I received a call from the owner of this aquarium today to notify me that this thread had been started on Reef Central and that it might be a good idea to post.
I am the owner of Midwest Custom Aquarium and had the pleasure of building the tank on site for the owner. I would have to reiterate the first post of this thread and mention again that he is your normal everyday fellow, a sincerely good guy and not a millionaire who had this system up and running with the signing of a check. His family seems to be high on his list of priorities and because it is a busy time of the year for his work schedule, simply does not have the time to put into a thread and thus has asked to not be involved for the time being. He has indicated that he may step in if he finds the time in the future and may be able to answer some of the questions that only he himself would be able to answer for you. I am sure there are many and it is not hard to imagine that many hours out of one's week could easily be spent on just answering questions.
I should mention that I am not a regular visitor to Reef Central. Although I am a member, I have maybe posted a time or two and do not plan on checking back on this thread very often as it is a busy time of year for me also. I have been asked to post in case anybody has questions regarding the tank itself. As I mentioned, I will probably not be able to post or answer any questions here on Reef Central due to time constraints but I can be reached at the shop at 866-682-4498 or can be emailed directly at
info@midwestcustomaquariums.com.
The tank itself is 100% acrylic. The outside dimensions are 184" long (over 15 feet), 60" deep, and 33" tall. The ends, bottom, and top are sunk into the rockwork which take up some viewing space but give a nice finished look. The liverock does have a PVC base onder some of it for a platform. I would have to agree that the pictures do not do it justice and that it does seem smaller in the pics. I am sure more pics will surface on this thread that may give a better idea. The pics of construction shown earlier are from our website and are the pics of that tank being built.
I would like to say that the owner should receive full credit for the design of this system....I built the tank only. From day one, he incorporated many features into the system that are beneficial to its health and maintenance. For example, there is a lot of heat generated my the thousands of watts of halides, which can be harnessed and used to heat the living space during the winter by the use of fans and ducts built into the house during construction. That is a lot of BTU's which are valuable to us up here in Minnesota during the winter months, especially with rising energy costs.
I have not been over and seen the tank personally since the first live rock was put in, put did see his former tanks and can say that they probably held the healthiest livestock I had ever seen. From the looks of the photos, this tank is on the same track. An experienced reefkeeper, only the owner could accurately tell you about his techniques and equipment used and deserves a lot of credit for the system he has worked very hard to put together. Please extend him some courtesy if he does happen to start posting by not hammering him with an extensive amount of questions.
Thank you,
Chris Boelke
Midwest Custom Aquarium