First off, I was recommended to your forum from reeffrontiers with a thread I started on there about plywood tanks and it turns out you all are the mecca of DIY tanks! So here I am asking what I have found to be the best resource so far a few questions that I have about DIY tank building.
The dimensions I'm thinking if I use a glass front are 8'x3'x2' or 359gallons. I have seen quite a few different write ups of people building large plywood tanks, even a few reef setups. The thing that has somewhat confused me is that the lighting that is used on these tanks is quite a bit less then I would think would be needed. Is it possible to run less than typical lighting (as in watts per gallon) when running such a large system? For example, I got the opportunity to check out a 375 built by CFI N of Seattle. Yet the owner was running a pair of 250W metal halides and a few vho's. This is the amount of lighting I would think to be appropriate for a 100g tank not a 375 with LPS. Does anyone have any input on this? The lighting is probably the main thing that would keep me from building a tank like this as it would be very expensive to purchase all the lights I would think would be required let alone the electricity it would eat up.
My plans as far as coral for what I would want to keep in the tank would be LPS and softies. probably the most light intensive coral I would want would be an elegance or a dendro.
Then on craigslist i found sheets of 1/2" lexan for cheap (71"x39.75"). Would this be something I could use for the viewing panel? I know lexan is extremely strong, but that could be a certain type of strength. I don't know so I figured I would ask. What do you all think about using lexan for a front viewing panel for a plywood tank? and if so what kind of height do you think it could support?
Based on using the calcuator on Garf.org and the space I have available the dimensions I would like to build are LxWxH 70x30x24. or ~218gallons
Thanks,
Tom
The dimensions I'm thinking if I use a glass front are 8'x3'x2' or 359gallons. I have seen quite a few different write ups of people building large plywood tanks, even a few reef setups. The thing that has somewhat confused me is that the lighting that is used on these tanks is quite a bit less then I would think would be needed. Is it possible to run less than typical lighting (as in watts per gallon) when running such a large system? For example, I got the opportunity to check out a 375 built by CFI N of Seattle. Yet the owner was running a pair of 250W metal halides and a few vho's. This is the amount of lighting I would think to be appropriate for a 100g tank not a 375 with LPS. Does anyone have any input on this? The lighting is probably the main thing that would keep me from building a tank like this as it would be very expensive to purchase all the lights I would think would be required let alone the electricity it would eat up.
My plans as far as coral for what I would want to keep in the tank would be LPS and softies. probably the most light intensive coral I would want would be an elegance or a dendro.
Then on craigslist i found sheets of 1/2" lexan for cheap (71"x39.75"). Would this be something I could use for the viewing panel? I know lexan is extremely strong, but that could be a certain type of strength. I don't know so I figured I would ask. What do you all think about using lexan for a front viewing panel for a plywood tank? and if so what kind of height do you think it could support?
Based on using the calcuator on Garf.org and the space I have available the dimensions I would like to build are LxWxH 70x30x24. or ~218gallons
Thanks,
Tom
