Hypothetical reef tank

[michika]

Since my tank isn't really supposed to be in my apartment it will have both a canopy and stand, as well as a set of doors to cover the tank itself. In short everything can be hidden away to look like a cabinet or something.

I was thinking I woud make the water level even with the 1ft mark, and then maybe keep the glass taller, 15" or so. The canopy level could then come down, cover the extra 3" of space and then the manifold as well.

I still worry about how to keep the whole structure up and how to prevent it from bowing or dipping in the front. I'm also now trying to figure out how to make it asethetically pleasing while ensuring I have a crazy amount of flow.

[mr_alberta]

Rigid PVC should be more than enough to prevent dipping...here's my old calfo system:



Pic of what you see in the tank:

[michika]

I remember that system! What was the longest length you had to cover? Any problems with disturbing the sandbed (or was this tank BB?)?

[mr_alberta]

My tank was BB so no worries about the sandbed. The longest length was 45" with a 14" segment at the end (it was L-shaped). It wasn't a true calfo manifold as it wasn't all one continuous "loop". I split the manifold in half with a SCWD so that only half of the "loop" would fire at a time. Worked quite well, but too bad the SCWD adds so much headloss to a pump. In retrospect, an Ocean Motion 2 way would have been better as you can use much larger pumps with it.