My 300 gallon Drop Off Reef Tank Build
 

Aka Swimming pool/jacuzzi in the living room.

Reinforced the floors with 4 steel teleposts and boxed in the I-beams with 3/4" plywood as people had recommended. 2" plywood on top of the I-beams, concrete aka thinset, 6 foot steel mesh, more concrete, then marble/porcelain tiles.

Steel frame built out of 1 1/2" steel tubing. I think it's 3/8" wall thickness.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/093fe959.jpg

7 ft x 3 ft pieces of glass. 5/8" thickness. Beveled edges.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/57fa4dda.jpg

Stand is powder coated.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/ec622ac1.jpg

7'x3'x2'. Bottom piece is 3/4" thick.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/84e123bf.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/e69dd56f.jpg

Bracing for the drop off shelf put in.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/e5fe21f3.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/d1591fec.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/22f29adb.jpg

Is it a sump or a tank? :p

Tank should be done by the weekend. Then the plumbing fun begins.

wow, this will be fun to follow!

Is it a sump or a tank?


Tank! the title gives it away

crazy so looks like you're making the compartment open to the rest of the tank? what's the plan there?

Sweeeeet Looks like a very cool project indeed :)

Basically building this:

http://glassbox-design.com/wp-conten...f-lps-reef.jpg

But instead of using an L shaped tank and having a huge stress point on the inner corner I'm doing it out of a rectangular tank and leaving the hidden area accessible to small fish, snails, crabs, and shrimp. Sides will still be hidden and covered by live rock just like the above pic.

nice I've seen these on youtube, very cool tanks

looks awesome.

how are you going to incorporate flow into the braced section?

what if detritus and stuff gets stuck in the corners there?

maybe you should do the bracing length wise and then have a closed loop intake at the end and have water constantly passing through

Neat, should be really interesting to see how this works out!

I agree. I'm not sure your design for the accessible areas is going to work out that well. I do love the drop off idea though! Since I learned of this style I am reconsidering the brand new tank I have sitting in the garage! ACK!

this was my mini design of a drop off.

worked great for a the month i had it set up. might try this in a 70 gallon when i have some time

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...9at80229PM.png

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...9at80223PM.png

water flowed into main area, down through the rock wall, and rose up into the pipe and into the sump... basically the opposite of an overflow

Crabs and shrimp can always find detrius.

There will be a circulation pump on the back end to pull water through the area.

That's not going to work in the long run. It'll build up in the corners for sure.

Also, once you start filling it up, how are you gonna get rid of the air that's gonna get trapped at the top of the chambers?

The top piece will not be siliconed in. It will be sitting on top with a hole in the middle. Air won't be trapped. Two glass pieces make up the top of the shelf and are removable in case I ever need to get in there.

Also the braces are sitting on top of those two side pieces on the bottom so there is about 3/8" clearance for sand and water to flow through under the bottom. Same goes for the top piece. There will be a slight gap. I have lots of tiny snails that bury themselves in the sand so they will help keep things clean as well.

Hope it works out for you

I hope so too. You guys can learn from my mistakes. :p

You could try to prevent them. :lol: Where did you get this design concept from? The inaccessible areas I mean. Have you been looking at the designs people have been using for this type of tank? This is a pretty big project and I hope it works for you too, but I think you are looking at a nitrate factory with your current design.

Only issues I see with leaving that space accessible is it resembles a invert trap, craps, snails and shrimp may not find their way out after getting in. It also maybe a dead spot for flow and lacks proper access for cleaning which could become a source for issues down the road, ie livestock could die in there or nuisance algae could bloom from there.

Love the idea though, but personally also think your stand it too high for this style of tank.

The top lid is removable. Not siliconed in so I can clean it if I have to.

350 gallon per hour pump on one side to keep water flowing through there.

Crabs will live in it. Not concerned with algae growing in there.

Been researching it for months.

No one else has tried this like this.

If it doesn't work out I can cut the baffles out and remove the shelf if I have to. Been talking to lots of tank builders who say the key to it's success is flow and a large clean up crew.

Holes are only big enough for chromis, damsels, crabs, and shrimp. None of my tangs will get through the hole once the O-ring is in place.

350 gallon per hour pump is nothing. To have enough water movement in there you'll need like 750 gallons per hour in each of those chambers

I don't want it to be too powerful to keep crabs and fish from entering it.

The enclosed area is 3.5' long x 2' wide by 15" high.

It would suck to see you do all this work and have to take it apart in a month or 2

You should set up a closed loop in the baffles. Draw water from the first section and have it come out in the last section

Yes it would lol.

But there are a lot of people who have worse flowing sumps than this design.

You never know till you try. It's going to be a work in progress. Lots of tweaking along the way.

You could always try to make some sort of crab ladders (egg crate?) so stuff can climb up and out if needed.

Good idea. I'll do that.

Ladder? Pffff just make escalators

Escalators are so 5 mins ago.

Elevator and submarine dude.

Btw, going with a Bean Animal overflow if anyone has any pointers in that regard.

Only took 7 guys to lift it.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...ngh/139106.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/f3c332c8.jpg

Now the plumbing starts.

Wow that thing's tall (and braced like fort knox!).

Scaping is going to be a real adventure looking forward to seeing that update. Do yourself a favour and buy the 500 pack of zip-ties =) I'd silicone a series of anchors to the cliff face so you can tie to it...

Good idea!

that is soo kool i cant wait to see more progress and the final results of this build. as for lighting are you going to need more powerfull lighting for the drop off part and less intense lighting at the top or are you going to go with the same lighting and have corals who need more intense lighting at the top and corals who dont need such intense lighting of in the drop offif your going to do corals at all that is.

:pop2:

Eshine's CREE 3 watt LEDs. On my 24" deep tank I have them at 60% power. So for the 36" deep portion I'm thinking 100% will be fine. If they aren't strong enough I can always source some 5 watt LEDs.

Most of the SPS and light demanding coral will be on the shelf (18" deep) and stuff like mushrooms and leathers will be on the bottom.

Everything else somewhere in between.

I can't wait to see the rock in there. :D

This is amazing