Material for Even Weight Distribution

I stopped off at Lowes this weekend and purchased a 72" wire shelving unit to organize my ten gallon growout tanks. Each shelf claims to support up to 340 lbs if the weight is distributed evenly. I plan on placing 2 ten gallon tanks per shelf so that should be safely under the weight limit but I"m having a problem distributing the weight evenly...

I did a test run with one full tank and I noticed within seconds that the wire shelving was bending and would eventually fail or damage the tank. I obviously need to distrubute the weight with a plank or plywood or something. Any suggestions on how thick the plywood should be or if there is a better material to use?

The ultimate goal being to redistribute the weight of 2 full ten gallon tanks across each shelf.

Is this what you got? Shop edsal 72"H x 72"W x 24"D Steel Freestanding Shelving Unit at Lowes.com

Originally Posted by chris&barb

Is this what you got? Shop edsal 72"H x 72"W x 24"D Steel Freestanding Shelving Unit at Lowes.com

I got Shop Real Organized 74"H x 48"W x 18"D Steel Freestanding Shelving Unit at Lowes.com=

3/4" plywood to the top of each shelve would be the best IMO but you would still need to attach the plywood to the shelves in some way.

I was thinking i'd just cut the corners off so the poles themselves kept the plywood from shifting. all the force should be directly downward.

The shelving cost me $70. not bad if the unit can hold 8 tanks.

You could just sit the plywood on top but if you connect the metal and wood it will be stronger.

One other thing you could do is go back to lowes and get these poles used for closet organizers. Connect them to each shelve in the center and both front and back.

Shoot, they arent listing them online. They are poles with clips that attach to the wire shelves to support them.

You can put the wood on the top or bottom of the wires if you're attaching them. The only other think I can think of is just get some wood and brace it up the middle.

Jason I have those shelves and like Chris said something on top they may support the weigh but there gonna flex and bow, mine do with hardly anything on them.

I'm going to try the 3/4" plywood. I'll cut it to be larger than the shelf itself and I'll seal the wood so that moisture and salt don't damage it too badly over time. I'm pretty sure that will distribute the weight just fine. The unit as a whole is solid as hell, there are just tons of weak fail points without this modification. I'll take some pics or something tomorrow.

The shelves look badass. I put a light polyeurothane coat on each of the 3/4" plywood shelves and the feel really sturdy. I also purchased a pack of 6 pendant lights that are dimable and attached them under each shelf. It really looks great.

Going to move the tanks starting tonight.

Lets see them

Without pics it didn't happen.

Transferring the tanks today and so far it has been a complete disaster. I've succeeded in shattering one of the xenon light bulbs and blowing out the fuse in the dimmer unit. The shelving unit appears solid until I use an algae scraper magnet on the front glass. Now I'm seriously questioning whether or not this is going to work.

Originally Posted by RCA

Transferring the tanks today and so far it has been a complete disaster. I've succeeded in shattering one of the xenon light bulbs and blowing out the fuse in the dimmer unit. The shelving unit appears solid until I use an algae scraper magnet on the front glass. Now I'm seriously questioning whether or not this is going to work.

hahaha - my main display tank shakes when the dogs walk through the room - don't worry - just ignore it!!

Originally Posted by RCA

Transferring the tanks today and so far it has been a complete disaster. I've succeeded in shattering one of the xenon light bulbs and blowing out the fuse in the dimmer unit. The shelving unit appears solid until I use an algae scraper magnet on the front glass. Now I'm seriously questioning whether or not this is going to work.

what about gluing rubber shelving "paper" to the bottom of the plywood? then it won't move on the wire....It does look really cool...did you do anything more to try and get it to work?

I think it will work just fine. As more tanks were added the unit became better equipped to deal with the left and right motion from the glass scraper. I replaced the light and the fuse and I'm actually very pleased with the end result. I've got 6 tanks on this one unit and it's completely out of the way. Plus it looks very, very clean and professional if I ever wanted to show someone my setup.

You had me worried there. Glad its going to work. It look really nice by the way.