Ok the first builder left. He recommended something different than my original concept. He recommended essentially a tank that conformed to the shape of the drywall on the periphery of the staircase and the current walls. I attached the sketch that he made. He recommended a coral insert (as opposed to live reef) as per all the issues that have already been discussed on this thread with lighting, cleaning, mess, access. He did a rough calculation of approximately 1000 gallons. Proposed tank height 126". As can see from the drawing, as you go up the stairs their will be a concave surface. The wall to the Living room would be cut out (up to 49" width) to have a rectangular window into the tank. There would be a center overflow with artificial coral around the overflow. He recommended against keeping clear window access to the tall rectangular window due to algae buildup. This could be potentially cleaned from the living room side, although this would be somewhat awkward. His concept would be that the tank directly abutt the wall with the tall window and to place either a glass or acrylic panel to seal the casement so that insects/dust debris would not collect over the years in the space without any way to access or clean it. Alternatively, the tank could be placed an inch or two away from the wall containing the tall window to allow a mechanical shade or even a smart glass black out film (the window was prewired for the possible installation of smart glass) could be placed to block out light during daylight hours to minimize algae growth. The equipment/pumps/chiller/etc would be placed in the garage below the tank. There would be a custom steel stand extending down to the foundation. He will forward estimate in several days.
