What to do with this Unique 40g Look Down?

[traylor23]

I recently acquired this Deep Sea Aquatics 40 gallon look down tank. It's plumbed with a 3/4" bulkhead in front of the rock facade and another behind it, both in the bottom. I'm not particularly thrilled with that being the only plumbing, and have not checked to see if the back glass is tempered. Unfortunately, DSA is kaput, or I'd simply ask them.

The previous owner converted it from a Amazonian fresh water tank to a herp display. There is one deep scratch in the glass, but I'm going to see if there's a pro that can get it back to like new.

It's around 60" from floor to the top of the back wall. The curved glass, on the front, is aeound 14" tall. The rock facade is a textured aquatic safe resin and I think I can reef it out by utilizing dry rock, foam and resin.

My primary concerns are lighting, water flow, returns and, of course, where to go with aquascaping. I'd love your input!

I'll work on cleaning it up some more and keep up with this thread. My first build on R2R!

 

[smoke]

If lighting is a concern just make it simple. I'd do a zoa garden. Easy to maintain and doesn't need a ton of light.

 

[kevlow]

That is very cool looking tank. A lot of possibilities. A lagoon with some mangroves and the bottom full of chalice, zoa, acan and frogspawn comes to mind.

Or you can do as I did with my shallow look down tank. I started out with LPS but converted to sps. Lighting is simple because you have no depth. Being shallow allows for starting with very small frags and very easy cleaning and maintenance.

What ever you do, you will learn to think laterally instead of vertically for variance in par. Being shallow has different challenges but is a lot of fun. Low water volume means less stability so exporting waste and importing trace elements & two part becomes more important.

Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[smoke]

Good point about the shallow water and lights!

 

[traylor23]

It should be fun. Lots of cool possibilities. Definitely digging the thought of some mangroves. Also, possibly working some low nutrient plants above the water line that can be watered by an auto top-off waterfall.

 

[traylor23]

If lighting is a concern just make it simple. I'd do a zoa garden. Easy to maintain and doesn't need a ton of light.

My concern with the lighting is more about how to mount it. I have a left over ReefBreeders 24" LED that I know would light this thing perfectly. Also thought about a couple of Kessils. Never tried a tank this shallow. Suggestions are welcome!

 

[kevlow]

My concern with the lighting is more about how to mount it. I have a left over ReefBreeders 24" LED that I know would light this thing perfectly. Also thought about a couple of Kessils. Never tried a tank this shallow. Suggestions are welcome!

With my shallow tank I ran into this problem. There is not enough depth to deffuse and blend the light. With my Radions, the puck design ment that I had to lift them high to get enough spread. This also reduced par. For SMS I would need three Radions for coverage and strength. One 32" SBReefLight was better configured for a wide spread, higher par, shallow depth tank.
The puck or cannon design did not work well because of the narrow focus. With shallow water you will have strength, you need coverage.

If you have LPS with low par requirements, the a puck or cannon mounted high will be good. If you have SPS and higher par value then you need strength and coverage. A rectangular light will probably serve better.

This is only my opinion based on the challenges I faced in my shallow display.

 

[SandJ]

Cool tank! I would have to go in a Tide Pool direction with it. Stacking rocks on the left side (with some of them sticking out of the water) and slope them down to the right with about 1/3 of the right side being a sand bottom. Then fill it full of life... chitons, rock nems, zoas, crabs, snails, shrimp, maybe a few small fish (clown fish pair or goby pistol pair. Even a mangrove growing out of the rocks.

Depending on where the return line is, you may be able to make a waterfall effect running down the rocks sticking up out of the water. It would kinda simulate waves or the tide hitting the shore.

Or, maybe even make an egg crate platform with pvc legs (both could be black so they do not stand out much, or use cement to cover the eggcrate/pvc) for about 1/3 of the left side. Then you could put rock on top of it and make a cave or swim area in under the rocks for fish. Kinda like a drop off tank, only more shallow.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

That's a fantastic tank!

 

[coral-boss]

That is a very cool tank. I like it

 

[mandarin417]

It would be a great tank for a mixture of BTA’s and clowns. Our local store here in Houston, FJW, has a setup like that.

 

[traylor23]

It would be a great tank for a mixture of BTA’s and clowns. Our local store here in Houston, FJW, has a setup like that.

I've never had anemones. I already have a pair of Darwin clowns. That would be pretty cool.

 

[traylor23]

Moved this over to a build thread (in my signature)! It's finally getting set up!