Filtration for custom designed aquarium

[casazza]

I am building a bar that will consist of a salt water aquarium as the base of the bar. The tank is arc shaped and will be about 190 gallons. (118"W x 18"D x 28"H). The tank will be acrylic and enclosed by a steel frame to support the granite countertops for the bar area.

Here are some pictures describing the aquarium:

Aquarium Specification

Aquarium 3D View

I am new to this, so for starters this would be a fish only tank with live sand and live rock. Because of the shape of the aquarium, I was thinking of using both an undergravel filter along with a wet/dry trickle filter and protein skimmer. Is having both filtration systems overkill?

Access to the tank to clean out gravel will be a hassle so I am looking for the best way to maintain the tank without having to move the granite countertop. Will I have maintenance access problems using an undergravel filter system?

Another question is that the depth of the tank will be about 16" (18" - the thickness of the acrylic on each side of the tank) . Is this too narrow? The bar was originally suppose to be a stainless steel base, but the aquarium would look much better.

I am looking to stock lionfishes, angels, moray eels, boxfish / puffers.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[OrionGirl]

Best filtration will be a deep sand bed (at least 4 inches) and about 225 lbs of live rock. A good clean up crew, with hermits, shrimp, stars, and snails. This means you'll have to re-work your stocking list. For angels--that tank isn't going to make the large angels happy. They need lots of swimming room, and the curvature and width will restrict them. Even with just one, it's going to compromise the clean up crew (many will be snacks--ditto for the lions, puffers and eels). Boxfish are sensitive--they should be kept in species only setups, and you have to be able to run a carbon filter to clean up if one dies--otherwise the toxins will crash the system.

Sorry--the fish you want won't work with a low maintenance system, because they make snacks of the workers. A UGF requires more maintenance--and comes with a whole host of problems. Even with LR and a DSB, you'll need easy access for water changes and feeding. Also, most tanks have lighting on some sort (depending on what you have in there--fish don't need much), and I am not sure you have enough space in there for the lights.