Jakes look down cube build
 

Okay so I have seen a few look down tanks and I decided to build my own!
This tank will be dedicated to corals, mostly montipora's, there will be some snails and an urchin, and minimal live rock. There will be a sugar sandbed. Around 1" deep.

So here is what I'll be doing.

The tank itself will be a DIY tank that I will be building over the next few weeks.
The dimensions will be 24" by 24" by 12" deep. The tank will be rimless to gove it a sleek look. It will have a system with 2 drains on either end of the back wall, with a overflow box on each drain. The return will be a single return over the top of the tank.

The sump will be a 10 gallon sump with just macro algea, mangroves and carbon/gfo for filtration. Seeing as this tank is just for corals, I do not see a point in adding a skimmer. However I will leave room to add a tunze nano skimmer if needed.

The stand will be built out of mahogany and jaarah and will have a sliding mechanism to allow for the sump to be pulled out if needed.

Lighting is still undecided. I want to keep the area cool so metal halides are out of the question. But I have considered the following:

Aqua illumination sol
Sunlight supply 4 t5 fixture 24"
Kessil a150w

But possible a DIY LED fixture, I have made several over the past year and they all work great.

I'll post more on this as it progresses!

What kind of monti?

I'm gonna put my rainbow, superman, sunset, Purple confusa, blue polyp cap and a flower petal montipora. At least to start, I'm sure my collection will grow!

I'd probably consider the T5 setup for that...

Any reason why the t5's?

Ya, I think you'll get better color out of the corals, and with a single pendant LED, I think you'll get rippling on the plating pieces. Stop by next time you're around and look at my purple cap under the LED.
And with that range of color, I think the white/blue won't extract all the tones you'll have, whereas the T5 can be tuned better for colors.
It's probable that you can get around that with a DIY unit if you consider those things in your build.

Good point, i do find that my montiporas don't look as good under the LED's as they did under the t5's. Hmm well I like the price of the t5 fixture as well!

why not try diy leds with tight optics, and mount them really high so you can stick your head right overtop of the tank without worry. plus if you go diy you could add any colour you want.

You will need to play with your over the tank return idea. The top of the water surface needs to be as still as possible in a look down tank. Thats why the one I'm putting together has the waterfall and return holes near the bottom of the tank. it wouldn't be hard to make a taller overflow box and use it as a return.
You need to come and look at this one for ideas.
S

Okay so there has been some progress on the tank!

I wasn't expecting to have a tank until august at the earliest, but it looks like I have one now!

I came across a shallow 40 gallon tank that was the exact same width as my current sump. My sump is a shallow seastar tank (26" by 19" by 12" high). It is only a year old and is pretty much the dimensions that I was looking for! SO I popped the baffles out and put them into my new sump.

Old Sump
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5505


New sump
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5506

I siliconed the baffles in with aquarium sealant and am currently waiting for it to dry. I plan on leaving it until Wednesday and then using it. I figure that will be enough time for it to cure, since it says only 24 hours.

Now I am unsure if I will remove the rim on this tank. It is made of 3/8" glass and is pretty new. Anyone have an opinion on this?

Oh and here is the tank almost all cleaned up!
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5509

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5508

I'd remove the trim. Over time it will collect salt and crust, which will detract from the top down design.

I agree, plus it just looks better.

Well I'm convinced! I'll take the trim off tonight!

When taking the trim off be careful in the corners. I've cracked a few tanks tanking it off. Just make sure to loosen it well and take your time.

Ok so time for an update!

I have git a skimmer, a bubble magus qq. I think it will work great for my setup.

I am still searching for a return pump!

Trim is off and tank has been cleaned up!

I am at a delema for how to setup the drain. I think I may do a corner overflow. But I don't really want to put a hole in the bottom of the tank. Prefereably in the back of it. Any suggestions?

Also the return will be over the back of the tank. This is do that I can use this for flow in the system and allow for easy control over direction.

I've got a bubble magus 3.5+ skimmer that i was using on my seahorse biocube. if you wanted something with a little more juice.

Okay So here is a little update.

I made the stand out of eastern maple trimmed with yellow cedar and mahogany.

Here is the frame being made
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5529

Here is the overflow. It is a single standpipe (3/4") which may sound a little small, but I have decided to go for a very small return pump so that it does not make the surface to turbulent. The overflow is made of 1/4" frosted acrylic.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5532

Here is the stand a little closer to completion, with the tank being filled for an overflow test!
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5530

And here is the tank mostly full and starting the cycling process. I have not installed the sump yet because the silicone is still drying. SO for the next couple of days it will be running sump less. I will be running the system with around 40 pounds of live rock, and crushed coral substrate.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5528

It will be a pretty slow next couple of weeks while the tank cycles. The live rock is over 4 years old, so it is good stuff. But I really want to get the system established. I really think it is important to take the time here or you will always have issues!

Oh and for lighting I went for a LED unit out of Hong Kong. Is a very good unit apparently, I know a couple of people that use them for the last year with great results! It runs 6 violets, 6 green, 4 red, 2 ultra violet, 30 royal blue and 24 white LED's. It is CE and CSA approved as well, so that's always a good piece of mind.

Johnny, where did your ponies go???

Update
 

Okay so it has been a bit of a slow time with the tank. But I have managed to get the live rock mostly cycled thanks to water and rock from my display tank.

Here is the tank!

Still working out the wiring and equipment location but its pretty much how it will be for the aquascaping
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5545

Top down view, hard toy see cause of the lighting.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5550

First addition to the tank, a hollywood stunner chalice, and a few mangroves. May be a little early, but all of my parameters are at zero and everything seems stable. And the 2 test snails i threw in there are doing great!
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=5549

B-e-a-utiful Jake lots of swimming room, going Tod any SOS in this tank?

Thank you! I wanted to try and keep it very open with lots of swimming room. It will have a bunch of different montipora's in it and a few choice sps. But the sand bed will be mostly Lps and zoas

I think the LEDs were a good choice, with a T5 fixture your top would be covered. are you able to switch out the lense on the leds, if so you might want to go to a 40 degree lense and then lift the fixture higher. the tighter lense will focus the light and let you get more hight while maintaining par. this will effectivly take the light out of the way for your look down.

Steve

Yeah I saw this fixture and it looked like the right light. I can change the lenses on them, I left it low for now but I am gonna raise it a foot next week so I can see in better. If that doesn't work I'll grab some 40 degree lenses.

Jake, the tank looks great! Your new CM frags would look great in there too!:biggrin:

Thanks! They would look good in here, but they got a good home in the main display!

random LPS tank shots
 

Just took a few shots of the tank, couple of my favourites in the tank. Its been running pretty well considering it has not skimmer or filtration! Just water changes! As You may have guessed ive switched this to a LPS tank for the moment, im gonna grow out the monti's in the other tank and then transfer frags over to this tank.

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5220.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5219.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5217.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5216.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5221.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5222.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5223.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5225.jpg[/IMG]

Just a top down shot, excuse the lights right in the middle of the tank, and the heater!

[IMG]http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF5230.jpg[/IMG]

Nice little box of water you got there! Very colorful :-)

Thanks! It's amazing what Lps does in a dedicated tank. I think the lack of filtration really helps them, they look way better when I don't run the skimmer.

Ya I've noticed that too. Many LPS do well in a dedicated take where they have the opportunity to filter feed out of the water column. In mixed reefs that we tend to try and keep cleaner they struggle a bit more to stay healthy. Anyway, that's been my experience.

I found the exact same thing in my sps tank, they always were kinda shriveled up or just lost color.

I should give you my red plate to grow out, it's not doing well in my tank..

Yeah I can always do that! It's worth a try, it will probably color up nicely.