myindoorocean
Well-known member
I had a 100 gallon acrylic reef tank 15+ years ago, but a growing family and the costs associated with that (along with the difficulty of keeping stock alive back then) caused me to abandon the hobby. Now, the kids are growing up and there's a little more money, so I started investigating getting started again. I went to a few shops in the Spokane area and one of them turned me on to this forum. I started snooping around and asked a few questions about finding a 100 gallon rimless in this area, when Mike (mojoreef) contacted me about their new venture, and the fact that they could make me anything I wanted.
Well, I decided to put all my eggs in that basket, and yesterday gave Oceans By Design a down payment on my custom built tank, stand, sump, and lighting fixture. Mike has spent many hours on the phone with me, explaining how things have changed and giving me ideas on how to proceed. I'm pretty excited to start this adventure with this awesome new store!
Anyway, here's a rough idea of what my system's going to look like:
100 gallon rimless tank - 48 x 24 x 20 high. Starphire glass on 3 sides. Coast to coast overflow, draining into a corner vertical black acrylic overflow. It's all going to be in the tank because I don't want any pipes on the outside because it's going to be in my living room. I want the whole system to be as clean as possible.
Tank will be drilled with 3 holes in the bottom to incorporate a closed loop system with 2 output pipes split into 4 outputs each, hidden in 2 piles of rocks. So, there will be 8 outlets total. Inlet pipe will be hidden in the back of one of the piles. I'm not going to have any internal pumps. I may eventually incorporate an Oceans Motions device to alternate the flow, but not right away, and possibly never. I don't want to see any wires or pumps.
Stand will also be purchased through OBD, built by a local craftsman in a mission furniture style, matching the other furniture in my house.
Sump will be the OBD standard setup, as seen on their pages on this forum. There is a big empty section, not sure what I'll do with it if anything. I may use it as an area to grow frags. I originally wanted to have a display refugium, but have decided against this, at least for now.
Lights. I will have 2 of their 6 cluster helios fixtures, built into a custom, slim, acrylic enclosure, approximately 36 x 18. I will be supported 9 inches above the water by 2 L-shaped tubular steel bars that are attached to the back of the stand. There will be hinges incorporated into the support system so the lights can be tipped up and out of the way for maintenance. Incorporated into the fixture will be their typhoon controller for automatic day and night control. I want this to be clean looking too, with as little wire showing as possible.
I plan on having approximately 2 or 3 inches of sand bed, with probably half the rock being dry live rock, and half being live rock. I like the idea of an ecosystem, and enjoy the critters that live in the sand.
Well, that's my plan! Hopefully I'll be getting the system in about a month, after it's built. In the meantime, Mojo has promised to send me pictures of how the progress is coming along so I can share them on this thread.
Any thoughts or questions? If I can't answer them, maybe the OBD guys will join in the conversation! I'll post some pics of the plans as I get them, and the real deal when they send them to me.
I'm so excited!!!
Well, I decided to put all my eggs in that basket, and yesterday gave Oceans By Design a down payment on my custom built tank, stand, sump, and lighting fixture. Mike has spent many hours on the phone with me, explaining how things have changed and giving me ideas on how to proceed. I'm pretty excited to start this adventure with this awesome new store!
Anyway, here's a rough idea of what my system's going to look like:
100 gallon rimless tank - 48 x 24 x 20 high. Starphire glass on 3 sides. Coast to coast overflow, draining into a corner vertical black acrylic overflow. It's all going to be in the tank because I don't want any pipes on the outside because it's going to be in my living room. I want the whole system to be as clean as possible.
Tank will be drilled with 3 holes in the bottom to incorporate a closed loop system with 2 output pipes split into 4 outputs each, hidden in 2 piles of rocks. So, there will be 8 outlets total. Inlet pipe will be hidden in the back of one of the piles. I'm not going to have any internal pumps. I may eventually incorporate an Oceans Motions device to alternate the flow, but not right away, and possibly never. I don't want to see any wires or pumps.
Stand will also be purchased through OBD, built by a local craftsman in a mission furniture style, matching the other furniture in my house.
Sump will be the OBD standard setup, as seen on their pages on this forum. There is a big empty section, not sure what I'll do with it if anything. I may use it as an area to grow frags. I originally wanted to have a display refugium, but have decided against this, at least for now.
Lights. I will have 2 of their 6 cluster helios fixtures, built into a custom, slim, acrylic enclosure, approximately 36 x 18. I will be supported 9 inches above the water by 2 L-shaped tubular steel bars that are attached to the back of the stand. There will be hinges incorporated into the support system so the lights can be tipped up and out of the way for maintenance. Incorporated into the fixture will be their typhoon controller for automatic day and night control. I want this to be clean looking too, with as little wire showing as possible.
I plan on having approximately 2 or 3 inches of sand bed, with probably half the rock being dry live rock, and half being live rock. I like the idea of an ecosystem, and enjoy the critters that live in the sand.
Well, that's my plan! Hopefully I'll be getting the system in about a month, after it's built. In the meantime, Mojo has promised to send me pictures of how the progress is coming along so I can share them on this thread.
Any thoughts or questions? If I can't answer them, maybe the OBD guys will join in the conversation! I'll post some pics of the plans as I get them, and the real deal when they send them to me.
I'm so excited!!!
