Rosebud161616's 15 gallon custom built nano

[rosebud161616]

Well I hope I'm not jinxing myself by starting this thread without water testing my tank, but here goes nothing...

I have had an idea in my head for some time for a nano tank. My husband, kev2me, and I have always thought we would get small nano cubes once we move and have dueling nanos. Well when this contest came along, I decided to move my idea up and get my nano going.

My idea was always to have a "cube" type tank that could be viewed from all sides and a center overflow. The rockwork would be like a volcano. The overflow would, of course, house the drain to the sump and the return plumbing. The idea is that you would not see any equipment in the tank whatsoever.

Then I plan to fill the center overflow most of the way with sand... making a sort of remote DSB. I plan to have mangrove growing out of the center of the "volcano."

I sat down with google sketchup and made some preliminary drawings. I found that the tank had to be more wide than tall in order to accommodate the overflow and still allow for pyramid type rockwork. So the tank ended up being more like a cube cut horizontally in half.

Here are a few pictures that I made with google sketchup. Don't make fun of them... there seems to be a huge learning curve with this program!

Here is a side view of the tank. The overflow will have 4 bulkheads, one for each side. The dimensions of the tank are 20x20x10. The center overflow is 6x6x9. With 1/4" glass, that leaves 3/4" from the total height of the sides. I estimate the water flowing over will add about 1/4" so the water height should be about 1/2" from the top. That tan part of the picture is 1" of sand.


Here is a side view with the overflow see through so that you can see the internal plumbing. I plan to have 2 stand pipes and then the return pump divided with a 5 way to the bulkheads. Yep I'll get a lot of head loss, but I feel like it is a good trade off for a nice, clean tank.


Top down view:


This is the view from the bottom looking up. I couldn't figure out how to make the "sand" fill like a rectangle so it looks like it's recessed. Just use your imagination.