OTT Reef Tanks and Ideas: Have you ever built one or plan to build one?

[Northwest_Scapes_]

In keeping with the theme of awesome, spectacular, amazing reef aquariums we have to talk about OTT Reef Tanks! What's that you might ask? OTT stands for OVER THE TOP! I just made that up and now it's a new reefing fad! Work with me here for a minute. So yes the thread title was a little bait and hook title but an OTT reef tank is something we've all dreamed about right?! Some of you are even living the OTT Dream now! Let's talk about it!

What is an OVER THE TOP (OTT) reef tank idea or dream that you've thought about building or implementing?

Come on now.....we're talking about those ideas and tanks that are extreme and OTT!

@WWC Lagoon Tank

I haven't done anything big yet that I want to do (something 300 gallons + is the dream) (heck I haven't even done a 75 yet )
However for Nano Tanks, I finally went through with an idea I've had for a long time: An NPS Nano. It's a 20 Gallon Long, there's no Coral in it yet (by the end of the month I should get the first one or 2 in) but I figured out all the Temperature & Flow needs, setting up a feeding schedule with plans to build an auto feeder for when I go away, and more.
An NPS Tank has always been something I wanted to do but the amount of work for a large system was too intimidating. After seeing some others do it successfully in smaller systems, I decided to go for it.
I hate to self promo but if you look on my profile you'll find the thread, hopefully this tank succeeds. I have the drive and motivation right now, hopefully it doesn't fizzle out in a few months and that leads to the demise of the tank.

 

[i cant think]

A low flow cold water tank with weedy seadragons. Just wish they weren't so expensive

I didn’t even know they were being bred… That price tag though, wonder if anyone’s tried them yet?

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I didn’t even know they were being bred… That price tag though, wonder if anyone’s tried them yet?

I remember Alyssa Seahorse Savvy had gotten a group and we're trying to breed them as apart of a breeding program, although the updates stopped so I'm not sure what happened to that group. (Perhaps they went to a Public Aquarium?)
I know Public Aquariums have had quite a lot of success with breeding them, but as far as the Aquarium Trade, I've only seen 1 person whose has a group of 4 and her name is Deborah Corker for those interested, she did an Interview about her experience keeping them.
To my knowledge, they're actually Illegal to export out of Southern Australia now so the only way they're obtained by Aquariums, is from other Aquariums who are breeding them. I'm not sure how someone in the hobby gets them.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

I saw a video on Youtube where two guys converted their in-ground swimming pool into a FOWLR and now they swim with their fishes. Very cool!

Awhile back there was a LFS here that had an interesting display. It had the dimensions of a huge kiddie pool and it was full of rays. They would come right up to me like little puppies looking to make a new friend. I would have that in my man cave in a heartbeat (if I had a man cave).

 

[Big Smelly fish]

At 70 years old my answer is no.

 

[Fish_Fry]

I don't have the time or budget to go truly go OTT, especially with SW.

I was working on plans for a building plywood tank for use as a FW paludarium. I put those plans on hold when my wife found a credenza to go where I was going to put it.

In a more subdued & humble approach to OTT, my next tank is going to be a nano with very elaborate plumbing (which will be OTT for a nano). The goal of this is for me to practice & develop my plumbing skills, while making something visually interesting for my office.

Keep the posts coming, I love seeing everyone's creative side.

 

[Crustaceon]

No for lack of volume in relation to usable household space reasons, not to mention the glaring problem of viewing fish, which typically don't swim tilted on their sides.

 

[design.maddie]

I always wanted an oil rig in my tank. Huge square tank in the entrance way or something similar. 1500gallon cube? I want a larger(miniature) oil rig right in the center with the overflows going through the base.

 

[cmor1701d]

My OTT dream tank requires me winning a very large lottery first. Then I can work with an architect in building a house around the aquarium. This entails multiple tanks all connected via glass swim throughs. Basically the tanks wrap around the house from room to room. I'd like a mangrove lagoon up high leading out to a very large circular tank in the middle of the house. I also love the idea I saw on Tanked where there is a bb tank over the bed so you can look up and see the fish.
Lots of obstacles to overcome but after hitting a large lottery I'm sure it could be done. Oh, of course I'd have a marine biologist on hand to tend to the tank inhabitants, coral, etc.

Might as well dream big for a true OTT aquarium.

 

[HBtank]

Mine is a massive cold water tank stocked with local/regional species. Big enough for calico bass to thrive. Get a permit to legally keep garibaldi.

 

[death-by-reef]

my dream is to design a house around a 500,000g system but have glass walls and make it 245,000g freshwater a 245,000 reef and a 10,000g brackishwater with full grown mangroves

When i dream I dream BIG

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

Looks like someone dumped a large bag of skittles in there.

Nailed it. Something about the dimensions and ratios of this tank that makes it look like something scarface would have in his house. Just missing the palm trees in the sunset wallpaper behind it to really make it pop.

 

[GSM_OFS]

My OTT build is currently cycling in miniature scale right now, and might get implemented into a larger system down the road. It is a 68 gallon lagoon style with glass lily pipes for the returns(like the planted tank folks use), and a cube tank sunken into the stand to hide the 6" deep sand bed.

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

Funny, my wife is doing the opposite. I was backing away from my big dream tank build and she said "you should do it". So we are currently finishing a small addition to our house so I can relocate the laundry room and make that space a fish room for a 250g in-wall build.

But in the end my future setup would not qualify for Over The Top status.

Sounds like a great build idea. I don't see the appeal of OTT tanks since they'll inevitably be difficult to maintain for a variety of reasons (volume, dimensions, etc). A 250G system is probably around the max I would also consider to be manageable. I have so much coral, much of which I'm not too excited about that If I setup a 400G system, it would be wall to wall, and completely over-run in 6 months, but that would also be a nightmare to maintain. My goal is to widdle my corals down to what I really like and get rid of the rest eventually. Quality over quantity.

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

My OTT build is currently cycling in miniature scale right now, and might get implemented into a larger system down the road. It is a 68 gallon lagoon style with glass lily pipes for the returns(like the planted tank folks use), and a cube tank sunken into the stand to hide the 6" deep sand bed.

Cool build. I'm in CO too. LMK if you need some coral.

 

[mdrReefer]

In keeping with the theme of awesome, spectacular, amazing reef aquariums we have to talk about OTT Reef Tanks! What's that you might ask? OTT stands for OVER THE TOP! I just made that up and now it's a new reefing fad! Work with me here for a minute. So yes the thread title was a little bait and hook title but an OTT reef tank is something we've all dreamed about right?! Some of you are even living the OTT Dream now! Let's talk about it!

What is an OVER THE TOP (OTT) reef tank idea or dream that you've thought about building or implementing?

Come on now.....we're talking about those ideas and tanks that are extreme and OTT!

@WWC Lagoon Tank

In keeping with the theme of awesome, spectacular, amazing reef aquariums we have to talk about OTT Reef Tanks! What's that you might ask? OTT stands for OVER THE TOP! I just made that up and now it's a new reefing fad! Work with me here for a minute. So yes the thread title was a little bait and hook title but an OTT reef tank is something we've all dreamed about right?! Some of you are even living the OTT Dream now! Let's talk about it!

What is an OVER THE TOP (OTT) reef tank idea or dream that you've thought about building or implementing?

Come on now.....we're talking about those ideas and tanks that are extreme and OTT!

@WWC Lagoon

 

[scottbapilot]

So in high school I was friends with the son of a big music producer. We got to go to his house for his 16th. This house was super modern and ridiculous. Craziest of all was a third story pool with a glass bottom over the first story TV room.
I want that except a tank and maybe the walls rather than the bottom. Or a swimming pool next to a giant take separated by a glass wall. IDK haha not that I'll ever have that money!


Edit: I also met a kid who would go on to be the most obnoxious of pop stars there...

Tell Justin we all said "Hi"

 

[Slocke]

Tell Justin we all said "Hi"

Wow
Got it first try.

 

[Jeeperz]

In keeping with the theme of awesome, spectacular, amazing reef aquariums we have to talk about OTT Reef Tanks! What's that you might ask? OTT stands for OVER THE TOP! I just made that up and now it's a new reefing fad! Work with me here for a minute. So yes the thread title was a little bait and hook title but an OTT reef tank is something we've all dreamed about right?! Some of you are even living the OTT Dream now! Let's talk about it!

What is an OVER THE TOP (OTT) reef tank idea or dream that you've thought about building or implementing?

Come on now.....we're talking about those ideas and tanks that are extreme and OTT!

@WWC Lagoon Tank

How on Earth would you ever clean that tank? It's awesome though

 

[AlexG]

Do I qualify as having an OTT aquarium?