How about this,
The tank IS the house and I live inside the tank.
You said dream.
You mean
this tank?
Seriously, I have one that I think about in all the boring useless meetings I have to attend at work.
Drop off type tank. BUT, the drop off's actual depth from surface to sand is 40". The top of the dropoff is a reef crest, with two Kessil 360s (thus, 48" wide). Below 20 inches, I have some deeper non photosynthetic corals.
And here's the kicker: at the bottom of the wall, I want to keep garden eels. 8 of them, so we need at least 8 square feet and 12 inches of DSB for the smaller, aquarium friendly ones. So, the actual tank depth is 52" (40"wall +12"DSB), and to give the eels a bit of room the width from the wall is 3ft (especially since the "wall" is actually a slope).
So, the dropoff area is 48x36x40 (52 in actuality).
The pre-dropoff area is the top of the crest - a dense shallow water reef crest coral area, with a large anemone and a clownfish or 5 - and then a good bit of sand with a patch reef or two (maybe one with shallow water gorgonians?). 48X36X16. This gives my tangs a good 6' to swim in. The fish stocking possibilities are endless.
I think that's like 500 gallons. Cnidarian "chemical warfare" might be interesting in this tank.
I also want a display refugium of 200 gallons to absorb the nutrients. This would be a seagrass bed.
Connected to this would be a 'pod and plankton culture tank (to feed everything!). Water changes would need an elaborate plumbing system and huge RO containers. More practically (or less?), if I lived by the sea I could get local saltwater to save having to mix salt (at the cost of having to use a pickup and trailer water container if I use a local aquarium-friendly seawater source). To be honest, this is better suited for a public aquarium (if I owned a small shopping mall or somesuch, the proceeds could easily fund the tank, and the tank would attract business.
).
Quite impractical and expensive. It would look cool though. Or at least I think so.
