Natural Sunlight tanks

[InLimbo87]

We definitely need more specs/pics on that reef bowl. Awesome looking setup

[Opsanus tau]

Thank you everyone for the cool comments..I will get back here later today with some more pics/specs....have to go make some $ right now.

[BigAl07]

Cant you make $$ AND stay here

[boozeman]

not everyone has a 'cushioney' job like yours Al

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by boozeman

not everyone has a 'cushioney' job like yours Al

*Points to a NASTY paper cut* You call THIS cushioney? It's DANGEROUS I tell ya! I'm upping my Insurance today!!

[Opsanus tau]

I've been an aquarist/hobbyist/biologist for some time now and have set up a few reef tanks(for myself and others).
This time it was MY HOUSE and I knew another square or rectangular system would just seem boring(no matter what the size).
I kept kept trying to think "outside the box"and then it came to me, to just get rid of the "box" altogether.
I had seen a few cylinder systems,(and some done really well).
So that had been done.
Then I thought of the most youthful, simplistic, and basic vessel synonymous with the "roots"of all aquatic husbandry.
THE GOLDFISH BOWL!!!!!!!
I had this vision in 2006, yet didn't know where to start.
I knew that I was going to find a vessel created for a different application to use for the "bowl", but didn't know where or what.
I started by looking into light globes that would be associated with large(event-type)parking lot fixtures, yet the largest I could find only held 34 gallons of water, had a pronounced seem and wasn't exactly clear(kind of smokey).
It came to me in the middle of the night..I sat up in bed remembering on of my favorite T.V. series from 1967-68 "THE PRISONER".
I could go on and on about how cool this show was..but that's not the point.
The set was designed by European furniture designer;Eero Aarnio, and the(for lack of a better term)"wardens" second in command ("#2")of this strange prison-island would always be seated in Eero Arni's "BALL CHAIR"(1968).
The following year Eero came out with an acrylic(clear)version of the same chair calling it "THE BUBBLE CHAIR"..it hangs from a chain, has a chrome ring around the edge and cusions. bubble_07_maedchen_liest_big.jpg

I thought I would remove the ring,chain and cusions and THAT WILL BEE MY FISH BOWL!!!!

Thats what I did.

Then the stand???

I have a few smaller bowls with just mangroves and gambosia in them around the house and they were my models, Had placed them into small lengths of 2+3" PVC as a pedestal,.....so I look into the largest PVC slip fitting I could find.

Some male(and I suppose female reefers too )may remember Carmen Electra posing nude in one on the cover of Playboy years ago. bubble_07_maedchen_liest_big.jpg

[Opsanus tau]

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[jhale]

that is thinking outside of the box!

it did not even occur to me that's what the bowl was, and I work in the design industry.

you mentioned the equipment is remote, how is that set up, and what is it?

[DrBCool]

That is cool .
So just curious what brought you to use the solar tube for your lighting over this unique bowl tank ?

[Opsanus tau]

I will take a pic of equipment and I think that will answer a few questions.
Basically, custom sump, custom downdraft, float switch, peristaltic pumps for additives, UV 6 hours on/6 hours off(high tide-low tide).
I believe the bacteria content within the water column(in the wild)changes as Open Ocean water rushes in over the reef, as oppose to the tide shifting and then bringing in the high-nutrient bay water over the reef.
I'm talking about the reefs here in the Keys.
(just my own weird UV strategy, based on what we see and have sampled in the wild).

keep in mind............. I'm crazy.

[Opsanus tau]

Paying for electricity just seemed ridiculus when I have the Florida Keys Sun above my house each day, it was either solar panels, fiber optics, or a tubular sky light....the latter just seemed to be so cheap and straight forward.

[Opsanus tau]

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[Frankie]

You know your a reefaholic when you se a reef in a chair

[Jason25]

Originally Posted by Frankie

You know your a reefaholic when you se a reef in a chair

LOL, I could not have said it better myself.

[Opsanus tau]

No, no, no,..I saw someone using a really cool fish bowl as a chair.