How would you spend 10k for a 8'lx2'wx3'h Setup

[hawk]

Your room size looks similar to mine (12'x8') it is tight but I made it work. My furnace and hot water tank were also in the same area. I partitioned off the furnace completely and switched from natural gas to electric for the hwt. Reason being, that I sealed the fishroom up very tight and have exhaust running 24/7 and didn't want to worry about negative pressure with the natural gas water tank in the same room. My tank is 96"x30x30" I'm glad I didn't go higher, I'm 6'3" and it is still a pain to get to the bottom of the tank. Extra depth front to back would be nice if space permits. The remainder of your budget will be chewed up pretty quick with just odds and ends, everything from extra heaters, sand, exhaust fans,cooling fans,wto, electrical up grades,cabinetry, the list goes on. I probably spent 1k just on plumbing. With the cost/investment involved in a big tank you'll also want back-up emergency power, built-in redundancy in heaters and water movement, etc. If you are planning a full-blown reef you can expect to spend min. $1500 on adequate water movement. Again with the investment involved I definitely would get a properly set-up qt system. At the end of the day you'll probably have at least a couple k worth of fish and even more in corals to protect from in-coming disease. It'll be a great project but be prepared to add significantly to your 10k budget. Good-luck

[rdnicolas]

Thanks for the feed back!, I'm going to take your comments and update the layout. I think I'll even do an elevation view for the mechanical room. I have a 9' ceiling in the basement so I was hoping to optimize square footage and take up more lateral space. I'm also planning to have access panels above the display tank so I can service the tank from both sides, however I realize the one corner will be tougher b/c of the furnace location... Perhaps I'll also add an access panel on the 24" end as well.....

Reggie

BTW the sump I show is actually my house weeping tile sump. I was assuming using my old tank as a sump (4') and sticking half of it under ther the display tank (in the form of an "L")