New 117g, Step Aquarium, Idea

zcedric · Sep 20, 2017

Hiii Folks

I am having an Idea to go with a new Setup. Take a look on the pic. The price for the glass with low iron glass front and side will be around 1350.-
What do you think?
Too expensive? Will not work? Bigger glass? Bad? Good? wow?

If you guys think good and it could be a wow.. I will continou the drawing. Including stand and planing of pipes and so on.

Maddlesrain · Sep 20, 2017

That's a good price IMO because I paid almost that for my drop-off tank which is much smaller than the tank you're planning. I guess it comes down to: Who are you looking at getting it from? To make sure you're getting a quality build!

zcedric · Sep 20, 2017

I will mainly make it myself. The 1350.- is only the glass itself.

Maddlesrain · Sep 20, 2017

zcedric said:
I will mainly make it myself. The 1350.- is only the glass itself.

In that case, I'd think you're doing fine. You'll have absolute freedom to do everything exactly how you want it and be able to change things along the way!

revhtree · Sep 20, 2017

Looks like a cool future reef!

JoshH · Sep 20, 2017

I don't think you'll have anyone vote no lol Can't wait to see the build! Would be cool to see some sort of feature that would allow the tanks water level to drop below the first step exposing the top much like a tidal reef.

zcedric · Sep 20, 2017

JoshH said:
I don't think you'll have anyone vote no lol Can't wait to see the build! Would be cool to see some sort of feature that would allow the tanks water level to drop below the first step exposing the top much like a tidal reef.

So do you mean like a moon cycle? That the water drops automaticly ones a day to a certain lvl?
I am not sure for what this will be good? I guess coral will not like air?

I couldn't find lots of information about this. Do you have an example?

Beckbacca · Sep 20, 2017

following this....

zcedric · Sep 20, 2017

New update for today Reef People!! I try to update every couple days a little bit. You know.. time is rare. haha. I try my best to work on this

I added an overflow right into the Tank. Look at the picture.
- Sizes got not smaller i actually added 5 more inches for the overflow.
- there is an inbuilt skimmer so that my little fishes not get sucked into the drain.
- i also constructed little overlaps for the drop offs, so that the sand will not fall down to the next plateau. ( 1 inch)

What do you think about it?

JoshH · Sep 20, 2017

Exactly, tides follow the moon's movement this pulls water away and exposes the coral to air. Then comes back in later in the day, a very natural phenomenon that happens in lots of places, not sure how you would go about doing it just yet I'd have to give it some thought. would be neat to replicate and would be totally doable in your tank.

zcedric · Sep 20, 2017

JoshH said:
Exactly, tides follow the moon's movement this pulls water away and exposes the coral to air. Then comes back in later in the day, a very natural phenomenon that happens in lots of places, not sure how you would go about doing it just yet I'd have to give it some thought. would be neat to replicate and would be totally doable in your tank.

Let me think on this, i guess that is something nobody every did. It is actually not so hard to make, i guess.
I am an electric technician.. who has a lot to do with plc.. i think of doing a plc controlled reef tank.. as it will be much cheaper for me than buy lots of stand alone systems.

Beckbacca · Sep 21, 2017

JoshH said:
Exactly, tides follow the moon's movement this pulls water away and exposes the coral to air. Then comes back in later in the day, a very natural phenomenon that happens in lots of places, not sure how you would go about doing it just yet I'd have to give it some thought. would be neat to replicate and would be totally doable in your tank.

This is a very cool idea. I think you would have to make sure that you would only have corals in that area that would be found in such areas in the wild. I have always liked these drop down tank styles.

Elder1945 · Sep 21, 2017

The main issues with builds like this is not the tank but the stand.... A double or triple drop off gets a little hairy when it comes to stand construction... This tank should be acrylic not glass btw.

zcedric · Sep 21, 2017

Elder1945 said:
The main issues with builds like this is not the tank but the stand.... A double or triple drop off gets a little hairy when it comes to stand construction... This tank should be acrylic not glass btw.

Hmm. Why should the stand be a little hairy to make? I think that is actually the easier part

What does it make you say that is should be acrylic? I like glass. haha

Pjones · Sep 21, 2017

Why should it be Acrylic as long as the weight is distributed evenly?

Pjones · Sep 21, 2017

Like with any Aquarium project I noticed yours is already growing in size from first drawing to this one LOL

zcedric · Sep 21, 2017

Pjones said:
Like with any Aquarium project I noticed yours is already growing in size from first drawing to this one LOL

haha, the water volume should be the same, but yeah it did grow so that i can implement the overflow. I try not to go much bigger. 120 Gallons is a pretty good size.

I keep you guys posted.

Elder1945 · Sep 21, 2017

The tolerances on a double drop off is a nightmare as everything moves and bends. A single drop off tank can handle this with some foam. This is not the case with a double drop off. You can build this tank from acrylic but would do it out of ridiculously thick stuff. My original plan on my old tank was a double drop off. After looking into it and talking to cyro it was a no go

. The overall idea is cool but the size of this tank makes the build not impossible but a pain.

If it was my tank I would make it out of 1" acrylic...

If you go glass you will need quite a bit more euro bracing on all the bottom edges but even then I would not put this tank in my house.

Just my 2 cents..

Pjones · Sep 21, 2017

just noticed you have conflicting dimensions on the end view width 24 Vs top view width 23 . This looks like a very cool build i don't think i would have thought of the lip to hold the sand or the courage to attempt this. LOL! looked again maybe inside dimension and outside My Bad.

NewSaltWaterGuy · Sep 21, 2017

JoshH said:
Exactly, tides follow the moon's movement this pulls water away and exposes the coral to air. Then comes back in later in the day, a very natural phenomenon that happens in lots of places, not sure how you would go about doing it just yet I'd have to give it some thought. would be neat to replicate and would be totally doable in your tank.

zcedric said:
Let me think on this, i guess that is something nobody every did. It is actually not so hard to make, i guess.
I am an electric technician.. who has a lot to do with plc.. i think of doing a plc controlled reef tank.. as it will be much cheaper for me than buy lots of stand alone systems.