POSSIBLE NEW TANK YEA! Shallow and wide?!

[SnowManSnow]

ok,

So I"m thinking of having a tank custom made. I've seen a LOT of tanks that are really kind of shallow lately ( I mean like 18 inches and under) and are built much wider than normal (steering away from the standard 55g look).

I know it increases the surface area, and thus evap wich = cooling, but does a shallower wider tank offer any other "incentives"?

I was thinking of something like 6' by 3' by about 18". Something like that would make a wicked cool clam and sps tank cause you could actually look DOWN into the tank to see the pretty colors (provided surace agitation wasn't too great).

Thoughts?

B

 

[Anonymous]

Well, anything that shallow you should be able to save on lighting wattage for one. I would guess that for 18", you'd probably be alright with 150W metal halides.

One other very practical advantage would be being able to reach pretty much anything very easily.

Downsides? Limited upward space for coral growth and lacking the vertical plane when it comes to aquascaping.

 

[Anonymous]

what the esteemed primate said. I do like the idea of being able to lookdown into the tank though, that'd be sweet!

 

[Anonymous]

More surface area = more oxygen transfer too. I wouldn't really say you can look down in it better, since lights and stuff will be on the top, plus the surface agitation will not exactly make it crystal clear. Although with a top down box you can see nicely, but that that point you might as well just make a shorter stand for an existing tank.

Also the increased horizontal area makes for more swimming space for fish, more aquascaping space, etc. 200g is a good sized tank.

 

[SnowManSnow]

what the esteemed primate said. I do like the idea of being able to lookdown into the tank though, that'd be sweet!

U were at Atlanta weren't you? I noticed a LOT of top down tanks. The zero edge tanks were everywhere. Even ORA and Drs F and S had top down type tanks.

As far as the lights and stuff being in the way I was going to make something like zero edge sells, so that a few mini pendants just hang over the tank on one of those things that basically hooks to the back of the tank then goes up and over.

As far as actinic so forth goes I think ive even seen pendants with actinics built right in.

I have a nice 400w pendant I may be trading to pay for some of this if someone knows anyone

B

 

[Anonymous]

Man, I was fantasizing about a custom tank like that over 20 years ago, I think that would be... man.. something like that could inspire me to want to get another tank. :shock: Wait... did I just say that? No, I didn't just say that. Did I? I can't believe I just said that. I'm putting that right out of my head.

You, on the other hand, have fun, Snow.

 

[Anonymous]

BTW, in order to get a good top down view, even with the zero edge tanks, you NEED to have very little water motion at the surface (I know it sounds obvious but that's where you get the best oxygen exchange & flow is when powerheads are near the surface)

 

[Anonymous]

SnowManSnow, no I wasn't in Atlanta, wish I could have gone. As far as water motion obscuring you view, make a viewing box (like for photography) it works very well. At my favorite LFS, Tropicorium, they have huge runs of long and shallow propagation tanks. The water movement is too fast ot see what's what so they use those boxes

 

[SnowManSnow]

hmmm

I wonder what a tank would look like that had a windshield type front that was angled so that you could c into the tank while still looking down on it. Know what I mean? I've seen small clam tanks like this at shows, but never really seen a main display set up like that. I can see how access could be an issue if the front were angled too sharply .

B

 

[Ben1]

Kinda like this Daniel Knop tank. I have seen acrylic versions of these pop up as well, seems like a neat concept.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010211194056/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/jan/art0101

 

[Anonymous]

PITA to clean, though. Public aquariums use tanks like that.

 

[camaroracer214]

i work at a lfs, and we made a tank that was combo cube and combo look down tank. what we did was take a standard 120 gallon aquarium stand (48"x24") and basically built two tanks in one on that fit the stand. bascially, the tank looks like an "L", but laying on it's back. the right side is a 24"x24"x24" cube and the left side is a 24"x24"x12" tank. the two tanks share the bottom, front, back, and the left hand 24" tall wall of the cube. i think i'm explaining it a little more complicated than it is. bascially, it's a 24"x24"x24" tank, that overflows like a waterfall into a 24"x24"x12" tank (that looks a lot like a deep sea neo nano). it's pretty cool. the 24" cube is a display tank while the other side is a frag/clam tank. it's very very cool actually. i'll have to take pics one day.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Yes do! lol that sounds cool :lol:

 

[SnowManSnow]

i can see how an angled front would be VERY difficult to clean. I DO still like the idea of a shallower tank. It's going to be interesting to see how much the guy quotes me for the tank size that I asked for


b