- Location
- Westchester NY
I've been very busy the past few months building a concept for a custom reef tank that I've had for a while. My idea is to build a tank that will implement waterfalls as a key aesthetic feature but yet be a completly funtional reef tank. In addition to this I wanted a tank that will have a built in frag tank, a seperate sump to hide all equipment, absolutly NO POWER heads in the main display tank as I am shooting for a natural look and power heads or any equipment in the main display just detracts from the overall apeal for me. I also NEEDED this tank to be super quiet as it is going in the LR and the wife just won't have that 
Maintenance and automation is a real big concern which I hope to address with this design. Basically it will be a fully functioning reef that will require as little maintenance as possible with the aid of pushing todays tried and tested technology as far as I possibly could. That was the concept anyway and my hope is that I can take my 15 years of reefing expierience and draw upon the many mistakes that I and many others have made and do this right. This was a pretty ambitiouse design problem but I felt I was ready to tackle it after planning it for months and came up with actual construction documents for the build. First, I started to sketch it all out and then refined the sketches and then more refining untill I got it to the point I could start inputing some concrete numbers and information into a CAD program. For those of you who jump right into building befor a good solid design and plan...STOP! I would highly recomment to reconsider this approach even if its a simple box. Have someone draw it out, you would be amazed by how many problems you can avoid with a solid design and construction document set. All too often no drawings leads to oversights, problems and issues during the build which raises the cost... Use the services of a qualified designer. This will save you the trouble later and will lead to a well rounded and functional design. It WILL also SAVE you money. A little pre-planning and investment upfront goes a long way towards getting what you want done right the first time.
Since I am a designer by trade I am lucky to have access to CAD design software and knowlege to implement it. Hire someone to do this for you if needed, nope not a builder. a BUILDER is just that a person who builds off of a plan. We ask alot of builders if we expect the to design something while they build it. You need a designer first then hire the builder of choice. If you have a concept start there and let the designer refine it for you and build upon this concept. . This is far too often overlooked and I commonly hear, my builder missed this or that only to find out that corners were cut and the builder had to devise a design as he was building. These guys are not designers they are builders.
Anyway my other passion is to see through the design and build the concept once I design it. I love building things. However, I take great pride in building it right the first time. If you don't than hire someone to build it for you. I have learned through expierience that whenever you cut corners, it will usually show in the final product. Whenever you try to save a buck, that too will show somewhere. There is a great deal of good literature out there that will give you basic skills to improve upon to build anything you want.
Lastly, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. I've havd people tell me this many times and this time was no exception to this rule. In my case I used this as fuel to move forward towards a finshed product... Don't get me wrong I tried to hire people for this build but it just didn't work out. It was time to take out the tools and do it myself
So I began the design process but will spare you the hundreds and hundreds of pages showing the design changes. Rather I'll jump right into the heart of it all and upload the nice stuff like the 3d CAD renderings that I produced and then go into some pictures of the actual build itself. That is if there is an actual interest...
Maintenance and automation is a real big concern which I hope to address with this design. Basically it will be a fully functioning reef that will require as little maintenance as possible with the aid of pushing todays tried and tested technology as far as I possibly could. That was the concept anyway and my hope is that I can take my 15 years of reefing expierience and draw upon the many mistakes that I and many others have made and do this right. This was a pretty ambitiouse design problem but I felt I was ready to tackle it after planning it for months and came up with actual construction documents for the build. First, I started to sketch it all out and then refined the sketches and then more refining untill I got it to the point I could start inputing some concrete numbers and information into a CAD program. For those of you who jump right into building befor a good solid design and plan...STOP! I would highly recomment to reconsider this approach even if its a simple box. Have someone draw it out, you would be amazed by how many problems you can avoid with a solid design and construction document set. All too often no drawings leads to oversights, problems and issues during the build which raises the cost... Use the services of a qualified designer. This will save you the trouble later and will lead to a well rounded and functional design. It WILL also SAVE you money. A little pre-planning and investment upfront goes a long way towards getting what you want done right the first time. Since I am a designer by trade I am lucky to have access to CAD design software and knowlege to implement it. Hire someone to do this for you if needed, nope not a builder. a BUILDER is just that a person who builds off of a plan. We ask alot of builders if we expect the to design something while they build it. You need a designer first then hire the builder of choice. If you have a concept start there and let the designer refine it for you and build upon this concept. . This is far too often overlooked and I commonly hear, my builder missed this or that only to find out that corners were cut and the builder had to devise a design as he was building. These guys are not designers they are builders.
Anyway my other passion is to see through the design and build the concept once I design it. I love building things. However, I take great pride in building it right the first time. If you don't than hire someone to build it for you. I have learned through expierience that whenever you cut corners, it will usually show in the final product. Whenever you try to save a buck, that too will show somewhere. There is a great deal of good literature out there that will give you basic skills to improve upon to build anything you want.
Lastly, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. I've havd people tell me this many times and this time was no exception to this rule. In my case I used this as fuel to move forward towards a finshed product... Don't get me wrong I tried to hire people for this build but it just didn't work out. It was time to take out the tools and do it myself
So I began the design process but will spare you the hundreds and hundreds of pages showing the design changes. Rather I'll jump right into the heart of it all and upload the nice stuff like the 3d CAD renderings that I produced and then go into some pictures of the actual build itself. That is if there is an actual interest...
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