I'm liking the 10' long tank tank. If your go 36" front to back and 24"-27" deep you might be able to get a way with four 250 HQI and couple t-5. But you would have to run the lights about 12"- 16" off the water for a good spread (Helps with cooling).

Lots of good ideas there good planing.

It is my advice that you cannot sacrifice maintenance. If any aspect of keeping the tank is difficult to do, it won't get done.

Well on a tank this size easy maintenance is a must! Monthly water changes of say 200G is not going to get done by buckets :mrgreen:

I do know this tank will be built on site, and the final dimensions will need to work with what the house has to offer, e.g. windows & doors to get the glass in. Other then that so far I don't know. Kevin wants to build the tank himself again, but we haven't really discussed it yet.

I know that I don't like powerheads in the tank, so I want to try and avoiding putting them in for any other reason beyond emergency purposes. I still want to go with Oceans Motions 4 or 8 ways, how though, I haven't worked it out.

The lighting will be on sliding racks, which will pull out in banks, e.g. 2MHs & T5s in a bank. I want to be able to push the lighting out of the way for adding in livestock, or doing maintenance, but still have enough lighting from elsewhere to be able to see. I want to almost make each set of lighting banks its own system where you can shut them off to move it.

The room is pretty big, about 13.5ft wide at the smallest part, and probably 15.5ft wide at the largest spot. Its probably 25ft long, maybe 30. The ceiling is 7ft I think, although we have this one bulkhead that is somewhat in the way, but we think it can be moved/made smaller. We never actually measured the room, and that is probably something we should do. I definitely don't want to take away from the space we have if we can, as I think it will really enclose it in and have more negative drawbacks then positive ones.

I have a notebook that I've been recording ideas in since we got our house and started planning how we want to do everything. I flip through it once and awhile and remember all the little things I want to do.

This is probably going to be my last tank build for a long while, so I want to make sure I get everything done right the first time.

I like option two for the simple fact that you can view the tank while doing other activities, entertaining, tv watching etc. Option one seems to me like that room would be soley for the tank? You would only be in that room to view that tank and wouldn't really have the room for other activities?

So Kevins controller is sort of like this ?
http://www.appdig.com/adicon_new/ocelot.htm

Sounds like you are planning this very well and it will be a great build!

The only thing that I would think isn't such a good idea is building the tank yourself...600G + is kind of a lot of water :surprise:

We have decided to go with option 2, and in-wall tank will have more long-term benefits for us, and its the better choice overall. I haven't done any planning yet, but I'll get to it soon enough.

Its definitely time to go back to the feeding stick, little pieces of PVC are a pain, and the fish make a huge mess with them. The less aggressive fish, like the bristletooth or the scopas, aren't getting their fare share.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0439.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0470.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0512-2.jpg

I also wanted to show a bit of the awesomeness that came back with my clams from Tony's.

Look at the growth that came back on this one
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0529-1.jpg

These guys all grew a lot and got placed together on a rock. They need to be separated because they are soon going to start growing into each other
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0531.jpg

This guy came back with TONS of extra eyes
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0539.jpg

Tank sizes.

I know you have possibly made a decision on your sizing but any glass that is over 126" raises the cost exponentially.

Just to think about.
Kevin

I honestly have no idea. Kevin won't look at the page, he is too busy playing Fabel 2?

Well something is off in my tank. I'm going to try a water change to see if it helps things. 7 of my clams aren't looking so hot. They have retracted mantles, and I think a couple might already be on their way out. This is very frustrating. One more crash or semi-crash type event will probably make me want to give up the hobby.

I'm fed up with my tank right now, and I'm trying to be patient and waiting for things to come back in their own time, but its hard. Its harder when there are more downs then ups.