Re: Corner reef tanks?

[Rick S.]

Pszemol, I hope this helps:

My father has a 26" 4 sided bow and now the 36" version. They both
had a great deal of distortion, the 26" being worse because it as not
as wide. The distortion was worse around the area where the curved
glass met the sides. I found it weird looking and it kind of gave me
a dizzy feeling looking at it. Even the fish were distorted. I would
never own one of those.

However, in the corner of my home office I now have an All Glass 54
Gallon Corner Bow. It is like you said....curved front and two
straight sides. There is virtually no distortion. The only affect I
see is that perhaps the back of the tank looks a bit lower than the
front, but my decoration may emphasize that. I went and saw one of
these at a LFS before I bought it and there's was a full reef and
there was no visible distortion...so I was confident when I ordered
mine. With the the sides not visible, the only thing you have to look
through is the long curved front and it's very dramatic. It's similar
to having a tank flushed into a wall since you don't see the sides on
those either. You will be very happy with this type of tank. If
you'd like a picture, feel free to e-mail me. Mine is setup as an
artificial reef that was designed with the help of Living Color...the
people who made the tank/decor in the "Deuce Bigelow" movie. I can
send you a link to my web-site which I'm not posting yet because it's
one of those freebie hostings and it woulnd't be able to handle the
hits.

I'm running about 350gph through it and I can't see why there'd be any
sort of circulation problem for a reef setup. I've dropped items in
there and watched them circulate and they shoot all over the place.
The return outlet too could easily be split if desired as well.

I explored the hexagons as well and just didn't think they'd look as
nice. There are more seams to look through which will distract from
the tank and add distortion and even double vision as you look at the
same thing through 2 panels at the same time...like looking through
the corner of a standard tank...now you're just adding more "corners".

Look into the corner bows. The all glass 54 gallon needs 27" for each
wall with a 38" viewing area and the 92 gallon needs 34" for each
wall with a 48" viewing area. Oceanic makes them as well with taller
stands and optional caps.

Good luck!


"Pszemol" > wrote in message >...
> My 30g mini-reef is placed in a corner of my small living room...
> I am recently thinking about upgrade it to a little bigger tank.
> One idea is to go to 40g breeder tank, also 3 feet long, but if
> I have to replace the stand and buy a new one or make it myself
> I would rather go for a even bigger tank. What about a corner one?
>
> I have seen tanks with one side curved and two stright sides.
> One overflow reservoir in the corner and I like this idea...
>
> But - I would like to know if you have such design and if it
> works in real life. What about view distortion from a cylindical
> glass? Is it visible? What about the water movement - is it
> easy to create strong water movements in this kind of shape?
>
> Generally, how do you like corner tanks? Would a hexagon be
> better than a bow front in terms of how things look inside??
> Who would be best supplier of such not-rectangular tanks?
>
> I have dedicated this corner of the room for the tank. The
> area will fit only something not bigger then 36" on both walls.
> Please, share your opinions and give some suggestions...
> Thanks.

[Pszemol]

"Rick S." > wrote in message om...
> My father has a 26" 4 sided bow and now the 36" version. They both
> had a great deal of distortion, the 26" being worse because it as not
> as wide. The distortion was worse around the area where the curved
> glass met the sides. I found it weird looking and it kind of gave me
> a dizzy feeling looking at it. Even the fish were distorted. I would
> never own one of those.
>
> However, in the corner of my home office I now have an All Glass
> 54 Gallon Corner Bow. It is like you said....curved front and two
> straight sides. There is virtually no distortion.

What do you think makes this difference, that the bow front of your
fathers is distorted but yours is not? Is yours glass or acrylics?

> It's similar
> to having a tank flushed into a wall since you don't see the sides
> on those either. You will be very happy with this type of tank.

Do they have overflow box in the corner? Drilled bottom?

> I'm running about 350gph through it and I can't see why there'd be any
> sort of circulation problem for a reef setup. I've dropped items in
> there and watched them circulate and they shoot all over the place.
> The return outlet too could easily be split if desired as well.

Please, tell me more about the circulation. 350gph seems kind of small.
Do you have a sump under the tank? How many powerheads you put in?

> I explored the hexagons as well and just didn't think they'd look as
> nice. There are more seams to look through which will distract from
> the tank and add distortion and even double vision as you look at the
> same thing through 2 panels at the same time...like looking through
> the corner of a standard tank...now you're just adding more "corners".

Yes, that was my bad feeling too. Especialy when front corners
are not beveled but glued with thick silicone and quicly cover with algae :-(

> Look into the corner bows. The all glass 54 gallon needs 27" for each
> wall with a 38" viewing area and the 92 gallon needs 34" for each
> wall with a 48" viewing area. Oceanic makes them as well with taller
> stands and optional caps.

OK, I will check them out... I can see you did good research buying yours :-)
How long do you have it? Have you paid a fortune for yours corner bow?

[Rick S.]

> What do you think makes this difference, that the bow front of your
> fathers is distorted but yours is not? Is yours glass or acrylics?

His and mine are both glass. The difference is due to, I believe, for
one the longer width of my front glass of 38". His may be 36" but you
get that distortion at the corners where the sides are joined. Plus,
it's possible that the shape is part of it. Perhaps the almost
rectangular shape of his compared to the slice of pie shape of mine
increases his distortion.



> Do they have overflow box in the corner? Drilled bottom?

They are available with and without the built-in overflow. The
built-in overflow will come with a drilled bottom...1" drain hole and
3/4" return hole. I purchased it with the overflow built in with the
All glass drain kit. 350gph is fine for this since it's a fish
only/no live rock system, so 7 times an hour is plenty. There are no
additional powerheads for that reason. I'm sure increased flow is
possible if necessary. Also, some use a durso instead of the AGA
drain kit.

The sump is a modified AquaClear Pro75 wet/dry with built in skimmer.
I removed the built-in one and with a little work, hung an AquaC
Remora in the same location instead. I made a bunch of other
improvements you can see too if you check out my website that I
e-mailed you.

I've had the tank now for about 3 months. I got it for well under $600
tax included for the tank,stand,glass top,dual bulb light,reef ready
with kit. I've bought a ton of stuff at my LFS so he hooked me up on
this purchase.

[Don Geddis]

"Pszemol" > writes:
> What about a corner one?
> I have seen tanks with one side curved and two stright sides.
> One overflow reservoir in the corner and I like this idea...

I've got a 55 gallon 1/4-circle bow front. Lots of fun. Works great
in a corner.

> But - I would like to know if you have such design and if it
> works in real life. What about view distortion from a cylindical
> glass? Is it visible?

You get a bit of a fish-eye lens effect, but it's actually quite interesting.
I don't think you'd be disappointed by the optics. (Mine is all-glass.)

> What about the water movement - is it
> easy to create strong water movements in this kind of shape?

Sure. What makes you think that a box-shape is easy to make good water? :-)
The front curve actually helps a bit, and you can send powerheads towards the
front glass from the two sides, which cause currents to meet each other at
angles and makes for nice turbulence.

> Generally, how do you like corner tanks?

The main drawback I've found: light hoods are designed for rectangular tanks.
From the top, my corner tank is bow-shaped. This results in bright light in
the center of the tank, but a bit dimmer in the corners. You may consider that
an advantage depending on your livestock, but it's worth knowing.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Just because swans mate for life, I don't think it's that big of a deal. First
of all, if you're a swan, you're probably not going to find a swan that looks
that much better than the one you've got, so why not mate for life?
-- Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

[Ken]

I upgraded last year from an Oceanic 55gal hex to their 92gal bow
front corner and it is very nice. The bow front does magnify some but
personally I like it. You do get some distortion if you look at
something from a weird angle, but overall it is nice.
One draw back I would point out is that this size tank is very deep
from front to back which makes it difficult to work on the overflow or
way in back of the tank. I only really encountered this problem when I
was doing the initial set up and just used a stool or small step
ladder.
IMO I would take another bow front corner over a hex any day. The hex
was nice but depending on the size it can be very deep whcih makes
lighting an issue. Also, in my hex I could only really build up,
there was not much room to build from side to side so once I got more
into reefs I began to run in to problems.

Ken D

"Pszemol" > wrote in message >...
> My 30g mini-reef is placed in a corner of my small living room...
> I am recently thinking about upgrade it to a little bigger tank.
> One idea is to go to 40g breeder tank, also 3 feet long, but if
> I have to replace the stand and buy a new one or make it myself
> I would rather go for a even bigger tank. What about a corner one?
>
> I have seen tanks with one side curved and two stright sides.
> One overflow reservoir in the corner and I like this idea...
>
> But - I would like to know if you have such design and if it
> works in real life. What about view distortion from a cylindical
> glass? Is it visible? What about the water movement - is it
> easy to create strong water movements in this kind of shape?
>
> Generally, how do you like corner tanks? Would a hexagon be
> better than a bow front in terms of how things look inside??
> Who would be best supplier of such not-rectangular tanks?
>
> I have dedicated this corner of the room for the tank. The
> area will fit only something not bigger then 36" on both walls.
> Please, share your opinions and give some suggestions...
> Thanks.

[Aquatic-Care]

Pszemol,

Goto my web site www.aquatic-care.com and look at the SW Pictures
section. Take a look at my customers 92 gal. corner reef. He loves it and it
came out real nice. I also have a 52 set up as well. They are one of my
favorite tanks designs. The only problem is the lack of space above and
below. It just costs more to by the necessary equipment to fit.

Todd
--
Aquatic-Care aquarium services
Freshwater/Sal****er
Since 1993
www.aquatic-care.com

[Pszemol]

"Aquatic-Care" > wrote in message ...
> Goto my web site www.aquatic-care.com and look at the SW Pictures
> section. Take a look at my customers 92 gal. corner reef. He loves it and it
> came out real nice. I also have a 52 set up as well. They are one of my
> favorite tanks designs. The only problem is the lack of space above and
> below. It just costs more to by the necessary equipment to fit.

How much is glass tank alone with the stand?
I understand, the canopy must be custom made if I want it to have MH/HQI.
This shape of a pie slice will be hard to work with...

[CapFusion]

"Ric Seyler" > wrote in message
...
My buddy Mike Schmidt made his bowfront hood and stand.
It really surprised me on how well it turned out. Looks real nice.

http://acrosreef.netfirms.com/html/stand.html

That corner DYI cabinet look VERY nice.

CapFusion,...

[Pszemol]

"Ric Seyler" > wrote in message ...
> My buddy Mike Schmidt made his bowfront hood and stand.
> It really surprised me on how well it turned out. Looks real nice.
>
> http://acrosreef.netfirms.com/html/stand.html

Agree - it is very, very nice.
I am missing such carpenter skills ;-)
I am not even considering doing the same myself...
Or maybe... I should try? What the heck ;-)
The worst case everything will land on the floor,
together with 90 gallons of water on my carpet ;-)

I have a question - both Oceanic and AllGlass offer such
92 gallon corner, pie-slice shaped tank for around $560
not drilled and $620 "reef ready". Is there any difference in
finishing quality or glass thicknes or silicon betwen them?
I am not interested in "oak", rather black finish...
The most important thing would be how good is this curved
piece of glass - same glass type in both? No distortions?

Somebody mentioned to me "safire" glass as an much better
but much more expensive option for a curved glass - what
is your opinion about it? Is it really worth it?

[Aquatic-Care]

"Pszemol"

I would sell the 54 gal. Corner for $305.00 US in black, and the stand
for $264.50 US. That is a 30% markup.
I would sell the 92 gal. corner for $524.74 US and the stand $331.34 US
in black. That is a 30% markup. The oak tank and stands are a few dollars
more.
I have no idea what stores are selling them fore.

Todd


--
Aquatic-Care aquarium services
Freshwater/Sal****er
Since 1993
www.aquatic-care.com