190g Corner Tank Help/Ideas

[MoMoney]

My wife and I are finally buying a house and are in the process of planning what tank and where to put it. Oceanic has a 190g corner bowfront listed in their custom tanks. We agreed that would probably work best in the space given.

Here's the problem: the tank is 42"x42"x60"x37"high and the ceiling height in the house is 86" at best. Given that the stand is 32" high (that makes for 69" total height), that leaves only 17" from top of tank to ceiling.

So my questions are:
How do you light a tank of this configuration?(for LPS and Softies)

Will it even be possible to access the interior of the tank for cleaning?

Would it be way easier to say screw it and try to get something maybe a little shorter?

The tank will have to be able house a Blue Angel, a Blue Tang, several other smaller fish, and hopefully a Maroon Clown w/ bubbletip anemone. Plus all our various coral(bubbles,frogspawns,colts,open brains).
Currently these are scattered throughout 3 seperate tanks.

The dimensions of the tank fit, perfectly, in the room we would like it in and the size seemed right for the fish we want to keep.
Remarks and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jeff Hood]

First, are you going to have a DSB in the tank? If yes, then that will help you reach the bottom. If not then make your opening over the tank as tall as you can so you can get in there to reach the back, you may have to lay on top of the tank to reach the back. A corner tank is very deep front to back so reaching the back in the middle will be difficult. As long as you leave yourself plenty of room it will be fine.

I love the height of your tank dimentions but with out being able to lay on top of the tank you will have a hell of a time reaching the bottom. My tank is 40 inches deep but I have complete access to the back of the tank and I can lay directly on top of the tank to work in it. IMO, nothing looks better than a tall and deep tank like yours but you will have a maintance challenge. Nothing you can't over come with propper planning. Think of platforms etc.. for you to lay on to work in it.

With only 17 inches on top of your tank to work, you probably will want to have your hood flip up out of the way if possible, or have your lights recessed into the cealing like metal halide pendants but recessed. Since you want only softies and LPS then some 400 watt radiums probably would do fine for that. you would not need any supplementation either. I have that on my tank and it looks AWSOME. To block the light from entering the room you could make your hood built in like panels that could be removed exposing the entire tank so you could get on top to do maintance. The panels could go all the way to the cealing giving your tank a built in look.

When doing your planning spend a lot of time thinking about maintance of a tank this large and deep.

Jeff