Amphibian Racking System Build (Photo Heavy)

[MantellaGuy]

Hi all,

I thought I would kick start my build thread for my New Racking system that I am building. The equipment and tanks I will be using will be housing only 9 out of the all the species I have in my collection, So I will be having to make another Racking after I have made this one (However might not have to do the second one for a while as this single rack will be freeing up a lot of space!).

Here is a Picture of the Drawing I made on paint (Can't seem to convert the Auto-Cad file to a JPEG)


It will contain 9 Brand New Terrariums in total which include;

• x2 - 800 x 400 x 400mm (80 x 40 x 40cm) Tylototriton species exhibits with Water Area Partition.
• x1 - 800 x 400 x 400mm (80 x 40 x 40cm) Mantella aurantiaca exhibit with False Bottom.
• x3 - 400 x 400 x 400mm (40 x 40 x 40cm) Assorted Terrariums with False Bottoms - Will exhibit 3 of the 9 Mantella species.
• x3 - 400 x 400 x 400mm (40 x 40 x 40cm) Assorted Terrariums with No False Bottoms - Will exhibit various burrowing species I own.

How I am going to lay this First racking out shall be as follows;

• Top Row - Burrowing species.
• Middle Row - Madagascan Mantella species.
• Bottom - Tylototriton Asiatic Exhibits.

Obviously I will muck around with who will go where but that is the basic lay out! lol

Instead of using the Aluminum Profiles and Connectors that most people tend to use (Really wanted to use this method aswell but it's not cheap!! lol) I am using this really nice MFC (Melamine Faced Chipboard) also known as Chocolate Oak Board which is incredibly sturdy, strong and will most definitely take the weight of the Terrariums.




There are 3 Main pieces that will stand horizontally (measuring roughly just over 6ft 4 inches - This allows a bit of space between each row for the Lighting System and also a bit of space between the Floor and the underside of the Bottom shelf for storage) and 8 pieces that will go vertically for each shelf and 12 elongated supports.

I shall get the exact measurements later on and upload them when I put it together


Some of the 12 pieces of Wooden Supports I would need to support each shelf.


Photo showing how thick each piece of the MFC is.

Anyway, I am currently sorting out getting the E.N.T Terrariums now from DMS Vivaria, just have to wait a little while! I did look into making my own, I asked several Glass Merchants all of which refused to attempt it due to previous failures with other people, one of the Glass Merchants was so rude that he cut my off halfway through my sentence and basically asked me to leave :/

I hopefully will begin this build in the next few weeks, so the rest of my posts may take until then to show more of my build but anyway I would appreciate any help or advice!!