm (31 inches) that aren't too deep front-to-back, so I'm limited in the amount of volume I've got to play with. At the moment I'm looking at a Fluval Roma 125 or something similar, giving me about 100-125l (about 30 us gallons).
  
  
• The aquarium would sit opposite an east-facing window, about 4m (13ft) away from it. There's a small west-facing window further along the wall the aquarium would be against, and a skylight in the ceiling, but this is not directly above the space. Altogether, it isn't really possible to eliminate sunlight, but as I'm planning a low tech planted tank I'm hoping I can get that to work in my favour. A bit of algae isn't something I mind, and I'm going to be adding hornwort, which should give it some vigorous competition.
  
  
• The door is right by the aquarium and the hinges are on that side. There isn't much of a draft round it that I can tell but it's another reason I don't want the tank to be too deep, as I don't want the door hitting the glass if it slams open.
  
  
• There are two available electric sockets on the wall. The first is just behind my desk, and the other is on the other side of my desk. I'm planning to use the nearer one for a grounding probe to keep everything safe in the even of a problem with the electrics. Things like the filter, heater, etc. will be plugged into a 5m surge protected extension cord, which will use the further socket and will be attached to the wall with masking tape (meaning that if I ever move things, the paint won't be damaged) to make a drip loop.

So this is what I'm working with:

Well, this is really long already so I'll make separate post for my biggest burning question!

 

[Pondering_Free]

So the burning question is: What do I stand the tank on? This is bearing in mind that I'm limited on space and would prefer to have a quarantine tank (and to be prepared for multiple tank syndrome down the road!). So I'd love to be able to have some sort of tiered shelf so I could use all that vertical space. Something like one of these setups:

The problem is that it's really hard to find shelving for aquaria in the UK. Believe me, I've tried! I've also tried looking for secondhand racking, etc., but there's nothing available in my area right now.

The nearest I could find was heavy duty garage type shelving, something like this, but I've heard... mixed opinions on it, so I'm a bit chary of going down that route. A lot of US hobbyists recommend Gladiator shelving, but there doesn't seem to be a UK retailer for it. I also saw steel worktop shelves recommended, but I can't find any with the right dimensions for my space. I could of course go down the DIY route, but I don't think my DIY skills extend that far!

The other option is of course to get a standard aquarium cabinet for the main tank and put the little quarantine tank somewhere else, but the options for that are limited. My desk is just an Ikea self-assembly, so I doubt it could take the weight. I've also got some fairly solid oak chests of drawers which might also do for the main tank, but obviously they aren't built for aquaria and there's still the issue of where the quarantine tank would go.

In terms of the weights involved, we're looking at about 176kg (about 388lb) for the main tank with just the water (potentially more if anyone ever sells a narrow 90-100cm tank I like the look of...), and about 56kg (123lb) for a 36l (10 us gallon) quarantine tank.

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[MaloK]

The HD shelves you have near you will be good...

You need to anchor them strongly to the wall. You can install spacers to be able to work electricity and tubing behind. And also help with the position you want to have for your door.

Choose the model with metal shelves and add 3/4 inch thick plywood sheet on each shelf that will receive a tank on.

If there's still a problem with the door movement consider installing a permanent door stopper on the floor in front of the tank and be sure that the door will never smash your tank for good.

 

[Back in the fold]

What @MaloK said . Put in a doorstop . Better safe than sorry .

 

[Naughts]

Check out custom built tanks (eg. ND Aquatics) to get the dimensions you want/ need, you could also get a stand and hood to match the measurements.
Do you have black out blinds on the windows and skylight- it would give you more control?

 

[Essjay]

I agree with Naughts. I have a custom built tank because I couldn't get the dimensions I wanted with an 'off the peg' tank.

 

[Pondering_Free]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'd already been planning a doorstop, so good to have that confirmed. And thanks to @Naughts for making me aware of ND Aquatics. I saw they have a 115X33X55 tank on offer, but they're pretty far away from me, so the delivery would've bumped up the price. And when I measured out the space to check, I realised I was going to need something shorter, more like 90cm/36in max. Other than that I suspect that custom builds might be a little outside my budget right now...

The HD shelves you have near you will be good...

You need to anchor them strongly to the wall. You can install spacers to be able to work electricity and tubing behind. And also help with the position you want to have for your door.

Choose the model with metal shelves and add 3/4 inch thick plywood sheet on each shelf that will receive a tank on.

Unfortunately here isn't an option for metal shelves in the HD unit I linked, they just come in chipboard. All the completely metal ones I could find had a lower UDL than I need and/or said they were for dry goods only.

Sorry if I sound negative, but unfortunately I'm just not confident with large-scale DIY stuff. Like I say, I'm a complete newcomer. I feel like all these suggestions are really good, but a lot of them are more things I can imagine myself doing with a few years of experience in the hobby under my belt. So I think I might be looking at a commercial cabinet for now... Unless the steel worktop route might work? I'll have to keep looking.

 

[MaloK]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'd already been planning a doorstop, so good to have that confirmed. And thanks to @Naughts for making me aware of ND Aquatics. I saw they have a 115X33X55 tank on offer, but they're pretty far away from me, so the delivery would've bumped up the price. And when I measured out the space to check, I realised I was going to need something shorter, more like 90cm/36in max. Other than that I suspect that custom builds might be a little outside my budget right now...


Unfortunately here isn't an option for metal shelves in the HD unit I linked, they just come in chipboard. All the completely metal ones I could find had a lower UDL than I need and/or said they were for dry goods only.

Sorry if I sound negative, but unfortunately I'm just not confident with large-scale DIY stuff. Like I say, I'm a complete newcomer. I feel like all these suggestions are really good, but a lot of them are more things I can imagine myself doing with a few years of experience in the hobby under my belt. So I think I might be looking at a commercial cabinet for now... Unless the steel worktop route might work? I'll have to keep looking.

Well everything is always dependent on access to tools to do the job. Personally I would do it myself in 2x3 lumber.

I found different not too expensive 2 tier racks that could do on amazon, but on the 40 cm side, is it dead 40 or you have some loose.

There are more options for larger tanks, if you can have 47 cm deep. there are really neat ones but $$$

A couple examples of 2 tier that are affordable for 29 to 40 gallons tanks.

There's many more super nice ones, but the price starts to be a deal breaker pretty fast, loll.