Vertical reef?

[Zante]

I'm a noob, so I wouldn't dare to try something like this yet, but the idea did pop into my mind, and I wondered what more experienced reefers think.

I'm thinking a tank with a lot of height, say 4 or 5 feet, about as much width, but a depth of... say... 2 feet (measurements plucked out of the air just to give an idea of the concept)

The reef would then cover the back of the tank, you'd have a lot of rock surface.

Lighting wouldn't be from the top, but from the sides or the front with lighting units that would normally be kept over the tank used upright next or in front of it.

What do you think?

 

[klwheat]

hmm..sounds interesting. Not sure how you'd set it up with the lights focused back where you want them..but interesting

 

[jake koppen]

i think that you'd have allot of reflection and obstruction on the viewing panels. i have seen submersible led strips that you could hide in the front upright silicone seams on the inside of the tank. (only thing is, i don't think there is any submesible led strips that would be powerful enough for main lighting.
on the same thought, you could take that same tank and make dry chambers in that same location (vertical seams on the ends of the front panel) and build diy leds to insert. the chanel would be like a 3" x how ever tall the tank is and you wedge it into the front corner (creating a triangle when looking from the top down). Seal that with silicone or bond if acrylic & you have a space for lighting.
just some ideas

 

[Epicreefer]

Thought of doing something like this before and it possible but could end up tricky later on. Firs off a 4' tall reef is hard to maintain, you really only have 2' of reach with your arms so you better be good with extention tools and you'll be in trouble if you get an algae problem near the bottom. 2' of width isn't bad but you still want to maximize your lighting hitting the back wall and minimize obstructions in the top half of the tank. Look at 400w halides or cannon style high power LEDs. This means lighting is placed as far forward as possible and angled back just a bit, lighting the back wall. Corals in the top half of the tank are vertical sps growers, zoanthids, encrusting lps or encrusting montis up top and plating sps, leathers, branching and what not on the bottom half. Without nutrient control lighting from the front would quickly be blocked by algae growth.There are not many hobyists with tanks taller than 2', or 4', because of cost mainly, so those with taller tanks are mostly paying someone else to take care of it and dont know the pains of maintenance/dont post them online.

Cost of construction is also a concern. With height the glass needs to be thicker, 3/4 or 1" and your looking at $20 a square foot, $200 square meter, min for starphire, you don't want green glass at 3/4", so your looking at $3-5k for a tank. Acrylic its $10k easy. Shallow wide tanks are my preference, giving depth of view, easy lighting, space for corals and so on. It seems like many people have this idea of a picture frame aquarium and I see many requests for tanks similar to your dimensions, the most recent one 12' by 5' and only 18" wide. Not bad as a fish only with a few corals, but do yourself a favor and go 3:2 height to width minimum to make lighting and maintenance easier if it's going to be coral heavy. If it's mainly fish and a few corals then you'll be fine with any "reasonable" width dimention.

 

[saf1]

I think this sort of tank is actually very possible now since LED's have come to the market. In fact, what makes this really possible is the size of the LED's and optics. You can even have LED's on a adjustable bar / swivel if you will and get full wall coverage if you wanted.

Cost is the only limitation. Also depending on location you could even go with the natural sun light tubes.

 

[KafudaFish]

Look for drop off reef builds. There are a few out there that represent a vertical wall face.

They are an upside down "L" shape. There is one in the nano section and another on any reef site I believe.