tank Idea...

[jtburf]

Okay so after realizing more large uneffeciant tanks require little skill but more time to maintain, and reaizing that when most people lok at a tank they could care less about the hardware so I am proposing to build this...

As you may think and yes it is true when you take a 40g breeder deminsions and turn them into cube it seems that there will e a limited amount of space and yet true this tank stand\housing does everything but trim, feed, andwaterchages which are just a trun of a knob. Also all power cord will be spliced so that you only see one cord on the groundtruely effecant.

I plan on houing discus and possibly apistogramma in this tank heavilly planted. I am looking for a challenge and to break the mindset that tanks have to look like a disasterzone unless they have a room devoted to equipment. I need opinions.

 

[Notophthalmus]

If you can set it up so that you have access to the sump, lights, etc., then I don't see why it wouldn't work. If the sump and tank will be at the same level, you might as well make the sump as tall as the main tank to help prevent it overflowing if the return line is blocked.

*EDIT*- I don't see how you could do water changes with "a turn of a knob" in this setup. There's no drain or fill line.

 

[jmhart]

Maybe reword that a little. It's a little hard to understand what you are trying to say.

 

[jtburf]

The water changes would be simple, hook up the hose, turn a valve, wait, close valve, hook up other hose, turn valve and add RO water.

I have it designed with an automatic shutoff(like in a toilet) so that if the sump begins to overflow the intake valve shuts and kicks off the return pump. This can be acheived by some basic negative feedback devices. infact the hardest part about this would be construction becaues the way it is designed to be made is out of 3/4" solid white oak, and for special orders cherry and made almost completely out of dried hardwoods with no metal to rust. The hinges that allow the hood to open in half will also be made of leather to keep the tank metal free and safe. . Another added benefeight is that this is meant to fit in a dorm room, looking like a nightstand complete with panels to hide away the tank when there are rule checks because of angry neighbors. And it even cand be built into anything really.

The only difficult task is that it has to be made custom for every tank.