Tank ideas - input needed and appreciated!

[MysterRC]

Hoping I can tap in to the collective hive mind here and give me some ideas beyond what I've been able to come up with on my own.

I had maintained heavily planted freshwater tanks for years and years, but never even considered saltwater. It was always too much $$ and too "hard" so I never looked at it. After a few years of pestering from my wife, I finally agreed to check it out for her.

So, I hopped in to the hobby by buying a 39G cube/column tank that had been established for a few years. It had also been neglected quite a bit and needed some TLC, but I was up to the challenge. It came with:

* 39G tank (21Lx18Dx24H)
* Some junk lights
* 10g sump
* overflow box
* Marineland skimmer
* ~50lbs live rock
* green button polyps
* bunch of mushrooms
* xenia (not the pulsing kind)
* bambam zoas (which the xenia has since killed off)
* fairly light CUC
* couple fish
* super tiny pump for water movement

I've since added:

* More diverse CUC
* more zoas
* yellow polps
* macro algae
* a walking dendro (LFS mistake)
* Nanobox Duo LED light
* ATO
* 3 Koralia powerheads for movement

Unfortunately, this tank also came with some aiptasia before I knew how much of a pain they can be. It has since bloomed to a rather impressive population even with my best efforts to get rid of it. This is another story that I won't go in to here.

Combined with the aiptasia issue, I do not care for this tank and setup so much. Mainly because:

* Tank is too deep to clean easily. There are many areas in the tank I can not get to, no matter how much I contort and try to reach.
* There is no room under the stand. The inside of the stand was built so a 10g tank will just slide in to it. That does not give a lot of room when trying to reach in and fiddle with things!
* The skimmer leaves much to be desired! It is loud, very touchy, and just does not do a very good job on the best of days.
* The sump has no baffles, combined with the skimmer being so touchy, it is constantly needing adjustment.
* The fans on the lights are *loud*. It was an older design I believe and it has to work fairly hard to keep the LEDs cool. This is made worse by being in a hood as well.
* There is no horizontal real estate. I'd like to add some more fish and want them to have room to swim and be content.
* The tank just does not look as sharp/neat as I want it to be.

I started making plans a while back, but I'm not sure if I want to go through with it now, thus me posting here soliciting ideas. The plans I was working towards was to build an extra large custom stand and put a 40G breeder on it. The plan was to overbuild the stand (common theme I know), making it large enough for up to a 48" wide tank in the future. I already have some items I can use for this, including a 40G breeder sump w/ baffles, a 6 bulb 36" Tek Elite T5 light, and a par38 refugium light.

Ultimately, what I would like is a tank that I can get to a point that it has fairly low maintenance. I'm currently planning mostly fish, softies, and some LPS, but I'd also like a clam or two if possible. I was initially planning on building a custom canopy to hide the lights, but more and more I really like the rimless tank look. Overall my goals are:

* A clean looking setup. I do not want a HOB overflow so the tank needs to be drilled.
* The overflow must be *quiet*. Preferably with as little use of space in the tank as possible while making it silent too.
* A better skimmer, 'nuff said.
* More horizontal real estate.
* Better water movement
* Good upgrade paths/options. I know you typically want to build for what you have now, but I need to make sure I can reuse most of what I build/buy this time around or my wife is going to kill me!

As I already mentioned, I initially thought about buying a 40G breeder, drilling it, and going with that. More and more I look in to options though, I really like the look of tanks like the CADlights Artisan II 70G, or similar. While I'm more than capable of building almost anything I want, time is also a factor I need to consider. Our house decor is a north woods one, which is appropriate since we live in the northwoods. This means that while some of the stands out there that are built specifically for their matching tank (CADlights, etc), the all white/black look does not really fit in so well. If I build the stand myself, I was thinking of a hickory skin with possibly a marble/stained cement top, but at this point I'm open to almost any options.

Of course, if I go with a rimless tank, I strongly suspect I'm going to want to change over to LED lights instead. Their directional lighting pattern and nice clean looks match more with a rimless tank than this large T5 unit.

I also plan on starting from scratch on the rock and corals. I am sick of the xenia in my current tank, and obviously the aiptasia is a problem. I will move the fish over and maybe a small frag or two of the zoas but that is about it. Half of the fun is building things up so I'm in no real rush there. I just need to get an overall plan nailed down first!

​Oh yes… and to make it more difficult to decide, the wife has approved with me going even larger, up to a 4x2x2 tank or similar if need be. I’m not sure I want to deal with the added cost of going with the even larger tank as the costs for everything else goes up right with it.

 

So, what sayeth the reef community? What options am I missing? What is the right path to chose?

Thanks in advance!

[GokesReef]

Welcome to the club! Not a lot to say as it sounds like you're already right on track and took the express lane through the growing pains of learning to hate xenia and being extra careful about unwanted hitchhikers. 40 Br is a great tank, one of my personal favorites and you already have the right setup in mind for plumbing and the stand.

 

Any specific questions? Otherwise keep us posted on how it all goes and enjoy the fun!

[MysterRC]

I guess at this point it comes down to finding a good stand, a good tank, and optionally canopy if I don’t go the rimless route. This tank will be front and center in our living room so I need to be able to make this sharp looking. It has been frustrating when looking/shopping because it seems that there are typically only 3 options for stands — black pine, black, or white.

 

Even worse is when I look at a supposedly high end stand, only to see it is a cheap veneered MDF panel used everywhere… ugh.