Plan to build a shallow reef peninsula

K

Kirino

Member
Looking into having my own tank build and was thinking of something along the lines of 140 cm x 90 cm x 50 cm, which is around 55 inches x 35 inches x 19 inches. The stand would be 60 cm high or 23 inches. That's just a general idea at the moment, based on what I can probably put in my living room without the tank being in the way. It would be in the center of a room, with one side against a wall. Hence the idea for a peninsula. It would be fairly low to the ground. Any equipment will go in the basement. The main purpose will be corals, with some fish but really just a few.

I'm curious about other members experience with such shallow reef tanks and if you would advise any other size. Considering this is a one time investment, I don't want to mess this up.

- Do you think it's ok to have it rimless, or should I have those horizontal reinforcing braces? I've heard if you want to up the flow, it can spill over fairly easy if you don't have something at the top.
- With it being so low, it would probably look nicer without braces, but I should probably consider a jump guard, so maybe I should make the stand higher after all?
- Is the thickness of the glass fine at 1,2 cm (4,7 inches)? Is there any special requirement here for salt aquarium?
- Why are the returns always on the top? Wouldn't it make sense to have the returns on the bottom? Or at least lower below the water line. While the water goes out from the top. I wasn't planning on using sand. I've build my own hybrid, natural pool outside, here I've put the jets about halfway below the waterline, closer to the bottom, pointing downwards. It really helps the flow and get the warm water mixed in better. Probably can't think in that way for a tank though? :D
- Open to other flow ideas, any experience with the drain in the middle of the tank?

If you read through all of this, I'd love your feedback and have my thanks :) I've seen another member's post on the old forum. Maybe I could do something similar.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So I didn’t read that old thread but can offer some insight. The height I don’t think you’d have an issue with. I personally don’t like tanks and love shallower tanks.

I can’t offer too much insight as far as glass thickness or braces but I would reach out to a tank manufacturer like Joe at Glass Cages to get their opinion based on your dimensions. Due to the width, you may want braces to prevent bowing of the glass. Again though, I’m not skilled with this. @pinnatus I believe may be able to offer insight as I think he has built a few tanks in his time.

As for returns, the reason they’re at the top is that’s a siphon issue. You lose power, and the returns will siphon water down to wherever they are at. So if they’re halfway down the tank, your water level will drop to halfway down the tank during a power outage. Now you can do a closed loop for flow but the sump return should be close to the top of the tank.

I hope that made sense
 
Thx :)

What about vavles that prevent backflow? And maybe more important, would there even be any real advantage to place the returns on the bottom?
 
I have never used check valves to prevent back flow but the best thing I can say is in my experience any part will fail when you need it most

Another part as well for high mounted returns is to promote gas exchange at the surface.

As for having them at the bottom, the only “advantage” I can think of is maybe able to hide them with rocks in front of them. A disadvantage is you need to think about your final aquascape to include coral growth. Misplacing the returns could result in their flow being ineffective or blocked by aquascape or coral growth.

However, one thing you can possibly do, it doesn’t solve the high returns, but could look at doing a center overflow and have the return coming out the same to be more “hidden”
 
Thx for the replies, it's nice to bounce of ideas with other people. I reckon it's best to stick to the high mounted returns from your input.
 
Welcome to Reef Central @Kirino I edited the url in your post to reference the same thread in the current software.
 
Was looking at some factory build tanks as well, but why do all the see through/peninsula tanks have a width of only 65 cm (25.6″). Anyone know of a tank that goes past that? Haven't been able to find anything in the range I'm looking for. Which is closer to 90 cm (35'').
 
There’s also the Red Sea peninsulas
g1.redseafish.com

Red Sea’s spectacular Peninsula style

Red Sea’s spectacular Peninsula style and super-sized REEFERS are coming your way this spring! The exciting REEFER™ Peninsula and XXL systems bring reef keeping to a new level with new possibilities.
g1.redseafish.com g1.redseafish.com

I guess if your talking total length left to right of the peninsula or width front to back. Not many seem that wide. I think anything much wider is custom order
 
Yea I guess I'll have to go custom.
- Been keeping an eye out for second hand tanks, but most of them are like very long, but never very wide.
- Also found 3 good tank builders that own a store, 2 of them are about the same price: around 1100 euro (about 1170 dollar) for just the tank, including drilled holes and overflow box. The other is twice as expensive, his website is super fancy, so I guess one would be paying more for his fancy site/store. Now I just have to find a good stand builder around here.

- Talked to an electrician to add power to the basement, just have one light in there at the moment. He can add 8 power sockets so that's nice. Considering some sort of sliding rail system on the ceiling. After that my current fuse box is maxed out.
- Consider if I should further isolate the basement walls, on the other hand, maybe I want some of the heat to dissipate for in summer? If all the equipment is down there, it might turn into a tropical jungle :')
- Next I have to carefully consider where to drill holes through my floor. Two returns and 3 drains is ideal, but that's a lot of holes.
- Also still debating whether to put in a closed loop or not. I mean, the tank isn't THAT big, maybe a closed loop is overkill.
 
You could definitely consider a closed loop. If you do that, you may want to get holes pre drilled if you do a custom tank.

As for a stand, you could look into a t-slot aluminum stand (I’m not sure about European suppliers) but many tank builders here in the US also have the option of adding a stand/canopy
 
Being overseas I don't know if these are used but, a hole for this style will do better than 3-4 holes separately.
& can be covered in the event of a sale. Floor Register for hot air heating.
 
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