Concrete blocks for fish room shelves?

[Aquagrrl]

Up until recently, I've always built shelves for my tanks entirely out
of wood. Having only a circular saw and nominal carpentry skills, I'm
not looking forward to doing it again but need more tanks. So, what
I'm thinking of doing is using cinder blocks to make shelves. I've
been looking for information but the information has been limited.

I'm looking to do something similar to this
http://reefcentral.com/forums/attac...=&postid=962704

Only I'd like to go 4 tanks high, which will utilize the whole 8 feet
to the ceiling. The concrete blocks would probably be between 6' -
6.5' tall. I have a few questions though.

Will I need to mortor them? All the information I can find suggests
no.

Is that too tall?

Do I have to worry about it tipping? All the walls are currently
covered with fish tanks so this will end up in the center of the room.

How often should I space the concrete blocks> I would assume going the
whole 8 feet of a 2x 4 is a little too much . . .

[Richard Reynolds]

check out its better :)
http://petfish.net/10grack.htm

the entire url should have been
http://reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=962704

I hope :)

but i like my link better :)

then while its easier to build, and easier to tear down, its not better.

the span depends on the 2X4's and how many you use, 4 will hold at 8' span of 10g tanks, I
used 4 2X4 and the plywood, identical to the URL i posted, yours seems to only use 2, I
wouldnt span much more than 4' with only 2 2x4's which seems like exactly what was done.

you wont want to use any mortor

I found that no matter what I did it alwasy wobbled a little it also seemed no matter what
i did it wasnt as beefy as I wanted, though it wasnt bad and probibly would have lasted
forever my new ones are built from big pieces of wood, and are nice and stable.

as you said you only have nominal carpentry skills, those shoule be enough to get the job
done, maybee you just need to find easier to build plans, how complex are the ones you
have now. if there a more dificult aproach then id just change plans instead of going with
concrete, if there kinda simple then id see if you cant find someone to help you bild
them, then finally build out of concrete blocks.


--
Richard Reynolds




"Aquagrrl" > wrote in message
om...
> Up until recently, I've always built shelves for my tanks entirely out
> of wood. Having only a circular saw and nominal carpentry skills, I'm
> not looking forward to doing it again but need more tanks. So, what
> I'm thinking of doing is using cinder blocks to make shelves. I've
> been looking for information but the information has been limited.
>
> I'm looking to do something similar to this
> http://reefcentral.com/forums/attac...=&postid=962704
>
> Only I'd like to go 4 tanks high, which will utilize the whole 8 feet
> to the ceiling. The concrete blocks would probably be between 6' -
> 6.5' tall. I have a few questions though.
>
> Will I need to mortor them? All the information I can find suggests
> no.
>
> Is that too tall?
>
> Do I have to worry about it tipping? All the walls are currently
> covered with fish tanks so this will end up in the center of the room.
>
> How often should I space the concrete blocks> I would assume going the
> whole 8 feet of a 2x 4 is a little too much . . .