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L shaped tank with diagonal front panel

zozo

zozo

Member
Joined
16 Apr 2015
Messages
8,622
Location
Netherlands
This is actualy what i'm thinking about.. Not big and rather shallow with loads of emersed growth,, Actualy it should resamble a stream with a 90° bend where the back 90° corner wil completely be elevated to emersed and rounded.

Like this. Maybe smaller, just an idea.. My 3 tanks in one idea. :woot: i'm kinda dreaming about.. Only top view.
Naamloos.jpg

I've seen a computer drawing of a tank like this.. But never a real one.. 🙂 In acrylic this aint such a difficult task, since acrylic can be completely machine routed.. But in glass i have my doubt's if it is possible to make this rimless. The 2 red circled corners are maybe my problem childs.

Naamloos.jpg
Have anyone of you ever seen a glass tank in this style.. Or if you are familiar with glass and kitting.. Could this be done without a rim in the 2 circled cornes? 20 cm high wont be a pressure issue.. But i have also no idea if a kit seam like that would stay water tight. 🙂
 
So far I only saw a regular L shape tank... this could be a challenge 🙂 20 cm height is not an issue but how you gonna glue those red circled corners? Silicone work will be much more visible there.
 
You see plenty of cheap hexagonal glass tanks, or at least you used to so I don't think the angle is a problem. Are you planning on building it yourself? I've made a few more traditional tanks and got the glass cut at a glazers where they have tools to bevel the edges, drill etc so I don't think that cutting at an angle would be out of the question.
 
Well, at the time it's just a brain child i would like to build, walking around with this idea for quite some time now.. If from glass i'm stuck with silicone. Maybe i have to start out realy small, not to spoil to much material if it fails. I've seen to most wicked tanks already, but these were all acrylic. Acrylic is relatively affordable, till it needs to be machined, then the price goes up 10x.. 🙁
 
mort said:
Are you planning on building it yourself?
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Yes ofcourse.. 🙂 It's diy or no go.. Western EuropeanTime-wage went sky high the last few decades, not an option. Material wise it's not so much.. But as soon as somebody need sto use a tool it's a different story. Once asked for a rectangular acrylic tank. The material was € 80, the build was €250 😵. That was the last time i asked anybody to build anything for me. 🙂
 
zozo said:
Yes ofcourse.. 🙂 It's diy or no go.. Western EuropeanTime-wage went sky high the last few decades, not an option. Material wise it's not so much.. But as soon as somebody need sto use a tool it's a different story. Once asked for a rectangular acrylic tank. The material was € 80, the build was €250 😵. That was the last time i asked anybody to build anything for me. 🙂
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Yeah sorry i'm a bit behind with prices. I was in the trade so could buy hand made tanks for less than the cost of the glass. I think DIY on this shouldn't be too bad seam wise, the bit i'm not sure about it the base (i'm sure its possible but very hard with glass, would be easy with acrylic though). It looks complicated but Silicon peels off fine if you need to redo it. Its also more forgiving than acrylic in that you get another go.
 
Problem you may have if this is to be a stream set up, is establishing flow; unless you did a sump with outlet at one end and inlet at the other, which could be awesome. Might even get away with doing it on a large canister...
 
mort said:
not sure about it the base
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It needs to be made from 3 pieces and needs to be internal.. Than it's easy to seal of with a smaller sheat of glass on top of the base.

Aqua360 said:
Problem you may have if this is to be a stream set up, is establishing flow; unless you did a sump with outlet at one end and inlet at the other, which could be awesome. Might even get away with doing it on a large canister...
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It most likely will run on a sump if it is ever to be made. It doesn't need to be a raging river or something extremely fast flowing. Also not leaning towards high tech with this. Definitely low tech and lots of emersed growth.. Can't help, down hill from my house is a creek and i see it every day.. It makes a 90° curve and what interests me the most is the way its eroding the outside wall of the curve.. Thats where the challange comes in hardscape wise to replacate that in such a smale scale.. That's where i get my inspiration that darn creek and since it a daily image passing by can't get this idea out of my head. 🙂
 
Yes indeed Paulus that's the idea, tho it looks like in this example the angle is less the 45°.. I wonder if this due to constructional limitations or a personal choice. In an aquarium where height is required like this it indeed isn't realy aesthetic, it would also not be my choice, it trashes the view and focal point and distracts a lot in that tank dimension and how it is set up.

In my case i want to make it much smaller, real dimensions overall are not yet determined but very shallow max. 20cm where the focal points are more in the emersed part and the submersed part. Ofcourse needs to be miniaturaly scaped as well and kept with in the borders.. Things you just can't go around is strange visual effect when looking trough angled panels of glass. But the whole setup should be viewed as a whole and not only whats going on inside submersed. So it wont be an aquarium and it shouldn't be viewed like that. Tho very up close it can and this i have to consider with scaping it the right way.

Because it will be rather small and shallow glass thikness can be reduced, 4mm is more than enough, so the seams wont need distractingly fat but stil present. 🙂
 
I'm also not sure how i'm going to construct this.. Have sevral ideas going around in my had which are very good possible. Like i've seen a lot of wooden/epoxy tanks with only glass front panel.

It could be a very nice option to construct this from wood and only glass front panels. 🙂
 
Are the dimensions on the top drawing correct ? 60+30=90 so there's no space for the angled piece using the dimensions you've initially provided.
 
webworm said:
Are the dimensions on the top drawing correct ? 60+30=90 so there's no space for the angled piece using the dimensions you've initially provided.
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For now the dimensions are fictional, only thing that stands is the height and will be not over 25cm. The drawings are just rough sketches made with mspaint. I never do drawings actualy.. Well the drawings are in my head, that's just the way i always worked.

Since it a custom build, if i go on with this project, i will at first collect suitable hardscape materials, lay it out and make the ideal measurements. I found out by now after 2 custom projects that it is easier to build the tank around the scape, then scape with natural materials in a fixed space. Like missing a few cm of depth can be enough not to be able to use a very nice piece of hardscape without putting the saw or hammer to it and distroy it complete character. Or the scape is just not in right scale. So for now the dimensions stay rather flexible and an estimate could vary in depth and lenght and hieght within a few centimeters. Identical shaped hardscape a size smaller is impossible to find. 🙂 And i do not have a huge pot of cash to keep buying hardscape materials and see if it fits. unfortunately.. 🙂
 
Ok. Just asking the obvious question really. How about as you've previously suggested plywood for the main body of the tank. If you went with acrylic for the viewing aperture you could have a single piece bent to fit without any seams, joins or obstructions.

Some pointers for a plywood aquarium:
 
Yes that could well be an option, with such shallow there aint much acrylic thiknes required. But im not a fan of that hole in a wooden chest idae.. I rather route a slid and work the glass or acrylic into in the wood. I need to talk to some carpenter/wood worker what my option are there. Still bending it to make it fit, requires machinery, bending this by hand with a blow torch, not going to burn my fingers on that.. So within in my own skill set i need to make some compromises and know my limitations.

A man's got to know his limitations.. Who was that again?? I believe a Dirty Harry quote?. :lol:

But playing with wood and glass etc to build a tank.. Can be a nice thing to realy merge it pretty together with a nifty construction...
 
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Manisha said:
Dirty Harry's a stinker...
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Hence his name.. :lol:

Manisha said:
how's this project going?!
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For now this project is still only in my mind.. First i want to do some simple square tests with wood / epoxy and glass.. I'll mix it in next summer with Mission bathtub 2017 in the garden. So i can test the durability of the design i have in mind. If it still doesn't leak after a year standing outside, then i'm confident it will do good indoors as well. 🙂

Might build it sooner and put it in the seller.. Dunno yet.
 
Saw this and thought of your ancient thread Marcel...not quite as ambitious as your plans, but cool nevertheless. Originally posted on the Barr Report https://barrreport.com/threads/hello.15936/

20180718_131844-jpg.jpg
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Great tank!!. And very cleverly scaped in that corner too 🙂 Exept it's to minimalsitic and much to bright for this fish choice. Actualy would be a perfect gold fish scape. Thanks for posting it.. It's definitively an inspiration from the scaping side.. :thumbup:

And thanks for reviving this idea.. Was about to forget about it, because the most ideal spot in my home is already taken with a tank that is far from done. But now it got me thinking again..
 
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