Odd shaped tanks?

C

CandidQuality

Anyone here ever get into designing tanks? Or simply had a desire to see something other than the standard squares? I was playing around with the idea today and came up with this.

It's just a work in progress. Thinking about making a clear section on the right and using that for the refugium. Maybe with some acrylic plumbing as well. Originally thought about this as it would help the flow of a tank. And it's not really that hard to build.

So anyway, tell me what you think, or give me an idea of yours and when I get the chance I'll give it a whirl and see if I can show you what your dream tank could look like.

Just something to tinker with in my spare time.

Thinking about the flow going left to right, and maybe a wavemaker going front to back? eh, who knows.

Edit: added a few more views.
 
Version 2. Decided to curve the sides in. Structurally makes no real difference, just looks a bit better. Changed the material to a clear acrylic, and added water and about 5 inches of sand in the bottom.
 
Depending on a volume you are shooting for I would think any thing over a nano size would not work as you are not disrtubiting the weight. What makes a regular tank handle the weight of the water is the four corners and and weight being distributed on top of them in your design weight is not evenly distributed. Also I bet you would need to go over an inch thick in acrylic and have thicker eurobracing. I am no structural engineer but my acrylic teneview tank is an inverse bowfront and I have at least 4 to 6 inch eurobracing around my tank


Another this is you would only be able to look at the fish from the from everything on the sides would be distorted

It does look like a neat design might post on rc and might get more expert analys on if this design would work or not work
 
Thanks for the input. I'm not really concerned about making it myself. From my figures it would be around 1461 pounds of salt water for 175 gallons. With this particular design I think .350" acrylic would work. If someone here wants one that size I could probably slap one together from scrap, but this is more of a design ideas thread. Haven't even put in the overflows or any of the plumbing necessary.

The brace around the top is 2 inches.

As far as a front only design. Yep. probably is. Might work as an in-wall unit. or an area bordered with plants as pictured.

Could use some better design on the light fixtures as well to stop the bleed over into the room. As far as support, this design is supported by 77 square inches of contact area. +1461/77=99psi. Crazing occurs at 1500psi or so. So we have a safety factor of about 15**. Obviously the weight will not be entirely distributed evenly, but without the proper software I can't say the exact numbers. Odds are that there wouldn't be enough variation to exceed the 1500 mark in any location though. Acrylic really is some tough stuff.


You mentioned posting on "RC" for more critical feedback. If you let me know what that is I'll take a look. I was just thinking about design Ideas, but finding someone who has the software needed to get some technical feedback would be interesting.

If you have an idea you want to see, let me know. Takes the computer longer to render it that it does for me to create the models. Usually less than an hour.

Was trying to keep it just to design ideas here. The above information is incomplete and gets confusing if you don't deal with it everyday. If someone wants a critical analysis of a design to see what size material is needed, then they need to take it to an engineer and pay them to certify it anyway. And they can have a certified stand designed at the same time. If someone wants a rough sketch like these I'd be happy to help them out. If they want me to make an educated guess I'll be happy to as well. As this is a hobby forum and anything on the internet should be taken with a grain or oolitic.



** Didn't add in the weight of the acrylic itself, so need to adjust that number later.
 
Yea, the RC = www.reefcentral.com. There is a thread about Modern Reef Aquariums. It was the thread of the month a while back and they love that kind of stuff in there. I'd definately post this in their thread and you'll get some great feedback.
 
Thanks, Giving that a shot now. Called it "Odd tank designs:concepts (anything but square)". I would have went with the original post you mentioned, but I didn't want to turn it in a slighty different direction.
 
Allrighty. thanks to someone's suggestion over on RC I came up with this design. Ignore everything but the tanks itself as I've not had a chance to clean it up properly.

Ok. How about this idea. Again, it's a rough concept, 5 foot viewing panels on either side. The octagonal arch goes over a 10 foot span before landing in the next support. Bottom of the arch is 48 inches from the floor. Should allow for some seating of some type. Heck, might even be able to setup your bed under it. 1.5 inch acrylic. Capacity of about 622 gallons.

The 3d sketch
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A finished render
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It's a software called "Rhino", with it's render program "Flamingo" for this type of software it's fairly cheap at about $1500 for the package. Go check it out. I think they've a demo version if I remember correctly.
 
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