Tank advise/ideas

[Forrest]

I don't know anything about saltwater aquariums but my father use to be in the hobby years ago and has wants to get back in it. He has a open floor plan in his house and has talked about wanting to put a large tank in between the kitchen and living room. It would need to be able to be viewed from all four sides and I haven't had much luck shopping online because I really don't know what I'm looking for, or what all I need. There aren't any stores around where we live so online is our best option. I do know that he has said in the past that 125 gallon tank wouldn't be big enough.
I know it's big and will probably be a challenge but he's set on this being what he wants

I'm going to upload pictures of the area it would be placed. The tank would go between the white post. There is 96" between them.
He also talks about building his own cabinet to place it on. So that won't be needed.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

[KJAG]

Viewable on all four sides eh? I'd say a centrally plumbed Herbie overflow setup, at the very least, plumbed through the bottom of the tank with rockwork hiding the overflow as much as possible with low iron glass and a carbon steel powder coated stand leveled out with leveling feet and weld nuts to accept the male ends of the at least 3/8" leveling feet from McMaster Carr. That's how I would build it. But that's just me.

 

[pugcrush]

That's quite the project. First, this would have to be a custom tank with middle overflows. He'd probably have to decide on a glass or acrylic tank first. Based on that, you can research on tank manufactures. They usually sell direct to consumer, so you can request quotes directly with most.

I'd probably recommend a steel stand for that size. He can still use his cabinetry skills to skin the stand etc. Hope that helps. There's tons of info on R2R.

 

[Forrest]

Thanks, he works a ton and asked me to look around for him and I've spent the last 2 days browsing with no luck. Everything I was seeing looked like it was designed to be placed with one side against the wall but I had seen pictures of ones similar to what he wanted. Thanks again for the help.

 

[KJAG]

Well, take it for what it's worth and carry on with your own due diligence and research but I have a 225 and a 180 on the downstairs level of my house and the same rules apply for anything larger.
I live at the beach( on sand as you would imagine) and didn't personally pour my foundation in 1981 when my house was built, so there's small fluctuations in the concrete pad. It's not an issue for a smaller tank but with larger ones, unless you personally laser leveled out your foundation and can vouch for its integrity, it could be (is), a major setback or PITA to design a stand without the capabilities of easily leveling it out in certain areas, especially for a large tank build. Sure, your dads got some wood skills, but it truly matters not. I can't imagine having to shim out a wooden stand perfectly to accommodate a tank of the volume of which you describe when you can simply weld together an impossibly stronger steel stand of 1/4" square tubing with gusseted corners and threaded weld nuts under each vertical stancheon with leveling feet easily adjusted with a box wrench to perfection. As mentioned, you can simply employ some finish carpentry skills to skin the stand and never even think twice about it being level or sturdy. Not to mention it wouldn't, or at least shouldn't be much more of investment than a wooden stand for the same tank dimensions. No matter what route you go, you need to accomplish two basic variables.
1: the tank needs to be as flood proof as possible. ( a flood failsafe built in)
2: the tank needs to be level which means your stand needs to be level, ( and STAY level under weight. This is a critical oversight by the way. Put any quality level on a wooden stand and that bubble may be between the lines dry but may not stay that way under 3000 lbs of downward force: with steel this is of no concern)

 

[KJAG]

I ended up keeping this tank but here's an idea of how a stand should be built.(in my opinion of course) I'd have to look at the specs, but if I recall correctly each of these leveling feet has a load limit of upwards of 3k lbs. I have 8 of them in each of my stands, which are identically built. Just something to think about.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/180-c2c-starphire-lee-mar-fs.242681/

 

[Forrest]

Well, take it for what it's worth and carry on with your own due diligence and research but I have a 225 and a 180 on the downstairs level of my house and the same rules apply for anything larger.
I live at the beach( on sand as you would imagine) and didn't personally pour my foundation in 1981 when my house was built, so there's small fluctuations in the concrete pad. It's not an issue for a smaller tank but with larger ones, unless you personally laser leveled out your foundation and can vouch for its integrity, it could be (is), a major setback or PITA to design a stand without the capabilities of easily leveling it out in certain areas, especially for a large tank build. Sure, your dads got some wood skills, but it truly matters not. I can't imagine having to shim out a wooden stand perfectly to accommodate a tank of the volume of which you describe when you can simply weld together an impossibly stronger steel stand of 1/4" square tubing with gusseted corners and threaded weld nuts under each vertical stancheon with leveling feet easily adjusted with a box wrench to perfection. As mentioned, you can simply employ some finish carpentry skills to skin the stand and never even think twice about it being level or sturdy. Not to mention it wouldn't, or at least shouldn't be much more of investment than a wooden stand for the same tank dimensions. No matter what route you go, you need to accomplish two basic variables.
1: the tank needs to be as flood proof as possible. ( a flood failsafe built in)
2: the tank needs to be level which means your stand needs to be level, ( and STAY level under weight. This is a critical oversight by the way. Put any quality level on a wooden stand and that bubble may be between the lines dry but may not stay that way under 3000 lbs of downward force: with steel this is of no concern)

Yeah Ill have to ask him more on what he was planning to do with the stand. He may be planning on doing a metal frame with a wood exterior to give it a certain look. I just assumed it would be wood from some of the tanks I've seen.
He just asked me to shop around a look into the tanks and other components because he doesn't use a computer much.