Pffft, you said money was no object
Ok fine, you want the tank for my summer home in buffalo?
A "Peninsula" custom 10'x3'x18" Miracles in Glass aquarium with that separates the kitchen eating area from the livingroom. Viewable from 3 starphire glass sides. Supported from underneath with a nice steel Ibeam and adjustable steel stands to carry the massive weight. Probably cut out the foundation of the house, and pour more concrete under the posts to withstand the compressive force.
Tank will be lit solely with high-power LEDs all driven by a nice adjustable Lambda GEN power supply and custom dimmers. The sump will be a 300 gallon horse-trough lifted off the basement floor. Likely sump pump would be a Sequence Reeflo Barracuda with dual 1.5" returns to the "unviewed" wall, along with dual 2" drains on the same wall. That glass wall will be custom built with a glass weir and a custom Tunze-style wavebox installed just below the calfo-style drain. The wavebox will provide random flow. Below the wavebox will be a 3" bulkhead hole attached to a Sequence Reeflo Dart fitted with a swimming pool style strainer to keep creatures out. The Dart output will be 2" up into the hod where it will be manifolded to 4 outlets in each corner of the tank. Might have to go with one size up from the Dart, haven't really worked the numbers yet...
In the basement inside the sump will be a large home-made air stone driven skimmer. IMO, slapping tons of recirculation pumps or using a downdraft skimmer is realy just a big waste of energy when you start getting into really large skimmers. A BIG reaction chamber and enough bubbles from small air pump wooden airstones is eons more efficient, and gets the job done just as well. Also in the skimmer will be a Calcium reactor to deal with calc/alk/mg demand. Topoff will be accomplished with a 55gal drum and an ATO designed for warning via the internet interface of an aquacontroller for low water level. Pickling lime (aka kalkwasser) will be added to the topoff container via an auto feeder to maintain a high pH of the topoff water to counter the low pH of the calcium reactor. A laboratory style magnetic stirrer will periodically stir the topoff container to prevent precipitate from settling. Topoff pump will just be a smaller maxijet 1200 or mag 5, something like that. RO water will be added to the topoff container using an electronically controlled garden-hose timer. I'm sure minor seasonal adjustments will have to be made, but this will make things as hands-off and as safe as possible.
A smaller shallow horse-trough will also be attached to the sump as a seperate system with it's own drain and supply pump as a refugium. The large surface area and shallow depth will be ideal for growing macroalgae. Will likely light it with high-power LED's again and fill it with chaetomorpha
As mentinoed, control will be through an Aquacontroller III to provide as much automation as possible. Cooling will be dealt with via a closed loop circuit of 50' of coiled 3/4" flexible vinyl tube ran from the sump, coiled up in the house sump pump hole, then returned to the tank driven by a Mag 5. Geothermal cooling at it's easiest/finest
. The house will of course have to be modified for centrail air heating/cooling and have a custom 3-phase controllable blower motor. The blower will run low-speed (single phase) constantly to circulate air in the house and keep humidity levels relatively even. When heat/cool is required, the HVAC system will switch the fan to full power, and return to 1/3rd power once demand is met.
Tank electrics will be ensured via automatic stand-by gas generator and momentary lead-acid relay controlled, inverter supplied surge protection (for the ~5 seconds it takes the generator to turn on). Livestock will never know the difference if the power goes out
Speaking of which, stocking will be a Great Barrier Reef biotope
At least I could fit that in a normal sized home... Probably cost as much as the house, but you said money was no object
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLRubZGWXiY
just seen the vid, speechless, thanks Buddy
