First the design...

And a rough build, still lots of finishing work to be done...

And for size perspective...

Total dimensions are 48x12x8 with the overflow/filter box taking up 36x5.25

Here you can see the plumbing installed, the acrylic polished and cover removed.

And here you can see the filtration method employeed. Each side overflows and the water passes through a filter cartridge with contains carbon taking care of both mechanical and chemical filtration needs, next comes the refugium (a lit chamber for macro algaes) which will help with biological filtration (nitrate removal). The final chamber holds the return pumps where the water is them pumped back into the tank through 6 return ports generating mild current in the aquarium.

We decided to try something new and mounted the tank on a wall instead of building a stand for it. The tank full of water weights about 200lbs but each of the 3 brackets is capable of holding 500 lbs so we should be in good shape. The only down side is the ugly wires, which we will eventually hide with a wall mounted cabinet.

Here is a series of shots showing sand and live rock in the tank...

Over the course of the next month, Eric allowed the tank to complete it's nitrate cycle and build a canopy which contain 3 54W H/O T-5 lights, 2 run at 11000K spectrum the 3rd runs Actinic Blue for color.

And over the next week fish and corals have been added, here are a few of our favorites!

Yellow Watchman Goby Starry Blenny Turquoise Florida Ricordia Orange Zoanthids Purple Blastomusa Green Blastomusa Neon Green Trumpet Coral Pink Zoanthids Pink Blastomuso Goniopora Acan Lord Green Zoanthids Pink/Red Zoanthids Neon Zoanthids Torch Frog Spawn And here is a series of shots showing the tank with corals...

If you wish to see a larger image of any of the pictures, simply right click the picture, go to properties and copy the URL of the picture go to the address bar and paste the URL. I hope to update the site soon with links to larger photos in the near future...