shallow tanks

[johnanddawn]

anyone out there running a shallow water tank - the reason i ask is i'm building a 24x30 inch tank that will only be 12" tall and would like input by anyone operating one already. the plan i to light it with a 175W SE 10 or 14K bulb with two PC actinics (i already have the pendent so that won't change) and powering it with 4 seios 620s that will be behind a false wall with holes drilled so just the outputs are in the tank. this will make the display tank about 25 gallons. I have a aqua c skimmer already and will have some baffels in the back area for sponges/carbon/whatever also. i will have very little rock as many of the SPS frags will be glued to the bottom or on rubble to give it that "natural" shallow figi look.

any comments to improve or change before i get too far?

 

[mntl]

my tank is 20l/20w/12h, look at my sig equipement is listed there. This looks like these will be very similiar systems. The light is fine but make sure you have a good reflecter otherwise you wont get enough spread imo. My bulb is 7" off the water (reflecter is 5.5-6"/luminarc mini) and most stuff is 1/2 way down or less. I was using a hamilton 14k before but felt it was not enough light, I am using a Iwasaki aqua 2 14k now and feel it is a huge improvement, especially if you are using actinic. If the tank is BB bounce the flow off of the bottom, it really helps get good random flow in the tank sinse the tank is shallow it will help keep the bottom/middle of the corals in good flow. Ditch the sponge in the back imo.

-John-

-John-

 

[johnanddawn]

thanks for the tips - any pics or a link for me........
i'm running a 14 K hami right now also but was thinking about going to a 10K ushio????????? not sure yet
also i think i want to go with a large sump (my current SPS nano -a 35 hex) just for volume and stability with some sort of ato and maybe placing a small refuge "upstream" (maybe a 10g) for cheato/pod production??????? again though i have time and want to plan it out well cause i probably wont make the swap out till may

 

[mntl]

Definately, the bigger the sump the better. Water is the one thing you cant have enough of in this hobby . Look into the Iwasaki 14k's for bulbs, they have the highest par out of the 175's and they basically just look like a 10k with no yellow, slight hint of blue. If you check out THIS thread there is an old pic of my tank with a hamilton and another with the iwasaki, you can compare them for color and out-put. The tank is pretty much empty in the pic I was in the process of switching from my old nano and was letting the tank mature for a few months before I transferred live-stock. It looks quite a bit different now that there are some corals in it, I have also automated much of the system sinse then.

-John-