New Tank Design

[Wildman]

The design phase of my new setup is almost complete. I would like to get everyone's opinion before I start building to make sure I didn't miss anything. The main display will be a bare bottom and covered back wall with some corner towers made out of fired clay. I will then build in my live rock. The sump display will have a sand bottom with a fake back wall (same as above) and live rock. This is going to be a dense mixed reef with a heavy bio load. This is why I have incorporated the skimmer and algae scrubber. I would like to only run the skimmer every other day or so, but feed daily. Both the display and sump will be lit with LEDs. You can see the two bio filtration areas on either side of the sump. The cryptic area (might also be called benthic or something like that) is for filter feeders like tube worms and sponges. The goal is to get as close to natural as possible and still be able to house a heavy mix of fish and coral. The upper cabinet will have shelves on either side of the display. The lower cabinet will be completely close except for the very center section for the sump display. You can also see in the lower left corner the air vent. The cabinet will cover one of my air conditioning vents. I will vent it out the side in the winter, but use the cool air in summer to cool the setup. With LEDs I believe the temp will stay pretty cool, but this will be a little extra help.

Sorry for the sad drawing.
Please let me know what you think.

Travis

 

[Runner]

I really like the stand design. A good tank looks even better when a lot of effort is put into making the stand look good, too. Can't really speak to the rest, but LED is the way to go for a totally enclosed design like that. I had nothing but heat problems with my old 75G with MH lights and enclosed stand/hood with rear mechanical chase.

 

[Wildman]

I've been looking for more ideas on how to snake all the wiring, hardware, and plumbing. Do you have any sketches or pictures?

 

[Engloid]

Be sure you leave room for hoses and wires.

I wouldn't run the skimmer every other day. If you don't want to run it fulltime, just put it on a timer so you can run it a few hours a day or something...and then you don't have to remember to turn it off and on every other day. Also, do you have any sort of mechanical filtration? Sock filter or anything? If so, you need to think about how often you will have to change it, and how easy it is to get to it. That's part of why I wanted to plumb my setup down into the basement. It keeps a lot of the noise, and all the mess, out of the way.

 

[Runner]

I have my build and plans posted in a couple locations - one is in the RC archives. I'll look it up for you today.

 

[Wildman]

Would love to have a basement or additional room. Will have to make do without. I have a controller that will time the skimmer schedule. There will be some course filter material under the algae scrubber to catch any algae that might break off. I should be able to pull both at the same time for cleaning I plan on making all three sides of the stand access panels. Thanks for the input.

Scott, that would be excellent if you find them.