AquaticEngineer Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have quite a bit of time on my hands for the next few weeks with paternity leave and vacation ( just had son # 2 on the 4th) So I thought while the baby sleeps and the toddler naps I can try and come up with a good final design for my coldwater indoor display tank. The area I have to work with has a footprint of 72"x26", so I would like to do a tank that is 72"L x 24"W. Not sure yet on the height, that is the variable that can change. It will mostly be affected by total price of the front viewing pane. The stand will be built in place and sheet rocked, textured, trimmed, and painted to match the rest of the house to give a built in look. There will be open shelves below that can be removed with glass front doors like a media tower would have and I may end up putting in a tinted glass front refridgerator to house the auto feeder in alot like a built in wine fridge. The shelving will take the place of my current media center and eliminate one piece of furniture from the living room. This way I can use it for my current tank designs but if we ever sell the house this will allow for some of the shelving to be removed and a good sized sump to be added inside and have it set up as a regular saltwater tank. One thing that will help with the overall design is that all the filtration, and chilling will be taken care of by my 2 marineland lobster tanks in the garage. So the only thing that has to be in the house will be the autofeeder minifridge in the stand under the tank. I will have a closed loop running through the bottom of the tank that will provide 90% of the flow and also deliver food from the auto feeder. The tank will be open top and dimly lit from above with spot lights, and a spotlight from the side at a dramatic angle to give more shadows. I want it open top because I love looking down at my animals like in a tide pool. Since I wont have any photosynthetic animals in the tank I can have the lights set quite a ways off the waters surface. One thing I cant decide on is the placement and design of the overflow for the plumbing that will run to and from the tanks in the garage. I want it to be in the least visible spot possible. So I am thinking of having a single corner overflow with the return line running inside the overflow box. This will also create the shortest distance from inside tank, to outside tanks. The one thing I am concerned with will be surface skimming with a single overflow. As it sits right now the size and design of the tank will be fairly straight forward. It will essentially be a eurobraced 125g wide, or 180 wide with a single corner overflow and a closed loop on the bottom of the tank. The one thing thats going to increase the price is that I will need at a minimum, the front viewing panel of the tank done in 3/4 inch or 1 inch acrylic to prevent sweating on the viewing panel. On the sides, back, and bottom I am trying to figure out other ways to insulate the tank well and prevent sweating other than thick acrylic since those sides wont be visible. Any suggestions, ideas, comments, concerns, or bits of wisdom you feel like sharing are more than welcome and appreciated Link to comment
Fish-Filet Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I have quite a bit of time on my hands for the next few weeks with paternity leave and vacation ( just had son # 2 on the 4th) So I thought while the baby sleeps and the toddler naps I can try and come up with a good final design for my coldwater indoor display tank. The area I have to work with has a footprint of 72"x26", so I would like to do a tank that is 72"L x 24"W. Not sure yet on the height, that is the variable that can change. It will mostly be affected by total price of the front viewing pane. The stand will be built in place and sheet rocked, textured, trimmed, and painted to match the rest of the house to give a built in look. There will be open shelves below that can be removed with glass front doors like a media tower would have and I may end up putting in a tinted glass front refridgerator to house the auto feeder in alot like a built in wine fridge. The shelving will take the place of my current media center and eliminate one piece of furniture from the living room. This way I can use it for my current tank designs but if we ever sell the house this will allow for some of the shelving to be removed and a good sized sump to be added inside and have it set up as a regular saltwater tank. Sounds like a cool setup I wish I knew more about keeping coldwater livestock. Goodluck sounds like it's going to be interesting. One thing that will help with the overall design is that all the filtration, and chilling will be taken care of by my 2 marineland lobster tanks in the garage. So the only thing that has to be in the house will be the autofeeder minifridge in the stand under the tank. I will have a closed loop running through the bottom of the tank that will provide 90% of the flow and also deliver food from the auto feeder. The tank will be open top and dimly lit from above with spot lights, and a spotlight from the side at a dramatic angle to give more shadows. I want it open top because I love looking down at my animals like in a tide pool. Since I wont have any photosynthetic animals in the tank I can have the lights set quite a ways off the waters surface. One thing I cant decide on is the placement and design of the overflow for the plumbing that will run to and from the tanks in the garage. I want it to be in the least visible spot possible. So I am thinking of having a single corner overflow with the return line running inside the overflow box. This will also create the shortest distance from inside tank, to outside tanks. The one thing I am concerned with will be surface skimming with a single overflow. As it sits right now the size and design of the tank will be fairly straight forward. It will essentially be a eurobraced 125g wide, or 180 wide with a single corner overflow and a closed loop on the bottom of the tank. The one thing thats going to increase the price is that I will need at a minimum, the front viewing panel of the tank done in 3/4 inch or 1 inch acrylic to prevent sweating on the viewing panel. On the sides, back, and bottom I am trying to figure out other ways to insulate the tank well and prevent sweating other than thick acrylic since those sides wont be visible. Any suggestions, ideas, comments, concerns, or bits of wisdom you feel like sharing are more than welcome and appreciated ****So I think I may have found a product that will allow me to use thinner acrylic like 3/8 on the back sides and bottom of my tank and only use a 3/4 or 1 inch front viewing panel. **** http://tempcoat.com/temp-coat-products/tem...ns/prod_23.html Here's what it says about the product: Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 So I think I may have found my tank for my indoor display!! I'm going to check it out this weekend, it is a 48" x 24" x 48" tank, yeah thats right, 4 ft tall Its made out of 1.25 thick acrylic, and the guy only wants $450 for it. It used to be a room divider tank at a medical facility, I guess it needs some buffing but no biggy. I think the look I want for this tank is that of pylons like you'd find supporting a dock. Since it is so tall I could grow the anemones and such 360 degrees around the pylons. Couple questions for you all, Any suggestions on what to use for dock pylons? Think I could use real wood pylons? Should I make them out of fiberglass? Cast them in ceramic like pottery? Anyone know of a place that sells fake logs? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Sounds like a cool idea. You should do a c2c weir, like in the beananimal thread on RC... That would be pretty unobtrusive, especially in a 4ft tall tank. As for the dock pylons, I wouldn't use real wood. The tannins & such could leach out and affect the water chemistry. I would use an inert material like plastic (you may be able to buy them fake) or something like that. If you're going to make them maybe a large diameter PVC pipe? You could do it like a DIY rock wall, where you use pond foam to create the texture on the PVC (you'd have to seriously rough up the PVC) and then you can attach rock rubble, barnacles, and other things to the outside and then maybe paint it with dark epoxy paint. Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 As for the dock pylons, I wouldn't use real wood. The tannins & such could leach out and affect the water chemistry. I would use an inert material like plastic (you may be able to buy them fake) or something like that. If you're going to make them maybe a large diameter PVC pipe? You could do it like a DIY rock wall, where you use pond foam to create the texture on the PVC (you'd have to seriously rough up the PVC) and then you can attach rock rubble, barnacles, and other things to the outside and then maybe paint it with dark epoxy paint. OMG the large diameter PVC pipe is a genious idea!!!! Light weight, inert material, and I can coat it to look like the real thing. I am sooooooo doing this This will also work out great because I was going to do a closed loop through the bottom of the tank, now I can set one of these PVC pylons on top of the opening and drill exit holes along the pvc so there will be flow coming out and nothing settling on the bottom of the pvc. One of my friends on the Oregon coast told me they are replacing a lot of docks there so I may even be able to get a dock pylon they rip out. I may just try and get all the animals off of it now though and put them onto my home made pvc ones. This will be Awesome!!! Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 This is the look I want to go for!!! Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Woah that looks pretty cool. Talk to jacobnano on here. He has a pretty neat looking coldwater tank. Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Woah that looks pretty cool. Talk to jacobnano on here. He has a pretty neat looking coldwater tank. I have a couple 110 gallon coldwater tanks already, along with a small home made system. This is so that I can have a 200+ gallon tank inside my house connected to my tanks in the garage. Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Thought I would post this up in here in case there was anyone local to me that was interested in doing a coldwater aquarium like me I have a couple of these lobster systems, one is set up and running with my livestock and I'm selling this other one to fund my indoor build. SOLD IT. http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/app/2233041158.html Link to comment
AquaticEngineer Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 Just sold one of my lobster tanks today, so now I have enough money to go buy the used acrylic tank I have been looking at. The tank measures 60"x24"x48" and is made of 1.25" thick acrylic. I hope he still has it for sale. Link to comment
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