Shallow,Rimless,Planted

[Adam Black]

Originally Posted by PEMfish

I can go to the pet store and buy you a dog dish of water- its the same thing.

Tanks are glass for a reason.

Would you? The best way to view coral is from the top.

[Frankie]

I too like the top view of my reef. That's why I went with no canopy this time.
I plan on having branches and rocks coming up out of the water in this planted aquarium. It will be viewed from the top and the walls. Sorry for no pictures yet. I have been focusing on the frags I pulled from the tank and reading like mad about planted tank designs. I need to figure the proper flow and c02. with the overflow i am going to need to compensate for the c02 release with a reactor. IT will be the only way to make this tank work right having an over flow. The good news is I will be able to heavily stock it with fish. I want to have a school of Danio roseus.
Rose Danio - Danio Roseus
I am still debating on MH's or T5's.

[Frankie]

I really hate the traditional stands. I am thinking of suspending this tank from the ceiling. Would be cool looking to see vines growing up over the suspension cables too. Any thoughts?

[mps9506]

Do you have a specific biotope you want to recreate Frankie.
I would have an idea of the types of plant species you want before committing to something like that. It will give you an idea of what best angles and such to view the plants from. I love habitats that incorporate driftwood or rocks coming out of the water with both aquatic and terrestrial species.

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by Frankie

I really hate the traditional stands. I am thinking of suspending this tank from the ceiling. Would be cool looking to see vines growing up over the suspension cables too. Any thoughts?

#1) You're crazy... back away from the tank

#2) You're a GENIUS! Your work should be published


I think I can't quite get my mind wrapped around exactly how it will look but I think it will look AMAZING when it's complete. If anyone can do it I know you can.

[Jeremy0322]

The first few things I thought about would be how to properly distribute the weight of the tank once it was hung. You would need some form of platform and then 4 cables, one for each corner I would assume, but unless you had something that you KNEW would never bend you are going to have pressure points on the 4 corners of this tank and not alot of weight distributed over the rest of the bottom of the tank, which could cause problems.

And unless you have an awesome ceiling already, you are more than likely going to have to reinforce the ceiling somehow to hold this kind of weight. I dont know exactly how many gallons this is, but I think you said something about it being 50 gallons, which is 400lbs spread out over 4 "hangers, so in theory each one needs to support 100lbs PLUS the board and the rock and everything else that goes in the tank.

Then you are looking at plumbing and everything else if you are doing a sump or anything like that.

As you can tell, I have thought about doing something similar to this with a smaller tank, but was never really able to come up with solid answers to any of these problems. It may just be my paranoia and lack of physics skills, but I was never confident that something like this was safe for the tank.

[BigAl07]

Jeremy those are all VERY valid points indeed.... but.... Frankie is what we'd call a "Master Builder". If it can be done he's the man to do it and do it safely.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by mps9506

Do you have a specific biotope you want to recreate Frankie.
I would have an idea of the types of plant species you want before committing to something like that. It will give you an idea of what best angles and such to view the plants from. I love habitats that incorporate driftwood or rocks coming out of the water with both aquatic and terrestrial species.

Awesome question Mike. No I don't have the plants names yet that I would like to use but I do have a picture of what I am wanting to do in my head. Third picture up here, Aquarium Art By Takashi Amano is something I would be looking to do.
I am reading like a maniac about plants right now. Any help you can give Mike would be awesome. I know you have a vast amount of knowledge in this area.

[Jeremy0322]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

Jeremy those are all VERY valid points indeed.... but.... Frankie is what we'd call a "Master Builder". If it can be done he's the man to do it and do it safely.

oh yea, i know that, I am just throwing some stuff out there so it isnt missed. There is this thing online called "Peters Evil Overlord List" and it says somewhere in there that he would have a 5 year old on his council just to catch anything really simple that was missed. I think we all know that when planning you get so caught up the hard stuff that you forget something stupid like not being able to get the sump in the stand once the tanks full kind of stuff. Like I said, I have thought about this before and those were some of the basic problems I could forsee. I guess you could get a giant piece of granite to hold the tank on, that wouldnt bend and it would look awesome, but it would also cost a crap load of money I think

**and yes - crap-ton is now a unit of measurement, and is not part of the metric system

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by Jeremy0322

The first few things I thought about would be how to properly distribute the weight of the tank once it was hung. You would need some form of platform and then 4 cables, one for each corner I would assume, but unless you had something that you KNEW would never bend you are going to have pressure points on the 4 corners of this tank and not alot of weight distributed over the rest of the bottom of the tank, which could cause problems.

And unless you have an awesome ceiling already, you are more than likely going to have to reinforce the ceiling somehow to hold this kind of weight. I dont know exactly how many gallons this is, but I think you said something about it being 50 gallons, which is 400lbs spread out over 4 "hangers, so in theory each one needs to support 100lbs PLUS the board and the rock and everything else that goes in the tank.

Then you are looking at plumbing and everything else if you are doing a sump or anything like that.

As you can tell, I have thought about doing something similar to this with a smaller tank, but was never really able to come up with solid answers to any of these problems. It may just be my paranoia and lack of physics skills, but I was never confident that something like this was safe for the tank.

I am not to worried about it Jeremy. Good observations though!
I would drill up through the ceiling joists with threaded rods/washers/nuts and come down to two steel angle iron runners along the two long sides on the tank. These I would connect with a steel 1/4" platform for the tank to rest on. I could rest a car on something like that. Keep in mind the tank is going to be a peninsula. I would plump the overflow to the filtration underneath. Most likly suspended as well from the above platform.
Now the real problem here is, convincing the wife about the location of this new idea!

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by Frankie

Now the real problem here is, convincing the wife about the location of this new idea!

Bedroom or bathroom?

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

Bedroom or bathroom?

Living room. I want it by the front door separating the door from the living room.

[Jeremy0322]

That sounds like a pretty good plan...haha. It is possible to just wait til the wife is at work and have it done when she comes home Just be like "but i made it for you sweetie!"

[mps9506]

Originally Posted by Frankie

Awesome question Mike. No I don't have the plants names yet that I would like to use but I do have a picture of what I am wanting to do in my head. Third picture up here, Aquarium Art By Takashi Amano is something I would be looking to do.
I am reading like a maniac about plants right now. Any help you can give Mike would be awesome. I know you have a vast amount of knowledge in this area.

His book Nature Aquarium World is what got me into the aquarium hobby. It is an excellent coffee table book if you don't already have it. I suspect Lee would love looking at it as well.
If you go Amano's design route with a planted aquarium remember that it is fairly detailed and requires fair amount of in tank clipping and maintenance. Far more than you do in a reef tank or other varieties of planted tanks.
That said it is very easy to incorporate his design techniques into other planted tank styles that don't require as much maintenance. the only reason I mention this is because of your idea of elevating the tank sounds a bit harder to maintain and keep "clean." Although your eye for clean style and lines is obvious with your current reef tank.
I'm sure you are already doing this, but I would just keep researching what type of plant species catch your eye, find how they display best and design your aquarium setup around that. The other aspect is to use your plants as secondary focus and use them to frame your focus fish species. It's good to either use the fish to highlight your plants, or use the plants to highlight your fish. It is difficult to make both the focus of the display. Hope that makes sense.

[PaulR]

Fresh water planted tanks are fun, you are giving yourself a treat. A lot of work though, even in comparison to reef tank. Think in terms of having to mow them every couple days when things really take off.

Those Japanese tanks are amazing, and the third one down is one of the more traditional planting schemes, so you will find tons of choices in planting material.

Water management is a little more tricky; you don't want a low nutrient tank, you just want sufficient quantities of the right nutrients. I have not found CO2 injection to be all that important, a few fish in a closed environment can support a whopping load of plant life, and if you put a school or Rasboras in there, you will have plenty of CO2 generation, as well as a good supply of fertilizer, already built in.

Here's the biggest trick I learned, which is probably obvious to most reefers and not at all obvious to some freshwater guys - the plants need to go into a cycled tank! Ammonia and Nitrite, in quantity, are not healthy for plants.

-Paul