Lone Reefer

I've always loved mixed materials in buildings and designs. The last home my family built had dark, charcoal grey polished concrete floors. My room had light green walls and rich wood furniture. It was actually very calming. Since then I've played around with a few ideas. I built a concrete fish tank that functioned fine but didn’t come out perfect and I never had a second go at it since it was pretty hard to make. But let’s bring it forward to today. Plywood tanks. I've read up on all the ones I can find and I'm sure you’ve seen some of them as well. All of them seem to be 300G plus. But what’s wrong with a small one. Yes I started down this road to save money but the design grew and the plans changed and now this is what I want. Not just what I can afford. It reminds me of the big tanks everyone has. They all have a wood stand (unless you’re Marc) and most have a wooden hood. Let’s face it, wooden accents just look good with a reef when done right. But what about us apartment livers who can't ante up to a tank that needs anything made of wood. I wanted more than a tank, more than black plastic and glass. I wanted something that captivates me with more than what is on the inside. After months of drawing and thinking I’ve got my design down. AND THE WOODS ALREADY CUT!!!! Within 24 hours of deciding to make it I bought the wood and cut it up. So no MS paint to tease you with. Here’s the tank.

I will have filtration on both sides running one at a time. Not sure on the timing yet but this will give me a nice changing flow. Each side will be packed with rubble and have mangroves growing out of it. The wood will be stained to a natural dark color. This will give me my brown dead wood and live green colors growing out. I’m going to go with t5s or PC since its only 14 deep and it will mainly be chalice. Nothing in the picture is screwed together yet. Tonight I picked up the epoxy and already have a test coat going on scrap wood.

Updates will follow.