Shallow reef tank Club

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 02:31 PM

Thats right folks another Club thread. I would like to have a place for everyone who has a shallow tank to post pictures, and share experiences. there seems to be quite a few shallow tank builds popping up and want to have a thread with pics of each one.

Only rule to Rule to join the club
Your tank should be longer or deeper than it is tall, unless it is a very large tank I would have to say 20 inches tall maximum??.

1st post should include the tanks dimensions a brief description of the tank and a Full tank shot.

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 02:38 PM

I will start.

48x27x14 rimless acrylic tank, the tank was made by envision acrylics and is 67 gallons, i have 20g sump with a deltec skimmer and eheim return pump.

Full tank shots

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 02:39 PM

XTM, Clownreef, EJ coral and all the others I have forgotten please post up some shots

JustinReef · 05/23/2008, 02:40 PM

72" x 20" x 18" tall (Water level 16" though).

Was going for a "Lagoon" or planted style tank. Ended up with about 10 species of macro algae and some softies. Two puffers, a Sleeper Goby, Hawkfish, Copperband Butterfly, Blue Damsel, and a Kole tang. Lighting was one 250 watt MH that was angled to shine light across the tank from left to right. 40G sump, 40G refugium, Bubblemaster 200 Skimmer, 200 mg/hr Ozone...

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 02:49 PM

very nice, Justin the fish must love all that open space, Why only one tang?
do you have a close up shots of the puffers?

Another thing i love about my new tank is that the lights Do not cover the whole tank, in fact the front of the tank gets very little light but it is more dramatic that way. My old tank was a uniform brightness all over.

JustinReef · 05/23/2008, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GSMguy
very nice, Justin the fish must love all that open space, Why only one tang?
do you have a close up shots of the puffers?

Another thing i love about my new tank is that the lights Do not cover the whole tank, in fact the front of the tank gets very little light but it is more dramatic that way. My old tank was a uniform brightness all over.

Im not sure why only one tang to be honest, I just feel like a lot of tangs I lilke would get too big.

Here's the puffers:

JustinReef · 05/23/2008, 02:56 PM

I also really like not having uniform light over the whole tank. I think it looks more natural not to. Or dramatic like you said

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 03:05 PM

justin that is an excellent way to do a softie display, your tank looks very natural and not cluttered, it reminds me of snorkeling along shallow sandy areas in the ocean, lots of open sand and small rock outcroppings.

Oddly enough i had a Brackish tank very similar to yours but with fake plants, of course, and a group of spotted puffers and a snowflake eel and a couple of spawning orange chromis when i lived in London. i will try and find pictures.

JustinReef · 05/23/2008, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GSMguy
justin that is an excellent way to do a softie display, your tank looks very natural and not cluttered, it reminds me of snorkeling along shallow sandy areas in the ocean, lots of open sand and small rock outcroppings.

Oddly enough i had a Brackish tank very similar to yours but with fake plants, of course, and a group of spotted puffers and a snowflake eel and a couple of spawning orange chromis when i lived in London. i will try and find pictures.

Sounds like a beautiful tank! I just took down my 100G brackish mangrove tank

It was home to a pair of Archer fish, Green Spotted Puffer, tons of black mollies and a pair of Mono Sebae. I really miss this tank already but we moved and had no room for it in the new place. I am debating starting a little brackish tank with an empty 24G nano I have.

I would love to see pics of your old tank...

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 03:28 PM

unfortunately there are no pictures of it on my computer

it was a small tank around 3 ft i remember but it was big for me back then.

the budman · 05/23/2008, 10:00 PM

i have a 40 long that is 48x12x18. i run a remora skimmer, 360gph canister filter and a small refugium for filtration. i also have an oscillating powerhead at one end angled slightly down and a koralia #1 at the other end angled slightly up. for fish i have a pair of maroon clowns, 1 6 line wrasee, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 scissorstail goby and a yellow clown goby. among the assortment of normal hermits and snails are 3 emerald green crabs, a pair of gold coral banded shrimp, a horseshoe crab, 2 serpent stars, and a conch. i do not know scientific names so my corals are like this. 3 leather "trees" one is green, one is tan and one is tan and chocolate. 4 kinds of mushrooms. a purple lamnellia?, green frogspawn, torch, and some assorted zoods, a black tube sponge also a BTA for the clowns. if some one tells me how i will put pictures up. i have cheoto and mangroves in the refugium
Budman

GSMguy · 05/23/2008, 10:06 PM

Budman, set up an account at photobucket.com its free and they provide a link for forums.

jimnrose · 05/24/2008, 06:12 AM

I have a 72 x 24 x 17 tank but just getting started. The tank is in the wall between rooms with cabinets on both sides and above the opening. The sump, refugium and treatment tanks are in the cabinets with a 13' limestone wall below the tank. Sorry no pictures yet. Jim

84chris · 05/24/2008, 07:31 AM

My tank is 40x40x13, i drilled it in the middle for the return and overflow. My rock is then is circled around it so it is a big island in the middle of the tank and the fish have 360 degrees of swimming room. I use a 400w radium and 2 t5's. I have a mix of sps and lps with 1 or 2 soft corals. We are currently looking for a new digital camera since ours is a P.O.S. Hopefully this weekend i can post some pictures.

CMcNeil · 05/24/2008, 07:38 AM

DIY 60g rimless,the tanks dimensions are 32"x32"x16" i have all tunze pumps including the return pump.

here it is just with liverock

xtm · 05/25/2008, 09:57 AM

here's mine

E.J. Coral · 05/25/2008, 02:06 PM

I am setting up a 48x30x17.5(97g) right now. It is my first shallow tank, and I absolutely love the dimensions

The tank will be a gigantea species tank.......

maroun.c · 05/25/2008, 03:55 PM

Very nice tank XTM

143gadgets · 05/28/2008, 08:18 AM

LOVE your dimensions E.J.!!!

143gadgets · 05/28/2008, 08:22 AM

Here are a few pics of mine. Dimensions are 48"x24"x18" (90g). Tank is SPS dominated.

Darth Wader · 05/28/2008, 10:18 AM

Oh man, seeing all those amazing shallow tanks, especially xtm's tank makes me want to build a new shallow tank and pretty much start over. I love the look of wide shallow tanks.

B.friend · 05/28/2008, 10:28 AM

Im loving all of them

widmer · 05/28/2008, 10:29 AM

It's why I had both a brand new 40 gallon breeder and 30 gallon breeder (same footprint) sitting side by side in my study, and chose to set up the 30 breeder over the 40: relative dimensions.

xtm · 05/28/2008, 10:41 AM

Thanks guys.. perhaps one very positive thing about running a shallow tank is you can get away with 250w 20K's and still have tons of PAR. I had NO growth when I used 20K's in my 24" deep tank. My shallow tank has only been setup for 2 weeks and I'm already seeing good growth on the tips! I am much happier with this shallow setup.

by switching to this smaller setup, I have eliminated the following:

2x 6100 Turbelle streams ~25w ea
1x 250w MH
2x 54w T5HO actinics

That's about 400 watts!

Also by switching, I was able to build MY system the way I wanted to do it from the ground up-- that is, OPEN aquascape with access to all 4 sides so I can keep it squeaky clean, and also external overflow to maximize space inside the tank. Man I LOVE this new setup! It's like having a new younger girlfriend after being married for 20 years!! LOVE IT!

Darth Wader · 05/28/2008, 11:08 AM

Yea thats awesome. I want to get 20k's but I'm kinda worried about par. My tank is only 20" deep so I should be ok. Maybe I will just overhaul my tank and try out some different stuff.
I love your setup xtm, one of the cleanest and most apealing setups I've seen in a while. 143gadgets, I wont lie you have an amazing setup too. I fallowed your whole build. I love the depth of your tank and the fact that the rock on both sides is like and island and doesnt touch any of the walls. Man I wish I had that kinda depth in my tank.

05/23/2008, 02:38 PM	#2
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	I will start. 48x27x14 rimless acrylic tank, the tank was made by envision acrylics and is 67 gallons, i have 20g sump with a deltec skimmer and eheim return pump. Full tank shots __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 02:39 PM	#3
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	XTM, Clownreef, EJ coral and all the others I have forgotten please post up some shots __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 02:49 PM	#5
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	very nice, Justin the fish must love all that open space, Why only one tang? do you have a close up shots of the puffers? Another thing i love about my new tank is that the lights Do not cover the whole tank, in fact the front of the tank gets very little light but it is more dramatic that way. My old tank was a uniform brightness all over. __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 03:05 PM	#8
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	justin that is an excellent way to do a softie display, your tank looks very natural and not cluttered, it reminds me of snorkeling along shallow sandy areas in the ocean, lots of open sand and small rock outcroppings. Oddly enough i had a Brackish tank very similar to yours but with fake plants, of course, and a group of spotted puffers and a snowflake eel and a couple of spawning orange chromis when i lived in London. i will try and find pictures. __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 03:28 PM	#10
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	unfortunately there are no pictures of it on my computer it was a small tank around 3 ft i remember but it was big for me back then. __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 02:31 PM	#1
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	Shallow reef tank Club Thats right folks another Club thread. I would like to have a place for everyone who has a shallow tank to post pictures, and share experiences. there seems to be quite a few shallow tank builds popping up and want to have a thread with pics of each one. Only rule to Rule to join the club Your tank should be longer or deeper than it is tall, unless it is a very large tank I would have to say 20 inches tall maximum??. 1st post should include the tanks dimensions a brief description of the tank and a Full tank shot. __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/23/2008, 02:40 PM	#4
JustinReef Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,715	72" x 20" x 18" tall (Water level 16" though). Was going for a "Lagoon" or planted style tank. Ended up with about 10 species of macro algae and some softies. Two puffers, a Sleeper Goby, Hawkfish, Copperband Butterfly, Blue Damsel, and a Kole tang. Lighting was one 250 watt MH that was angled to shine light across the tank from left to right. 40G sump, 40G refugium, Bubblemaster 200 Skimmer, 200 mg/hr Ozone...

05/23/2008, 02:56 PM	#7
JustinReef Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 3,715	I also really like not having uniform light over the whole tank. I think it looks more natural not to. Or dramatic like you said

05/23/2008, 10:00 PM	#11
the budman Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: mentor, ohio Posts: 753	shallow reef i have a 40 long that is 48x12x18. i run a remora skimmer, 360gph canister filter and a small refugium for filtration. i also have an oscillating powerhead at one end angled slightly down and a koralia #1 at the other end angled slightly up. for fish i have a pair of maroon clowns, 1 6 line wrasee, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 scissorstail goby and a yellow clown goby. among the assortment of normal hermits and snails are 3 emerald green crabs, a pair of gold coral banded shrimp, a horseshoe crab, 2 serpent stars, and a conch. i do not know scientific names so my corals are like this. 3 leather "trees" one is green, one is tan and one is tan and chocolate. 4 kinds of mushrooms. a purple lamnellia?, green frogspawn, torch, and some assorted zoods, a black tube sponge also a BTA for the clowns. if some one tells me how i will put pictures up. i have cheoto and mangroves in the refugium Budman __________________ Budman Current Tank Info: 40 sw reef(soft coral mostly)

05/23/2008, 10:06 PM	#12
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	Budman, set up an account at photobucket.com its free and they provide a link for forums. __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

05/24/2008, 06:12 AM	#13
jimnrose Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: The Villages, Florida Posts: 1,093	I have a 72 x 24 x 17 tank but just getting started. The tank is in the wall between rooms with cabinets on both sides and above the opening. The sump, refugium and treatment tanks are in the cabinets with a 13' limestone wall below the tank. Sorry no pictures yet. Jim

05/24/2008, 07:31 AM	#14
84chris Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Brookpark Posts: 446	My tank is 40x40x13, i drilled it in the middle for the return and overflow. My rock is then is circled around it so it is a big island in the middle of the tank and the fish have 360 degrees of swimming room. I use a 400w radium and 2 t5's. I have a mix of sps and lps with 1 or 2 soft corals. We are currently looking for a new digital camera since ours is a P.O.S. Hopefully this weekend i can post some pictures.

05/24/2008, 07:38 AM	#15
CMcNeil Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: St.Petersburg,Florida Posts: 7,368	DIY 60g rimless,the tanks dimensions are 32"x32"x16" i have all tunze pumps including the return pump. here it is just with liverock __________________ Deep Blue 28g rimless, AI Prime LED,Vortech MP-10,SCA-301 skimmer, Tunze 1073.04 return pump,Tunze nano osmolator, 10g glass sump,Ehiem 100w heater,RK Lite. SPS dominant reef

05/25/2008, 09:57 AM	#16
xtm Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Panorama City, CA Posts: 4,703	here's mine __________________ Function before fashion Current Tank Info: 120g SPS Tank (48x24x24)

05/25/2008, 02:06 PM	#17
E.J. Coral Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 547	I am setting up a 48x30x17.5(97g) right now. It is my first shallow tank, and I absolutely love the dimensions The tank will be a gigantea species tank.......

05/25/2008, 03:55 PM	#18
maroun.c Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Lebanon Posts: 6,111	Very nice tank XTM __________________ 390 G mixed reef build Current Tank Info: 390G mixed reef

05/28/2008, 08:18 AM	#19
143gadgets Moved On Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 3,151	LOVE your dimensions E.J.!!!

05/28/2008, 08:22 AM	#20
143gadgets Moved On Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 3,151	Here are a few pics of mine. Dimensions are 48"x24"x18" (90g). Tank is SPS dominated.

05/28/2008, 10:18 AM	#21
Darth Wader Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 263	Oh man, seeing all those amazing shallow tanks, especially xtm's tank makes me want to build a new shallow tank and pretty much start over. I love the look of wide shallow tanks.

05/28/2008, 10:28 AM	#22
B.friend B.Friend Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Beaverton, OR Posts: 143	Im loving all of them __________________ " Me and the boys were talking about what to do with all this xtra coin,and I was like im renting a clown And I did Bo Bo Here And I really Underestimated the creepyness" Current Tank Info: RIP 200 Gallon , New Tank 124 Gallon Rimless Cube , Glass,

05/28/2008, 10:29 AM	#23
widmer Drug Enthusiast Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rochester, MN Posts: 2,958	It's why I had both a brand new 40 gallon breeder and 30 gallon breeder (same footprint) sitting side by side in my study, and chose to set up the 30 breeder over the 40: relative dimensions.

05/28/2008, 10:41 AM	#24
xtm Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Panorama City, CA Posts: 4,703	Thanks guys.. perhaps one very positive thing about running a shallow tank is you can get away with 250w 20K's and still have tons of PAR. I had NO growth when I used 20K's in my 24" deep tank. My shallow tank has only been setup for 2 weeks and I'm already seeing good growth on the tips! I am much happier with this shallow setup. by switching to this smaller setup, I have eliminated the following: 2x 6100 Turbelle streams ~25w ea 1x 250w MH 2x 54w T5HO actinics That's about 400 watts! Also by switching, I was able to build MY system the way I wanted to do it from the ground up-- that is, OPEN aquascape with access to all 4 sides so I can keep it squeaky clean, and also external overflow to maximize space inside the tank. Man I LOVE this new setup! It's like having a new younger girlfriend after being married for 20 years!! LOVE IT! __________________ Function before fashion Current Tank Info: 120g SPS Tank (48x24x24)

05/28/2008, 11:08 AM	#25
Darth Wader Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 263	Yea thats awesome. I want to get 20k's but I'm kinda worried about par. My tank is only 20" deep so I should be ok. Maybe I will just overhaul my tank and try out some different stuff. I love your setup xtm, one of the cleanest and most apealing setups I've seen in a while. 143gadgets, I wont lie you have an amazing setup too. I fallowed your whole build. I love the depth of your tank and the fact that the rock on both sides is like and island and doesnt touch any of the walls. Man I wish I had that kinda depth in my tank.