Drop Off Reef Tank
 

I know most of you guys don't know me but I like to go overboard. Over engineer, buy the biggest, baddest, most insane, fastest, most horsepower, etc. and then hide the VISA bills from the wife. :mrgreen:

So anyways, I'm looking to build a drop off reef tank. People have had a 50-50 sucess rate with them. Some of them turn out great and other leak or burst. This is still at the BS stage. Meaning more talk than anything else. Looking to build in winter.

http://ficklewaters.com/wp-content/u...0/grosjean.jpg

Like the above tank WITHOUT the seam.

http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/imag...bd749ad18d.jpg

http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/imag...bd749b7dc3.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2009Q4/room_1.jpg

The last one was made of acrylic and burst at the seam after 12 hrs.

Has anyone here made one of these?

Also thinking about possibly just building a regular rectangular aquarium and then making a shelf inside to duplicate the above. Then just cover the side of the aquarium with part of the stand so it still produces the L-shape.

Otherwise if I go L-shaped like the above tanks and not rectangular then I would incorporate bracing into the stand and have metal bracing at the top as well.

Thinking about 180 gallons. 6 ft long, 2 feet wide, shelf area will be 18" high and 4 ft long, drop off will be 3 ft deep.

Discuss/critique/tell me I'm crazy/go nuts.

this was my first thought when i saw the pics; but, i think you can do it with a real drop-off. go for it. i'm watching.:mrgreen:

drop off
 

i would go with a rectangular,and build a viewable cave area

what about doing it in Plywood. and have a see through hole on the left side or right side. or the viewing will still be the front. and the drop off can have ahuge oval shape view

I was thinking the same with the shelf but with that empty void who knows how that affects the overall structure with water pushing down on it? I'd have inner eurobracing everywhere and build the stand edges a bit higher to hide it. So build the rectangle, inner brace it all then construct the shelf by building a hollow box inside and inner brace that. I'm no engineer (I'm a drop-out engineer tho lol) but that sounds do-able.

I saw a build on rc last summer. He cut the glass on a flow jet(water) and looked pretty cool. I would like to see one built here.

If you don't do the rectangle first technique I'd personally have it built on-site so the tank conforms to your stand better and doesn't get moved around. Then of course inner brace where possible.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...754535&page=11

This guy built his own and as far i can see it's still up and running. same tank from second picture in first post. just the build thread.

I want to try the L-shaped tank first. If it isn't do-able then I'll do the rectangular box.

Here are some more ideas for the tank (not my diagrams).

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/v...um/DropOff.jpg

It doesn't use a sump or skimmer. I would however use both a sump and skimmer.

any time you have 90 degree inside corner cuts your going to have a week spot in glass.

I would suges to use a normal tank (but taller than normal) and partition off part of the inside to make a shelf. don't seal this off but leave a way to get into it and put a tone of rubble and rock in there to make a pod haven, just make sure that fish can't get in. this will increase tank load cabability due to the extra live rock (which can be crammed in there and filled to the max as it doesn't have to look good) and also supply food for other fish. just make sure you make it so you do have some flow going through that area. so maybe use egg crate to make the partition and then find a way to make it look good.

Steve