Sunlit Bowl

[Benar]

This is my downsize from a 640L system that the wife absolutely hated.

The bowl is 60cm/24" diameter at the tallest end and holds about 70L/18gal. The sump is an acrylic AIO that maxes out at 25L/7gal (I may need to drill this and overflow to a reservoir incase of pump shutoff.)

I've been wanting to add a Solatube for a couple years, so that will now be happening. Going with the 35cm/14" version, there should be enough light in the north of New Zealand for most of the year.

Mp20 on the flat bottom with the 90* elbow, BM curve5, nothing too flash.

I'm still undecided on stocking, I've kept a bunch of SPS in a tub whilst this is being put together. Fish wise I'm at a loss.
I'd be fine with a few chromis, the wife has mentioned clowns, or seahorses/pipefish so this is still up in the air (she'll likely get her way "” they always do.)

Any suggestions, let me know.
"”B

 

[ReefWreak]

Looks really cool and unique. Can't wait to see this come together.

I imagine you won't be able to have seahorses/pipefish with SPS due to flow considerations, but maybe some of the easier to keep SPS will be fine (birdsnest, stylophora, etc).

I would worry about temperature with it being that close to the window, and if you get it on a Solatube (I also love the concept, but man, it's tough to find a long-term successful Solatube tank without significant supplemental lighting). You might be okay with temps because of the huge surface area and evaporation, but then you better be ready with an ATO and big top off reservoir.

Very excited to see this come together! Keep us updated!

 

[Benar]

Sunlit Bowl

Thanks! Yeah the horses was my concern also, I have two staghorns and the rest are stylos/poccis/digitate montis and a birds. Still fear for their wellbeing with the amount of flow I like to crank in my tanks.
That window has a block out blind and sunshade blind so fingers crossed. I also held on to my Genesis ATO/Auto water changer, it also automatically fills my brute RODI reservoir of about 80 litres, however I am still a tad concerned about temperature, it gets pretty hot here in summer.
I've got 42 LED DIY kit from rapid, I'm trying to figure how I can fix them around a circular tube. It's working out to be a nightmare, may mount them on individual heatsinks and line them around the tube. Wouldn't want to run them higher than about 1.5watts each on a small fanless sink though.

I will update as things come together!


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[ReefWreak]

Not sure what you're talking about with mounting them around a tube, but it sounds like you're working through it too. I would recommend active cooling if possible, or at least a fan blowing towards the tank and heatsinks (sounds like you might want or need both).

I miss Auckland. What a nice place to live (though a bit cramped). Good luck, and I'm sure come winter you'll be fine with the tank, just gotta make it through the summer!

 

[Benar]

I'd just rather not use square bars to take away from the circular look (if I can get away with it.)
Auckland is still nice, although incredibly overcast today

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[ReefWreak]

I wonder if you could get steel electrical conduit tubing like a hoop, have it bent to match that solatube opening, then cut or sand one of the wide sides of the tubing so that you'd have somewhat of a flat surface to mount the LEDs on? Then it would be a nice rack for the LEDs as well as a heatsink? It'll be a really interesting setup either way!

 

[dallen2233]

It'll be interesting to see how this works out.

 

[MrDaniel]

Very interesting, I'll be following along.

 

[Benar]

This is a shot from ~10am this morning, late night transferring across last night. I'm still undecided about fish, I have some macro algae that came in on coral bases that took off in the tubs! I want something that picks at it but shouldn't eradicate it, I think it adds to the natural look.


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[ReefWreak]

Looking good. You might get some inspiration on layout from seeing this really neat circular setup. It's definitely a different beast than your tank, but it may help you think about flow and some other layout issues round tanks have.

Man, I love the look of your system so far, but it looks like there is very little water above the corals, as well as in general in the system. I imagine the sump is holding most of the water.

 

[Benar]

Funny you should mention, I was originally intending to do a cylinder but after getting quotes decided to look at other options.
Yeah, placing rock with a rounded bottom wasn't easy to create space up top. Should hopefully help in winter when the suns further north, just coming into summer down under though! The curve does distort perception a bit, it's great seeing it get closer to midday

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[Vwcrackerjack]

This is amazing!

 

[Benar]

So after a while I got these two. My 6y/o daughter was incredibly happy!

Then I thought they might appreciate a golden hammer to perhaps host them, hasn't happened yet but they're getting closer by the day.

Also ordered a CoralBox s150 skimmer

to see how it performs against the Bubble Magus curve5, I feel the curve5 is in too shallow water now and is under-performing because of it.

Next is add a halo of LEDs around the tube. I have 6 royal blue, 8 violet, 12 cool blue, 12 cool white (and 2each of far red & lime which I probably won't use due to that spectrum in the sun already! That'll likely happen during the Christmas break as I'm waiting on heatsinks and lenses, perhaps I'll get more blue LEDs.


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[bo0sted2g]

I really like this unique build!


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[ReefWreak]

looking forward to seeing the LED halo. You probably won't need the red, but the lime should be good. It'll turn the tank from yellow to crisp white (at least that's the change I noticed when adding mine). How that plays with daylight though, we'll just have to see. I probably would have done more Royal Blues.

Have you looked into blue gel filters for the solatube? Just a thought. I remember hearing about this when Solatubes just came on the scene, not sure of the outcome, but you or I could do some googling.

Still super interested in seeing how this comes out. Can you share any top-down pics of the bowl? That's almost the most interesting part!

 

[serenity]

That is very cool!!

 

[jmcdaniel0]

I really like the way this looks.... I have never seen a tank like that before. I like it alot. Where I live they would never survive the winter, but it is really neat

 

[werd]

That is an awesome idea. Looks killer!

 

[Benar]

Cheers guys, been away all weekend so will try get some top downs soon. The light distortion is much like a halide so I'll have to find something to use as a "viewer".
Drilled the halo

Only managed holes for 36 LEDs before it's structure would be compromised. Still waiting on heatsinks & lenses.


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[Benar]

I should finally be able to make some progress on the LEDs over the next few days. Other than that, the next little project is this:

A 5g bowl to act as a refugium, gravity draining into the display. I really want a pipefish, they've really intrigued me lately.


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