Show tank with big budget

With an $8000 budget and considering you may not be around to help with future problems I would consider trying to find a contractor/company who has experience and can do this, someone who can provide future support without your future involvement and that the school can go to for replacement parts. That way if a pump blows or something they know where to go.

If not you should be prepared to provide documentation on how everything works and leave it behind or make sure someone else is trained on how everything works, and what to purchase if something breaks down. Not to mention maintenance routines.

You should ask them what they would do if something broke suddenly in two years? Someone is going to have to fix it, since you wont be there. Maybe they should look into finding one of those local types of places that lease aquariums and do all the maintenance, and then you have the co2 tanks to refill, reconnect, and all the other stuff.
 
As has been said, no tank is maintenance free, but with proper planning (and documentation) you may be able to reduce the maintenance to what we used to call user-level (or Skill Level 1) tasks.

I highly suggest going with the automatic/continuous water change system...Here is a thread that describes an auto-topoff system, and I can't find the article with an auto-doser adding diluted prime to the line as it headed toward the tank, but iirc it wasn't more then a couple hundred Dollars. Because prime is too concentrated for the doser, all that would have to be done by the user is occasionally adding a bottle of prime and a set amount of pure distilled water.

The tank will need to be fed at least a few times a week, I don't see a way around that...you can't design a system large enough to be self-sustaining...not in the space and price you're looking at.

Basic setup I'd go for is a nice 300-400 gallon tank in a nice stand...you'd probably be able to build the stand for a lot cheaper then you can buy it...hell, if you're willing to put the time in, you'd be able to build the tank itself much cheaper then you can buy it (a 300 gallon commercial tank on GlassCages.com goes for $1400, you can probably build a plywood version that'll last just as long for somewhere between $500-1000, guesstimating, and you'd be able to design it to fit exactly how you want it to.

I'd go with drilled overflow, and make a dual sump system...or technically a sump and a refugium to reduce algae in the tank...If Algae's gonna grow, give it a better place TO grow then in your tank :)

Document everything about your tank in a book, and print it on water-resistant paper and in waterproof ink. This will be your manual in case something breaks, the university wants someone to make an improvement, etc...keeps anyone in the future from trying to figure out your system the hard way. In the front you'll have routine maintenance tasks: Filling the auto-doser with the diluted prime mixture (including the ratio of prime to water, a note to use pure distilled water, etc), Cleaning/replacing the media in the sump filter, feeding the fish, followed by replacing light bulbs and other less routine tasks...After that have detailed diagrams of the workings of the tank...how the water flows, equipment specifications, even a little theory. At the end, have a few emergency numbers of businesses in case of emergency...local fish shops that also do contracted tank maintenance, plumbers, electricians...whatever. This book you create will save the university a lot of headaches a couple years after you leave and those who followed you leave, and something needs fixed or done...the more detailed the book, the better.

That's just my advice from working in places with a high turnover of personnel (colleges change over students fairly fast) and knowledge of how the system worked was what made or broke the tasks we were trying to accomplish (like keeping that tank running for years to come).
 
Without knowing the display space / area / size, its tough to determine tank size and equipment ... How much space are they dedicating to this project? Is it located near a lot of windows? Against a wall or in the open?
 
<--- agrees w/ LesbianChap - I too was thinking more in terms of a center overflow tank on the order of 240g (minimum). Hang a few racks of T5 lights over it (go for about 2WPG) and go w/ a trace layer of soil under coarse sand/fine gravel. I'd probably plant it with things that develop roots (swords, Crypts), then add a bunch of juvenile SA Cichlids & lots of little caves/rocks toward the foreground. If you're afraid of the Cichlids tearing it all up w/ excessive digging after you leave, just go w/ lg cories, lg/med tetras and a few hatchets or other top swimmers. You could also toss in 3 or 4 pairs of breeding sized angels.

W/ a center overflow, you can plumb/drain through the stand, have all heaters & ugly stuff in a sump, do continuous water changing and actually have the tank in the center of a space.
 
You don't have to choose between small schoolers and large fish, provided you choose your large fish wisely. In a SA biotope you could add flagtail prochilodus, silver dollars, and plecos, all of which are compatible with tetras, livebearers, hatchets, cories, etc. These fish will not only add a greater diversity of sizes and shapes to the tank, they will encourage the smaller fish to school more tightly and produce an overall more attractive tank.

I definitely agree that you should get an automated top-off/ water change system if you can afford it. Performing wc's on a big tank is a tremendous hassle and is the step most likely to be neglected by whomever takes responsibility for the tank when you are gone.
 
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