Going off the ledge: Would you be interested in a drop off aquarium?

[Peace River]

Going off the ledge: Would you be interested in a drop off aquarium?

Drop off tanks have always been fascinating to me, but I have never actually added one to my collections of tanks. For whatever reason, I have never completely understood the best way (or even multiple solid options) for aquascaping a drop off tank. After seeing the Eshopps Mariana drop off nano tank at Reef-a-Palooza, my interested has been reengaged and I have been thinking more about these tanks recently. What about you - would you be interested in a drop off aquarium? For some reason, adding a drop off nano doesn’t seem so daunting. Please let us know what you think about these tanks and share any tips for aquascaping a drop off tank!

Photo by @melfish


This QOTD is sponsored by Nutramar: https://www.qualitymarine.com/nutramar/

“Nutramar’s 100% natural food products are used by public aquaria and breeders around the world. They offer superior nutrition to your most finicky and delicate fish and invertebrates.

 

[Reefer Matt]

They are visually stunning, but I imagine they are difficult to clean depending on size. I can see flow being a challenge too.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I've always enjoyed the way drop off tanks look but I don't think I would ever personally want one/

 

[Dburr1014]

I wanted one, but at the tune of $10k, I declined.
I wanted a 150ish gallon, 5 footer. I had my ideas for flow and scape, I dreamed for a year for this. But that $$$ was a very hard pill to swallow!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I REALLY like the design and my creativity is engaged in thinking of possibilities. I agree that flow and scaping would be challenging. I have seen some nice setups with these!

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

I wanted one, but at the tune of $10k, I declined.
I wanted a 150ish gallon, 5 footer. I had my ideas for flow and scape, I dreamed for a year for this. But that $$$ was a very hard pill to swallow!

Sketch it up. We will build it. Keep the overall height below 24 inch. Heck of a lot less than 10 large. Clarify; not asking you to buy it. We just want to build one but per the desires of hobbyists

 

[Troylee]

Nope! Everything sucks about them if it’s a reef tank! I built myself one way before it became a thing. To many issues with flow, detruis, lighting etc. this was 15 years ago

 

[Troylee]

I wanted one, but at the tune of $10k, I declined.
I wanted a 150ish gallon, 5 footer. I had my ideas for flow and scape, I dreamed for a year for this. But that $$$ was a very hard pill to swallow!

That’s crazy! Even with today’s Inflated prices it’s not worth that much! Mine was exactly 150 gallons and cost me a weekend and $700 lol I still would never do it again unless it was a desk top or something.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

Not this

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

This. Just need the green answered.

 

[Biokabe]

This. Just need the green answered.

18 inches for the depth of your top shelf, 12 inches for the height. That gives you 56 gallons of volume on the top shelf, 93 on your bottom shelf, for a total display volume of 149 gallons with an 8" drop-off.

For flow to the bottom ledge, you could use some of the gyre pumps with the outlets rotated slightly downward to send flow down in there, plus powerheads down deeper specifically for that area... though you could simply designate that your area for low-flow corals.

At only 20 inches deep, you wouldn't see a huge drop-off in PAR back-to-front, unless you deliberately chose to under-light the front half of the tank to create a lower PAR zone.

I know you guys like to do AIO tanks - if you scaled up the height more, wouldn't it be possible to make a drop-off where the cavity underneath the back shelf is high enough to essentially fit a functional sump inside? Obviously access would be difficult in most against-the-wall installations, so it might not be feasible... but that's a pretty big cavity to just leave unused.

 

[albano]

Wouldn’t have a ‘drop off ‘ tank, even if it was for free!

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

With all the new tech out there I'm sure there are ways of flow not being an issue. Lighting would definitely not be a problem. Maybe closed loop for flow on deeper part would answer that!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

This is the reef in my classroom. It’s a different take on drop-offs, as the shallow end is elevated off the bottom so that water can flow through the lagoon end sand bed. The mangroves love that.

 

[JayM]

Not this

I'm am obviously a very poor sketch artist, but how about this? Go big or go home!

 

[liddojunior]

The problem with the drop off aquarium is the design. Its a single drop and its something you can do with rockscapes without the issues from the design for flow.

If we were able to replicate tide pools in the aquarium, that would be such a cool drop off style aquarium design.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

I'm am obviously a very poor sketch artist, but how about this? Go big or go home!

Easy.

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

With all the new tech out there I'm sure there are ways of flow not being an issue. Lighting would definitely not be a problem. Maybe closed loop for flow on deeper part would answer that!

Closed loop and/or with flow nozzles on the ends. We have done them both ways. I am a big fan of reverse flow undergravel/substrate filtration. We are going to build this bad boy.

18 inches for the depth of your top shelf, 12 inches for the height. That gives you 56 gallons of volume on the top shelf, 93 on your bottom shelf, for a total display volume of 149 gallons with an 8" drop-off.

For flow to the bottom ledge, you could use some of the gyre pumps with the outlets rotated slightly downward to send flow down in there, plus powerheads down deeper specifically for that area... though you could simply designate that your area for low-flow corals.

At only 20 inches deep, you wouldn't see a huge drop-off in PAR back-to-front, unless you deliberately chose to under-light the front half of the tank to create a lower PAR zone.

I know you guys like to do AIO tanks - if you scaled up the height more, wouldn't it be possible to make a drop-off where the cavity underneath the back shelf is high enough to essentially fit a functional sump inside? Obviously access would be difficult in most against-the-wall installations, so it might not be feasible... but that's a pretty big cavity to just leave unused.

There are ways to utilize that cavity as an integrated part of the main tank. It does not need to be "outside". We've built these before. Just not as a standard offering. And yes, we like AIO's. For this one, I am thinking our ReefPoint Shallow Reef Lagoon Open Sump AIO. Eight inches wide with third party protein skimmer. >>> https://www.tenecoraquariums.com/collections/hushflow®-powersump-aio-aquariums

These are my personal favorites. These were designed with input from R2R members, particularly @tharbin.

 

[radiata]

Who would opt for 14 seams versus 8 seams.? Aren't 8 enough to worry about?

 

[vetteguy53081]

My drop off was an enjoyable tank, just not big enough and do agree, it offered a few dead spots with detritus buildup and dead spots for flow