So I've been spamming this thread with pictures of my rack in progress and figured I ought to just make my own thread for it. I used the same basic materials for my rack, but modified it to suit my needs (namely males and juvenile females in 32 and 12 qt tubs with a bit of storage underneath). It was a pain in the butt, but I'm pleased with the end product. I discovered a lot of flaws I hadn't considered when I initially built the rack, so I did a bunch of tinkering to it as I went along.
I initially started with this rack.I had all three shelves parallel wired and plugged into a t-stat. But the temperatures proved too hard to regulate with just a hydrofarm thermostat in a chilly basement room.
So I added sides and upgraded to a Herpstat 2. I added an extra 32qt shelf and put all three of those rows onto the parallel wired heat tape, giving the juvie shelf its own strip of heat tape and outlet on the Herpstat.
Then I realized that the bottom level of 32qt tubs was not getting as hot as the other two rows. So I put insulation under the bottom of the lowest tub shelf, and moved the 12 qt tubs down the bottom, since I had them running on an individual piece of heat tape for that single shelf. I also decided to use aspen as substrate (so glad I did) and put a bin of it in the storage area for easy access as well as two 28 qt bins for storage (one for hides/water bowls/etc and one for heating/electrical stuff).
Then I realized that getting into the two storage bins was a bit tough with them stack on top of each other, so I made a mini shelf on the very bottom of the rack. Of course the inspiration for this came at three in the morning.
Then I realized that the rack was as tall as I am (six feet) and that storing my supplies on top of the rack was not really a practical option. So I purchased some peg board and hardware, then bolted that to one side of the rack as my 'tool wall.' There are still some thing to be hung up, but you get the gist. You can really see the height difference if you look at the top of the rack in relation to the antler plaque on the wall behind it.
And I've declared the rack finally finished. No more alterations or changes until I have snakes over 1200 grams and need a place to put 41 qt tubs. And even then I may just built a separate rack for them.
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