Finally, in February 2001, I decided that my corals were outgrowing my small
tank. Also there were a few things that I'd learnt from keeping the small
tank that would work well when scaled up. Therefore, it was time for a new
larger tank.
I have had tanks that acted as a room divider and tanks flush against the wall. Both methods have advatanges but all fail in that they take too much room space. Looking around the house, I decided that I wanted my tank to be in the main living area, the lounge. Luckily because of the age of the house (1905), it had a 122cm (48") alcove. This length of tank is imposing without being dominating for my room. The one problem with the alcove was that it is only 38cm (15") deep.
Over the years I have kept with the standard front to back measurements which is around 38cm (15"), however the problem with water is that it appears to compress distances. This was something that I wanted to avoid and so went for 69cm (27"). It still amazes me that the distance to the back wall appears much less than it really is. I guess most people have gone through this. When you buy the tank it looks huge, but then after setting it up, suddenly it is much smaller.
For the height, I just went as deep as my arms could reach, 61cm (24"). Actually, on reflection this failed to take into account that I only access my tank from the front so the distance from top-front to bottom-back is much more than I can reach ... ooops! Still, a tall tank does look more impressive than a shallower one, so its a mistake I don't really regret.
In order to get water to and from the tank, I decided to include a little bit of redundancy and went for 2 corner overflows. Each weir has two 35mm (1.5") holes in the base, one for a Durso standpipe, the other for the return from the sump.
The stand is a metal 50mm (2") section frame that a friend welded up and is boxed in using 12mm (0.5") ply wood painted with 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of gloss paint and finsihed with FleckStone spray paint and its sealant. For this size of tank (420L, 100 UK gallons, 120 US gallons) I didn't trust my ability to make a decent all wood stand. I am sure my Grandfather and Father are both turning in their graves that the family woodworking skiils have almost completely skipped this generation! Give me a power tool and I'm happy for hours, what I end up with is better not discussed though.