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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Idea for bar/counter top tank


hochunk

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I have an island counter in my kitchen that looks out on my living room, and doesn't really do anything other than collect tchotchkies and junk mail. I think a 72x14x14 or 72x12x12 tank would really look neat there.

I was also thinking a 72x10x16 tall might not be bad. I would have a one foot square sump at the far end where I would place the protein skimmer, pumps for circulation, heater, chemical media, etc.

Or, perhaps a 4x12x12 tall sump at one end and a 6x12x12 tall sump at the other end, and a false wall with a 2 to 3" depth along the back. That would be a very long false wall, though, and would take away from the display area. Not to mention, not sure what I would do with quite that much room. Or, I could just have the false wall along the back and not have the sumps at either end. Might make more sense. If I did a 72x12x12 tall tank, that would keep the size in gallons to about 45 but giving it an extra 2" in height would be about 50 gallons. I like the look of a big tank, but this would be manageable and keep weight down. I might need to add some additional support to the front edge of the island counter, but would prefer to avoid this unless absolutely necessary. The counter is about 18" front to back and sits over a 5" or 6" column that runs the length of the counter. I would prefer not to add the extra support as it would really alter the look of the counter, and while I'm sure I could build something that would work, I'm not sure I could make it look nice. Thoughts?

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Yeah, that's a sharp tank. I guess it doesn't even have to be all that tall, I could make it 72x12x8 tall and still have a good looking tank. Might be hard to find lighting unless I used pendants, though. 72x10x10 would be about the same size, roughly 30 gallons but would give a little more room to work with. Or I could go the other way, 72x8x14 tall and have a narrow and tall tank. My thought process is it is better to spread the weight out as it would put less stress on the counter. Any tank would most likely have to be custom made.

Might be better to go with acrylic to keep it simple to work with.

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Yeah plus aquascaping a narrow tall tank is a nightmare

 

That tank in the picture looks like track lighting with led bulbs i think it looks nice and doesnt stand out from the rest of the house

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A shallower tank would spread out the weight better. 72x14x8 would look better too IMO. You could have several islands that broke the water surface and you'd have more places to put coral.

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get-attachment-1.jpg

Im a big fan of this tank. This is a members tank here the thread is "johnys ada waterfall tank". If u did something with the rock breaking the surface then you could keep a terrestial hermit crab on the exposed island.

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That's nice but I'm not sure its my cup of tea. A wider, low tank is probably best. Would LED tracklights be powerful enough to reach the tank bottom? I figure I would need 4 or 5 for a tank that big, and the lights would probably be a good 4 to 5 feet above the surface of the water. I'm not in a hurry to build this, it is more a thought experiment if I had more money and free time.

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Your optic choice will be the deciding factor for your lights. Being that high will need pretty narrow optics. Beyond that I can't be much help, there's a lot of really smart people in the lighting sub that can help you with the specifics of what you'll need.

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I could probably put them on wires so they would be more like pendants as opposed to using track lighting to bring them to within 18" or 24" of the water surface, that would probably help a lot. As much as I like the idea of a 6' tank, maybe 36"x14"x14" would be more manageable, I could get by with just 3 pendants. Or even 48"x14x14, would give me room for my in-tank sump at the end. Going to be a lot of weight on that counter, though, about 300 or 400 pounds. I would try to situate most of the weight over the column, but am still a bit worried about it.

 

The column is 6", with 2 or 3" of overhang on the sink side of the counter and maybe 4" to 6" overhang on the opposite side.

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Come on nobody thinks thats amazing?

Not with a blue tang :-P

 

 

On topic:

I'd go long and narrow. For lighting, look into Gu10 or aquastyleonline. Just build a long row or two of leds and that'll give you what you need.

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I was thinking, as dramatic as the 6 foot long tank would be, maybe a 30 long would be a better choice. That's about a 3 foot tank I think, and is readily available as a standard tank. Could get it in either glass or acrylic. I would probably still make it a peninsula style tank, but I would be able to get by with just 3 PAR 38 bulbs if I was going to use pendant lighting.

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Get Micro-Reefs to build you a custom extra-long tank. Like 30x10x10 or something. If it's on an island bar, you might want to do an AIO type of thing with the pump/fuge on one side with that part hidden by black paint. One of those Mr. Aqua long tanks would work well for that.

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