Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I put this rack together this afternoon, Its built from:
(1) 3/4 inch sheet of plywood
(5) 1/4 inch sheets of peg board
(7) 1/4 6ft threaded rods
(1) 2x4
(4) 5 inch casters
(4) 1/2 inch pvc

It holds either 80 small tubs (12quart) or 20 large (41 quart) and 20 small tubs.

Built from the bottom up drilling holes threw the plywood and bolting the threaded rod simply put a pvc spacer over each threaded rod and then slide down a piece of peg board (3ft x 4ft) and repeat until you've got 10 total layers. Very easy and took less than 2 hours from start to finsh...

The rack had room for one more level (8 more small tubs or 2 and 2) however it was just a bit high for me and would be more of pain to clean that it was worth.

The small tubs are back to back giving you 8 tubs per level

2x4's running across the bottom of the plywood help keep the entire thing from bowing under the weight and the casters make it easy to pull the unit in and our of the closet to service the tubs in the back.

If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask here or send me an email and I'd be glade to help. ngolli@56kaccess.biz

Wow. That's a way easier rack to build than what I have done. How do you plan to provide a heat gradient, especially for the small containers that are 2 layers deep?

Also, do you have any trouble keeping the humidity around 60% with all of the holes in the pegboard?

Did you seal the pegboard against moisture?

Thanks.

np

Good luck with heating that and keeping the humidity high enough.
Lets see some pics after it is complete.

hey Neil, that is a nice effort, but i think when you put that rack into actual use, you are going to run into quite a few problems.

most significantly, escape. i hope it is not a pinstripe, mojave, or some other smokin expensive animal that crawls out of those thin shelves, cause you will be kicking yourself square in the butt (as hard as that may be) once it happens : )

i support the effort, if not the result : )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

(1) 3/4 inch sheet of plywood ($22 but I only used half)
(5) 1/4 inch sheets of peg board ($10.88 each and have enough left to build one more small tub rack that will hold 40 tubs)
(7) 1/4 6ft threaded rods ($1.39 each)
(1) 2x4 ($2.14)
(4) 5 inch casters ($7.99 each) harbor frieght not home depot)
(4) 1/2 inch pvc ($.99 each)

This rack is not for my high end animals this is for my hold back CH females that Tom and I brought in this year. By using the 1/4 tempered peg board instead of the 1/3 inch, there is no bowing and this is the 8th rack that I've built this way to hold over 1200 balls (racks at his place are 8ft by 3ft and hold 176 tubs each) this year at Toms place with no escapies (AS LONG AS YOUR PVC SPACERS ARE DONE RIGHT).

Heat and humidity. The entire room is climate controled with both heat and humidity. Humidity is at 62% and the ambient room temp is 82 at night to 85 during the day and I'm running 3 inch heat tape down the center of each level to give each tub a small hot spot of 89.