i would like to set up a switch off of the router, and then have one modem for my families stuff and my gaming pc, and another router for testing as well as hosting a website. is this feasible? i believe the modem is just in bridge mode and the router currently in use functions as dhcp, i was thinking i could also connect the other router off of the switch, but would the packets collide?
If your ISP allows for multiple public IPs (many will allow up to 2) then you can connect a basic dumb switch to your modem and connect each router to the switch.
They will both get their own public IP and have their own physically separated network.
An alternative is to get a higher end router and a managed switch and use VLANs to virtually separate the networks.