Tank Design

[oger696]

Hey guys building a new home and gonna be leaving a hole in the wall for a new tank so as you walk in its in the passageway .... i would like to make the display as long as i can feel that having it really wide is not great for viewing .

the question i have is, is it acceptable to use the same volume of water but make the tank skinnier ..


Ie. instead of 1.5 m long by 1m wide and 500mm heigh .. make it like 3m long but only 500m wide ..
i may stick with 500mm heigh ive not looked into what depth would be best ill probably look at what lighting i want first id be more then happy to go 1m tall tho if lighting easily allowed it : )

just an idea
thanks guys

[CarmieJo]

Hi John,
Congrats on the new home! The surface area of the two tanks you suggested are the same so from that regard it will make no difference. My favorite aquarium shop has some beautiful long and rather narrow tanks. I've never measured them but I'd say that they are between 3 and 4 meters long and perhaps 750mm wide. He uses a wave maker and has tons of flow along the length of the tanks.

[oger696]

cool thnx for quick response carmie ive decided atm to settle on 3m long 500mm wide and 1m tall ... I mainly want taller for better viewing and deeper variations of light .. i found in my 34g my lighting was so intense there was not much difference between the top and bottom ... : ) so next thing im looking at is the refugium ... ive got to do alot of research on this one as ive not had one before and i want to include all elements that make it the best possible filter system that it can be ... ill be custom making it myself i understand about all the baffles seperating the sections and bubbles and flow etc ... only thing i need to find out what the most effective things to put in a refugium is ...

any suggestions ? ive seen alot of topics on caulk , amphipod farming sections .. aswell as the algae/plants and crushed rock etc ill probably be adding an auto top off system and possibly an auto feed system too

[SaltyDawg]

There are many reactors out there that may help. Calcium, phosban and such. You could also plumb in a UV sterilizer. The options are endless and sumps are not my specialty so I'm not a whole lot of help here. Sounds like you have a pretty good grasp on the situation and I look forward to seeing your new build come together.

[oger696]

ive not seen these uv sterilizers before thats the sort of input i was looking for : ) things i hadnt heard about excellent .... upson research tho sounds like it could be very useful on my quarantine system not my main but deffinately good for my quarantine : ) ..... i tihnk in total the system will be about 630 gallons ... 400 for display and 230 for my fuge ... i really want to go to town on my fuge so im allowing for sections of macro algae / mangrove style plants hydroponic style from a supported shelf with roots in the water /sponge filters / dsb/argonite / pod cultivation / skimmer / etc etc : )

I have to ask are you guys doing 10% water changes on tanks this size weekly ? ive been doing it for my little 34g but i think thats coz its so small and has no fuge ..

will having a fuge like ive described eliminate the need for frequent changes ? im hopeing that the integration of nitrate removing hydroponic plants would be suffiicient .. and if theres low nitrates no need for changes ?

I hope to render up a nice image to visualise all of this better then my scrappy hand drawings laying around : )

[CarmieJo]

A big system is inherently more stable and with the super-fuge you are planning you could do smaller water changes. There are so many micro nutrients in salt that are used up and routine water changes help to make sure they are available for your tank. I prefer this to dosing because you can't test for some of these and you don't know what the levels are.

[oger696]

ahh of course good point ... .... you wouldnt believe what happened .. i think my current little tank sensed me thinking about another tank got jealous and BURST OPEN on me .. gah ..... wife and i are sitting in lounge on couch in front of it well we hear a loud crack and the tank split from top to bottom .. it was all duce bigalow in my house : ( ... luckily i was able to scoop up all the fish and corals and set them up in a bucket then i took em to LFS and just gave em to them .. at least they wont die ....

i contacted red sea ( Red Sea Max 130 tank) and glass warranty is 1 year and ive had it for 3 ... but they are still going to replace the glass which surprises the hell outa me so im stoked with that ... at the same time as being decastated : (




does anyone on here have more info/experience with LEDs now that they been around .. for when iu rebuild my tank i cant help but wonder if i have too much light going into it

[CarmieJo]

Wow, I am very impressed at Red Sea! When the cheap plastic hinges on the feeding lid on the hood of my NanoCube24 broke (I later found out this is a very common problem) and I contacted JBJ they said tough luck and we will be happy to sell you another at full retail price. No thanks!

I think that LED's continue to evolve and are a viable option. I'm using a MarineLand Reef Capable LED light over said NC24 and my LPS are very happy.

[oger696]

i dont know if the fact that i went to the sales red for red sea in hong kong makes any difference but he has been fantastic .... since my tank was an older model they dont have it in stock any more - i thought here we go sorry but cant give u a tank .... but no he goes an extra step and sources a newer model tank .. and is giving me free the componentry thats different between the models so its fully operational ... ie protein skimmer etc ... I am very happy even tho it is a devastating event i did wana do a break down anyway and rebuild lol .....


on the led topic , im curious for my new big system i plan on building , u mention your led componentry can i ask what depth you use it too ..... something that has always evaded me is guaging the intensity of light at what depths as i dont have a par or lumen reader ....

im tossing up wether to do the tank in 750mm tall or 1000mm tall .. this could be a contributing factor for me ..