wide inwall tank and cleaning

[tkaplan]

Having sucessfully (thanks to a lot of help from reef central members) kept a 140 gallon reef up and running for 1 1/2 yrs, I officially have the bug. At times I have longed for a trigger and a eel, and other non-reef safe fish. So, with an upcoming move, I now have my chance!
I have found a nice place for a inwall tank in the new house, but I am limited to a 60 inch length. I really had wanted to go bigger than my current 60x24x24. Which brings up my question

I am thinking of a 36" wide and 24 or 30" high tank. My concern is being able to clean the front glass. I was not planning a front access panel, hoping to have all tank maintenance done from within the fish room. I am worried that it will be difficult (or impossible) to fully reach the front of the glass from behind the tank. There won't be room on either end of the tank due to the width constraints.

Any advice?

Thanks

tom

 

[bnlimit10]

magnets work great, you can have someone in the fish room hold one near the front and from the front with the other magnet you can get the other part to attach and viola you can clean the front, when you are done simply pull the magnet away from the glass, and presto, you can go back in the fishroom and recover the floating magnet.

hope this helps

 

[sabodish]

that is the only way to do it well...i have a 36" wide tank, with access to both sides and i can tell you there is NO way to reach the back glass from the front, or to reach the front from the back.

 

[tkaplan]

What about scraping? Currently every two weeks or so, despite using a magnet, I have to scrape off coralline algae from the front. How do you guys manage that?

Thanks

tom

 

[aztbs]

You can easily find the razor blade attachments for the Mag Floats. Kind of like this: http://www.reefgadgets.com/

They just glue on to the magnet which I didn't like but once you get them securely connected, they work really well. You can take the blade part off if you like to leave the float in the tank.

 

[rivan]

I'm in the same situation of being resticted to 6 feet in length. However I wanted something bigger than my old 120 gal.

I built a cusom in wall tank measuring 72long*36wide * 30 deep. And I don't have an access panel either to the front. Its only been running 2 weeks and the lights just got set up so I really don't have any advice on cleaning ...yet.

However I am betting that a good cleaning magnet should do the trick. Othersise I will be forced to invent something.

 

[steveweast]

It's all about the initial planning. Many, many folks are mistakenly under the impression that they need frontal access. My tank is similar to yours in that it is 6ft from left to right.....but, my tank is 8ft from front to back.....and is 30" tall. I can reach every inch of the tank without the aid of any tool.....how ?..... easy..... I designed my lights to slide completely off the tank. Once you get the lights out of the way, access is easy.....especially if you can walk all around the tank in the tank room. It also helps to have a platform around the tank so you can stand at tank level. As for the front panel..... I mostly use a magnet...but also, scrape occassional. I use a hard piece of nylon that my tank manufacturer gave me. It is hard, but, slightly less so than the acrylic...so, no scatching is possible. The other thing that helps in keeping the front panel clean is the fact that the tank is built into the wall. The wall cavity shades the front panel a bit reducing algae. I also clean frequently to avoid any mass build ups. I've always hated the look of frontal access.....so, I just made sure that my design compensated for that loss of access.

 

[tkaplan]

Thanks for the advice! I just looked at the space again. Unfortuneately, the area for the tank in limited in lenght, and at 60" I will only have around 2-3" of sace on the sides. If I do a 36" wide tank, I can have a platform around 10" behind it the whole length. Plus there will be an access area which will allow more room. I think the 10" will be enough to squeeze in. Anyone think changing the width to 30" is smarter?

Rivan - where did you order your tank? I am thinking 60x36x30. Front Starfire glass, hopefully eurobraced.

Attached is a floorplan with the possible tank plan..

 

[Black71gp]

mine will be set up the same way. .but if you hav it in a fish room that is easier mine is in wall with two sides viewable. or three actually. but a full canopy on the one side. i am going to hook the canopy on pullies so that i can raise it off the tank and actually get on top of the tank or at least lean way in if i have to scrape the front. i went acylric and got the magnavore 6 so i hope that does a good job but i am sure i will be in need of scraping as well...