Pondering New tank

[DonW]

Ive been thinking about a new tank for awhile now. I dont want just a regular reef. Ive pondered alot of differnt ideas and none seem to be kicking me in the rear enough to get going on a project. While messing around the web I came across a picture of a ship in a bottle.

Well that got me to thinking. No not a ship in a bottle but a clam in a sealed tank. Why? Because I can and if it works it would make for perfect viewing. Im thinking large breed clams not little croceas. Now I'm throwing the project out to Reef Frontiers to see if we cant put our heads together and make this work.

Here are the guide lines I'd like to stay within:

Free standing 15 x 15 x 15
Glass
Use a single electrical outlet (two plug)
Nothing sitting outside the stand
Metal halide light
1 or 2 fish nothing bigger than a clown
no skimmer

If we can come up with enough ideas I will give it a shot. There is no real budget I see no sense in trying this on the dirt cheap but keep it realistic.

Don

 

[ac7av]

Hey Don, that sounds like a interesting project. When you say sealed, what do you mean about that? Completely sealed like the orbs with the shrimp and algae in it or something else?

It sounds like you want to have this thing very clean and no visible wires or pumps.

 

[DonW]

Hey Don, that sounds like a interesting project. When you say sealed, what do you mean about that? Completely sealed like the orbs with the shrimp and algae in it or something else?

It sounds like you want to have this thing very clean and no visible wires or pumps.

No power heads completely sealed water filled no air in tank what so ever. No visable point of entry. Its starting to look like acrylic may be best but thats open for discussion. No wires above the stand except the light of course.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

So far, from your description, some things that come to mind:

Closed loop, with all equipment in stand.

Tank drilled, possibly through bottom of tank, with enough loop outputs to do away with the need for power heads.

If completely sealed, from the top, you'll need access through sump/refugium for water changes.

You'll need a way to feed the couple fish you have. May need to build some type of "intake" to introduce fish food, since the top will be sealed.

Also, if completely sealed, including a complete top, you'll probably want to fill tank, completely, all the way to that top, to avoid an "air pocket" which would allow for salt creep and inhibit top viewing.

For proper clam viewing, you'll want to line live rock, along 2 or 3 of the glass walls, and keep the center area of the tank free of live rock. Any rock that's in this viewing area would be solely for clam display, as well as lots of sand viewing area, for sand dwelling clams. Of course, this will depend on species and number of clams you decide to house.

DJ Powerstrip, built into the stand, to allow all equipment to plug into strip and only require one cord coming out of stand, the cord for the DJ Powerstrip.

MH Pendant, hung from ceiling, with all wiring routed through wire moulding, to conceal wiring. You'll want a tight pendant, so as to be able to hang the pendant, while still only lighting a 15"X15" area.

Is there a specific reason you haven't considered LED lighting? If anyone can make a quality LED system, it's you!

 

[returnofsid]

Since this tank will be completely sealed, with only water/oxygen exchange taking place in a sump/fuge, and with no skimmer, you'll need to consider how to oxygenate the water and keep your pH stable.

 

[Scooterman]

Sealed as in closed top?
Instead of rectangular in shape, why not make the tank itself appealing, such an a horizontal ellipse? A smooth rounded tank, flat bottom?
Why not make it a challenge I think if anyone can make an acrylic ellipse tank, you could. :shock:

 

[ac7av]

I wonder of anyone makes low voltage lighting that would give you the MH intensity and look. I was thinking you could use the wires as the support for the light fixture like the bare stainless wire used on the low voltage halogen lighting fixtures. It seems like LED lighting would be better for something like this but I have no knowledge of how a clam would respond to that sort of lighting.

My thoughts on the MH lighting over something like that is the heat. You will have minimal cooling and no evaporation to help. The glass tank would probably give you better heat exchange then the acrylic for even using air circulations around the tank for cooling.

If you say no power heads are you counting on the clam for the water movement in the tank or just no visible power heads? If you have fish in it how are you going to feed something like clown if there is no openings? Are you going to have any access to the water? Small feeding tube or something to just equalize the pressure in the tank with temperature changes. I don’t know if that would be a problem at all but it’s a thought.

 

[returnofsid]

That tank wouldn't be "atmospherically sealed," I don't think. It'd still need to have a sump/fuge that could be accessed, for water changes and such. Feeding the fish could be accomplished via the sump/fuge return pump.

 

[DonW]

Sealed as in closed top?
Instead of rectangular in shape, why not make the tank itself appealing, such an a horizontal ellipse? A smooth rounded tank, flat bottom?
Why not make it a challenge I think if anyone can make an acrylic ellipse tank, you could. :shock:

Your pushing it there scooty.:lol:

 

[Krish]

Sounds interesting Don...I know you don't like to do simple things!

 

[DonW]

I guess the first thing needs to be material for the tank. My thoughts are that glass is more scratch resistant. Acrylic is easier to work with leaving more options for drilling and machining.

The light is going to have to pretty strong. 15" of water with no ripple. Does the ripple affect light on a regular tank? Normally we could just use a 70MH and be good if this was a open top cube. Is doubling it to a 150MH and raising it up 12 or so inches going to be enough light while not melting acrylic? Is the water touching the top going to cool it enough to prevent warping and melting?

I think if we can agree on a meterial and light this project could easily move forward.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

I think I'd go with glass. Glass won't inhibit the light, as much as acrylic would. Even if the water, touching the top, would cool, prevent warping and melting, I don't think it would prevent the top from "clouding," if it were acrylic. Also, I think I'd go with a minimum of 150W MH, if clams will be on the bottom of a 15" deep tank.

I had a 150W MH fixture, over an 18" deep tank, with SPS on frag racks, about mid tank. IMO, it wasn't enough light. After switching to a 6 bulb Tek5 fixture, those SPS, in the same position, really improved color and growth.

I still think you should consider an LED DIY system!

 

[ac7av]

Regular glass may reduce some of the light intensity into the tank but from what I hear the star fire glass is clearer and might work better at least for the top. That could help with any light heat issues.

 

[DonW]

Glass is definately harder to work with but doable, sand hides alot. It would be very easy to use clear acrylic as a stand pipe and have the water level above the top.

Simple as drilling a 2" hole and stick on a glass circle over the 2" hole. 3/8" glass would make for plenty of space. A gate valve would let it act as a herbie and maintain the tank at proper level. May not even need a gate valve if you go on the theory that it wont drain if there is no air.

Lighting, im not conviced isnt going to be an issue. But I guess if we go glass we know for sure we can expeimet with MH and led both if need be.

Don

 

[jrgilles]

so maybe I'm missing something, but how do you plan on cleaning the algae off the glass?

Guess you could leave a mag float in, but I've had bad experiences scratching the glass with those..

 

[Scooterman]

Your pushing it there scooty.:lol:

Hey I know, have you tried the art of glass blowing? You could make a huge vase

 

[NaTe R]

as said by jrgilles if you had a mag flaot in there with sand and acrylic you would get a piece of sand stuck between the magnets and then what?

 

[hank187]

You could try just making the top water tight, then you can get in and out for cleaning. then you cand use a valve and some king of pump like a aqua lifter to take the air out and you can take the hose off for viewing. I can draft your final ideas so you can look it over it see if it will work.

 

[Inconservatory]

The Point Defiance zoo and aquarium in Tacoma has a really interesting horseshoe crab tank. It's about 12"-15" deep at most, but the top panel of glass is slanted by about 20-30 degrees. This makes for excellent top-down viewing (something you'd want for a clam tank). Their tank fits inside the wall, so who knows what their plumbing looks like.

With a tank like that, you could probably have the back end rise up so you could drain it into a sump, or just leave it open for enough gas exchange and ease of access.

It would basically look like this from a side view (forgive my ascii):
__
| |_
| - _
|_______|


*Edit: Well, the ascii didn't turn out so well, but you get the idea?

 

[DonW]

After spending some time explaining this to my better half, she had a pretty good idea. Our house was robbed a week ago and they broke our living room floor lamp. Well why not make it a free standing floor lamp.
This would mean downsizing it to a 10 x 10 cube. Put it on a tall (3 1/2 or 4 ft) dark stained red oak pedestool. Add a bent iron rod up the back and suspend a halide inside a glass tiffany lamp shade.

Don