What size tank would you go with?

[fishoholic]

I think a 65g would be a good size for those fish and would fit well in the space you have. Also plumbing it to the large system would be a cost effective way to go.

[Delphinus]

Thanks guys. Yeah sounds like 65g is a good win. Funny enough I have one but it's the upstairs FW tank and I'm not touching that one since that will end up as a gong show of "move this to here but first move that out of the way and swap this and that" and then the next thing I know I'll be asking how the heck it became 2012 and I still have an empty 280g because I'm pathetic and won't move the fish out of the cube until EVERYthing is ready for EVERYone and quite frankly my self-esteem has enough issues as it is so I think we can all agree it's just best not to go there for the sake of saving a dollar.

... Unfortunately plumbing it into the main tank is not really a possibility unless I could somehow route pipes along 3 walls to get it to the spot where the tank could fit. I totally see a benefit to having a false floor like a computer server room where you could route pipes in the subfloor. Hmmmmm the NEXT tank room I build is totally going that route.

It's easy enough to keep the current skimmer and so on although I suppose for cost control that's not the wisest. I suppose if I put it where I was thinking of putting the frag tank and not bothering with a frag tank for the time being this could work though. Argh, decisions! Now I have to think some more. Thinking is hard work.

[Myka]

Grab a 15 gallon tank for a frag tank. 24x12x12" is really easy to fit into tight spots, and 24" lights are cheap...you could get away with 2x24w T5 easily. I have some high light SPS under 2x39w T5, and they are really well colored. They are only about 5" from the bulbs.