Breeder Rack

Hatchling Rack

This is my hatchling rack built in January of 2008. It holds 48 Rubbermaid 2218 (6 quart) tubs. This time I decided to use back heat as I really didn't want to wire 12 shelves with flexwatt. I had talked to a few people and determined that for a small size tub the lack of belly heat would not make a big difference.

This time I used standard 16" shelves that you can get from Rona or Home Depot. The big advantage here is that the shelves already have the plastic trim attached so that saves a step in the building process. I had Rona cut the shelves to the proper length for four tubs per shelf and screwed the shelves to the sides in the usual manner.

The heat is provided by four strips of 11" flexwatt attached to the back board of the unit. I have the heat divided into five lower shelves and seven upper shelves. This way I can control the heat in the colder lower portion of the rack separate from the warmer upper portion.

Here the top and first four shelves have been attached with screws from the sides...

This shows the rack once all the shelves have been attached and the feet are screwed on. I attach a two small boards to the bottom of the rack as I keep the rack on carpet and I don't want it sinking too far into the pile.

Just a closer shot. You can see the difference in depth between the sides and the shelves. I'm not sure how this happened as the width of the stock was never changed. The difference was slight so I just use the gaps on the sides as ventilation!!

Here I'm just sizing up the flexwatt for installation on the back board. It ended up fitting just right with five sections top to bottom.

Here is a close up of where I separated the two section of flexwatt. I have the top seven shelves on one Herpstat output and the bottom five shelves on another output. This handles the difference in temperature between floor and ceiling.

This is the same spot just it's taped up and attached to the 1/4" back board.

Here I'm taping down the flexwatt with foil tape. You can see where the top three panels (right side in the image) are separated from the bottom two panels (left side on image).

Here is the finished back board before attaching to the rack...

This is a close-up showing how the electrical connections are made. It's a small bolt with a serrated washer on one side and a crimp on eye connector with wire on the other side.

Here I've used red high temperature silicone to cover the crimp on eye connectors to prevent accidental shorts. You can see how the left and right top panels are connected and the left and right bottom panels are connected.

Both sides get the silicone treatment...

Here is the finished back...