Scandinavian / Japanese Style Reef Tank

[cbitsiaras]

Hello everyone...:wavehand:

Why am I starting this thread?.. Every parent is proud of his/her children and hopes that others are taking equal interest in them as they do. Unfortunately I don't have any physical kids, but I feel like a parent to all my corals and fishes.

So, it was more than a year ago when I was introduced to this amazing hobby. My partner already had 3 reef tanks before we met but when we moved in together the priorities changed and the hobby was put on hold for a while. After some budgeting we decided to go ahead with a 250l (66gallons) RED SEA MAX, a compact solution that would require the minimum space in our small apartment and a good introduction for me to the mesmerizing world of the salt water tanks.

I am very proud with both the knowledge acquired during this past year but also with how the fish-tank looks. - don't we all love the expression on our visitors faces when they look at our tanks?

Here are two links of how the fish-tank developed

http://vimeo.com/33990139#at=0

http://vimeo.com/37401152#

Seeing how dedicated and passionated I become about the hobby we decided a month ago to upgrade to a new 757l (200gallons) (600l display tank plus 157l sump). This is a huge financial step in an expensive country like Denmark and have put a lot of research in identifying our requirements which I can tell you was not an easy thing when both me and my partner have a tendency of adopting strong feelings about everything. :debi:


We live in a small 70sq.m (754sq.ft.) apartment and we would like the new fish-tank to be both dominating but also fully harmonized with the current setup, decoration and colours. The style of the apartment is a fusion of Scandinavian and Japanese interior with white being the only color of the walls and the epoxy floors. Furnitures are following simple, clean lines where white is once again the main color. Feng Shui is for some a fascinating field, for us way of living. The new fish-tank has to blend totally into the current setup and promote the harmony even further. With all these in mind we set below requirements:


AQUARIUM

• Size (Length x Depth x Height) : 200cm x 60cm x 50cm (approximately 79in x 24in x 20in)
• Tank must be visible from 3 sides with the 4th being made by black glass (back wall)
• Overflow box shall not be attached to any of the walls but placed in the middle of the tank and totally covered with reef ceramic.
• No pump shall be visible from any angle
• Circulation pumps shall be working randomly creating a good flow
• No wiring shall be visible
• The tank shall be glued with black silicone and all corners covered with brushed steel edges
• Optical white glass

FURNITURE

• The cabinet below the tank must be 80cm (approximately 31in)
• The cabinet above the tank must be 80cm (approximately 31in) (We want to create the feeling that the tank is floating between equally sized cabinets)
• Both cabinets shall be painted and refined in white glossy color like our epoxy floors
• Both cabinets shall be completely boxed to prevent any light reflections on the wall apart from the ones from the display tank
• The cabinet shall be with no visible joints nor partitions, should look and feel like it was cut from one piece of wood.
• LED stripes shall be installed behind the cabinet and between the cabinet and the floor. The light on the LED must be controlled . This way we will create a "œlight" feeling of the fish-tank within the room.

OTHER FEATURES

• LED RADION lights inside the top cabinet mounted
• Fresh water tank plus automatic refilling
• Dosing pump space for KH, CA and Mg
• Semi-automated system for water exchange
• Filter socks
• Automatic feeder

AQUASCAPING
Minimalistic - Zen Garden - Bonsai philosophy - Dragon shape and dominance, with a touch of an inspiration by ChingChai.

EQUIPMENT LIST
I will be updating the page as soon as I will be receiving the new items

INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOS
Since my partner works as a creative consultant, it was natural for him to gather a lot of inspirational images together with ideas, designs and our vision of a moodboard. We have surfed the net and found interesting pictures, below you can find a representative sum of them. This way we could give ourselves (and you) a better understanding of what we really want the end result to look like. We would like to apologise concerning the copyrights of the pictures which belong solely to the owners of the tanks and not us :thumbsup:


As you can notice, we are focusing mainly on the aesthetic aspect, rather than creating a natural looking reef tank.

You are the experts in this amazing forum and both my partner and I rely greatly on your good advice, warnings, tips and suggestions and we hope to be able to offer the same back in return.

Looking forward receiving your comments.

:fish1:

Best regards from Copenhagen,
Dino :wave:

 

[cbitsiaras]

More inspirational pictures

 

[reefwars]

my bonsai tank

 

[cbitsiaras]

my bonsai tank

That looks cool!

 

[reefwars]

That looks cool!

thanks there are over 123 high end frags glued to about 10-15lbs of rock. mostly collector zoos but also some nps corals and some chalices and favias

i snip as needed , i also used tempered glass for the sandbed, to give it a modern feel

cheers

 

[gb530]

Sounds like a fun build!

Do you have an expected date to have the tank up and running?

 

[cbitsiaras]

Sounds like a fun build!

Do you have an expected date to have the tank up and running?

The display tank will be delivered to Denmark on 21st of September. After that we will work with the aquascaping, the sump and cabinets. We hope that early October will be in our apartment. Tomorrow I am going to pick up the Radion lamps and get to know them and program them (3 units).

I will be posting updates along the way as I am welcoming comments (positive and constructive). The first update I reckon it being tomorrow after I come back from the Radion supplier.

Can hardly wait any longer!! :bounce1:

 

[Rapide]

Friends of mine have a 1800l tank that is quite scandinavian style.
I tried that same direction, but it's not that easy when there are so many corals that I MUST have. It's a full blown reef now... My fyr is going nuts

I actually used that same picture with the white tank as my inspiration tank. Mine is still a little under construction, but that's basically how it's going to look like.
I mean that 4th tank in your first post...

 

[x3thelast]

rehype's tank is by far my favorite/inspiration tank.

hard to belive its only 22 gallons

 

[adddo]

Hello fellow Scandinavians and welcome to RC. Looking forward to seeing your build progress.

 

[bebereef]

rehype's tank is by far my favorite/inspiration tank.

hard to belive its only 22 gallons

Same for me, i'm starting a brand new tank next week and rehype's tank is what i want to reproduce...:beer:

 

[Rapide]

Oh my... Is that a pony I spy with my little eyes??

 

[cbitsiaras]

Friends of mine have a 1800l tank that is quite scandinavian style.
I tried that same direction, but it's not that easy when there are so many corals that I MUST have. It's a full blown reef now... My fyr is going nuts

I actually used that same picture with the white tank as my inspiration tank. Mine is still a little under construction, but that's basically how it's going to look like.
I mean that 4th tank in your first post...

Terve Rapide!

This is a very good point - We also want to keep a minimalistic look but there is little we can do with the coral growth - We know that some of the corals we want to have will soon look like Diana Ross. A way we started planning this is by using photoshop and designing the aquascaping. Once we are done with it we will add full blown corals on it and is a rough estimate of how it will potentially look. Depending on the result we will reduce on the rock volume from the beginning knowing that at the initial part it will look empty.

If you have a thread on your fishtank give me the link so i will subscribe and get ideas :beer:

 

[cbitsiaras]

rehype's tank is by far my favorite/inspiration tank.

hard to belive its only 22 gallons

WOW - This is the first time I see rehype's tank and it looks amazing and so close to how we would like to have our own look. It is unbelievable how well balanced the tank is compared to its size. Totally the way we wish our tank to look like. Do you have any pictures from other tanks similar to these? We are in the aquascaping phase of planning and just today we spent 4 hours in front of Photoshop playing around with designs.

 

[cbitsiaras]

Same for me, i'm starting a brand new tank next week and rehype's tank is what i want to reproduce...:beer:

Please give me a link to your thread if you will create one on your new project. Would be interesting to see which approach you will take.

:hmm5:

 

[cbitsiaras]

Hello fellow Scandinavians and welcome to RC. Looking forward to seeing your build progress.

Its a great place here full of interesting people. Will be keeping you posted.
:artist:

 

[cbitsiaras]

Graphical Illustration of our new Fish Tank

Graphical Illustration of our new Fish Tank

Hello everyone from rainy Copenhagen :beachbum:

As promised, here is an update on our new project.

Below you can find 3 different illustration of the new fish tank.

The aquascaping is just an example and will be replaced as soon as we will finalize the look that we wish to go for and which we are currently working on.

We tried to also illustrate the LED mood light which will be installed behind and below the fish tank. The objective with these LED mood lights in combination with the white glossy finishing of the cabinet is to get a "light" feeling and that the tank is floating with no physical contact to either the wall nor the floor. These LED mood lights can be regulated in both colour spectrum and density.


Best regards from Dino:wavehand:

 

[cbitsiaras]

First item - arrived !! )))

First item - arrived !! )))

And yes, the first piece of equipment arrived and went directly to pick it up.
3 x Radion XR30w Ecotech are sitting on the presidential sit on my couch and we haven´t stopped playing with them ever since they got in the apartment.

So far we are very impressed by the manufacturing quality of the product. One could describe it as the "iPhone 5 of the LED lights". It comes in a smart white case and once you open it you see the case divided in two parts, the lower has the source (2 LED clusters) and the upper has the power supply. Both are very light compared to similar products. Along with it there are 4 mounting eyelet, a 14 pages quick guide and a USB Cable.

Although the quick guide is sufficient for the basic and demo function of the unit, you need a good study of the full manual which you download from Ecotech´s website.

For us, the main functions which we are planning to make use of is preset change weather conditions as well as sun rise and dawn from east to west to create a smooth full spectrum transition throughout the day.

There is also a Thunderstorm mode. This will dim the lights to simulate cloud cover as well as flash the light randomly to simulate lightning. This looks cools but not yet convinced if we will make a use of it because we are afraid that it will scare the living light out of the poor fishes :spin2:

We tried to put one set of Radion on top of the existing fishtank which is equipped with T5 tubes and there is nothing to compare - they are two complete different solutions. With Radion you get more sharp vivid colour. We were amazed to see the colour of some of our existing anemones and corals. Impressive. We had to make our test short though because we were afraid that the corals would be affected from the sudden change in the lighting conditions and density. A friend had a couple of SPS corals bleaching overnight when he introduced the Radion on his existing tank.

So thats all from freezing cold Copenhagen. Wishing you a wonderful day or night wherever you are around the world.

Vi ses! (See you in Danish) :wavehand:
Dino

 

[cbitsiaras]

soo nice!

Thank you Pacey - we hope the best, is yet to come :thumbsup:

 

[cbitsiaras]

Aquascaping - First draft

Aquascaping - First draft

And here I am again. We finished the first draft of the Aquascaping but knowing us well then probably we will change it several times before we settle on how we would like to have it.

First Illustration - The column which protrudes slightly out of the aquarium is the concealed overflow box.

Second Illustration - A quick "bird eye view" of the location of the stones (they dots behind the overflow box belong to the circulation system)

Third Illustration - This is to show where the inspiration comes from. And yes, it is ok to think that we have a loose screw :wildone: We truly believe that having a story behind a decision makes the decision special - but again we might be wrong:artist:

Fourth Illustration - An attempt to add some corals to the stones and get a feeling of how it will look.

Looking forward hearing your views and suggestions.

Best regards,

Dino