It's probably a couple cubic feet. I've already started construction, but before I dive in, a few words (ha ha, "few" as if I could ever post only a few words) about my approach to this tank.
I've been thinking about a tank like this for years. Hence, I've had a lot of time for thoughts to wander. This has let me set some concrete goals, rather than just rush in to a project. I tend to be a rusher by nature, so this has been a learning experience for me. But I'm very excited about the potential. The process of designing this tank has led me to some unconventional decisions, but I'm comfortable with that - since each of them is backed up with some sort of "ah hah!" moment where I realized that there has always been a certain
something missing in each of the tanks I've created to date. I wouldn't call this project a perfect design for me, but it's far ahead of anything else I've done.
My main goal:
Overall look/feel. Rather than concentrate on hot fad corals, or which fish I'll be keeping, I've tried to design every aspect of this system from a big-picture point of view. I want this to look like a system designed by an architect or interior designer as part of the home,
not like something tacked on by a hobby enthusiast. Hence, it's going to be built-in. Also, rather than just plop it in a convenient spot in the house, I tried to think out the impact that different locations would have on our living habits. Here is a (embarrassingly rough and not to scale) floorplan of the first floor of our home:
As you can see, there's a wide open living space on the bottom half of the plan - the kitchen/dining room/living room are all open to eachother, and open to the spot where the tank will be. That's all more or less public space in the home. On the top half of the plan, there's a bunch of "private" space - two bedrooms and a bathroom. You can see where the planned spot for the tank is. Right now, that spot is open, and very awkward. You can't put a table or any furnishings there, so it ends up being a kind of no-mans land. Plus, the public and private areas in the home are completely open to eachother right now. So, locating the tank there will solve all of these problems, while making it visible from as much of the home as possible (you'll be able to see it from the kitchen, living room, dining room, hallway, and one of the bedrooms. Pity I couldn't open up the floor above so it could be seen from the second story, too!)
With location out of the way, I next concentrated on the look of the tank itself. I wanted the tank to look clean and permanent - so throwing a big glass box on a stand was out of the question. But, I wanted to take this look to the highest extreme: I don't even want it to look like a fish tank, I want it to look like a piece of glass floating in the wall, with the ocean behind. So, the stand, hood, etc. will all be flush with the surrounding surfaces in the home, with as small an impact as possible.
Taking that thought to the next level - you'll notice that the tank is essentially a peninsula. I like the fact that this reveals more of the tank for viewing, but I also don't want the entire tank to be visible from all angles. To me, that spoils the mystery. If you can take in the entire tank with one glance, your mind instantly knows it's "just a fish tank" even if it is impressive. I don't want that feeling - I want a sense of interest and mystery. I want the viewers to feel like they have to keep walking around the tank to see it all - new lines of sight from every angle, with little repetition. I want to get the same effect as in Japanese gardening technique - where the entire garden is never revealed at first glance - you have to walk down some winding path to see the truly magnificent views.
That's what ultimately led me to a plywood tank instead of glass. With a glass tank, the obvious choice in a peninsula configuration is to have it visible on three sides. Instead of going with that default for my plywood tank, I'm going to use a full-size viewing panel ONLY on the "front" of the tank - the side that faces the public space in the home. On the end and back side, there will be smaller viewing panels. With a plywood tank, this will be easy to accomplish. Again, here's a clumsy rendition in sketchup:
These smaller viewing panels should help break up the view. From those two sides, you'll just get a slice of the action, instead of seeing everything from the sandbed up to the water's surface. Hopefully, the effect created will be that your mind wonders what's behind the wall, out of sight - inviting you to come closer, and walk around the tank.
I've got a few more photos of progress so far, and lots more thoughts about the overall design, but that's enough for now.
btw. I got a cool new build going rite now..took the 500 down tired of the wife complaining and huge power bills...I got me a new funky style tank going...big drop off tank..
