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Cylindrical Acrylic Aquarium

Then I think they squid would smash into the overflow on the wall - unless you made it external. Any way you slice it this is going to be expensive - have you begun to price out this custom work?
 
A coast to coast external overflow or a kind of Hartford loop. I think something on the way isn't optimal but better than the middle
 
That's what I think I may have to do and just back it into a corner and have everything outside of the tank. Not what I wanted originally, but I guess its better. What about the placements of the jets?
 
Great news, I just spoke with my wife and she said that the storage door that the tank will be going in until we buy a house and move in is 4'x10'. That means that I can have the 36" of height like originally planned. What is more important, height or diameter?

So I've thought about the way this tank will be constructed now and I think I will have a long overflow box along the very top outside of the cylinder with a mesh grate to prevent anything from getting through. It will be only an inch or two from the top and maybe about a foot long. The only things on the inside of the tank will be a shallow sand bed and the two jets on either side of the tank. Since I can still get the 36", I'll try to convince my wife into letting me get the 60" diameter. The top of the tank will still have the cross brace frame, but the hole will not be there. I will still get the four identical lids that can be screwed over the holes. Like I said before I want to use a 2600 gph pump to push the water back into the tank.
 
So there has been a major change in planes. Since the storage units my wife purchased are not large enough to store this tank, and we are having it built in a few weeks, we are going to set it up in our living room area against a wall and move everything from the 250 gallon reef tank into it. Then we are going to store the 250 gallon tank and stand until we move in a year or so. I guess this will give me some time to see how this tank runs. I just started a small culture of live mysis shrimp that I got from work today in a 10 gallon. Right now its just about an inch of fine gravel with a small rock, some macro aglea, and an air pump. I was only able to pull about five or six shrimp from one of my filtration units so it's going to be a while before they populate the entire ten gallons, but I have more five gallon tanks and extra supplies to split the culture and have multiple small cultures. I'm starting this now so in a year or so when I finally get some squid eggs/juveniles, they will have plenty of food until I move them up to ghost shrimp, and eventually fish/silversides. I figure if I can get S. Pharaonis and Rhinopias to eat frozen food I should be able to do the same with squid. I will video tape my attempts at training them for those interested in watching.
 
I'm also thinking about culturing some saltwater shrimps and crabs as well. Maybe even some copepods. I'm not sure yet, but I want to be ready for when I get squid or cuttlefish eggs. I figure if I can't get squid then I will get a breeding group of cuttlefish.
 
I'm guessing the reason you are building an acrylic tank is so you can see in the sides. However, I think this would spook the squid. Why not buy an agricultural tank? http://www.pondsolutions.com/Pond_Supplies/Pond-Supplies-Fish-Holding-Tanks-1.html. I raised Sepia officinalis in a 10 foot diameter round tank with a drain in the middle of the tank.

Also, I am not sure that the size you are considering is large enough for squid when they are adults.
 
The reason I'm using acrylic is because its lighter than glass, I would like to see through it, and because thats the material the guy that is building it for me is using. I would love to go larger, but this is really the largest I can get right now due to living space. Plus it took alot to get my wife to let me switch from 4' diameter to 5' diameter. One of my coworkers used to work at the Waikiki aquarium in Hawaii and said they kept S. Lessoniana in a similar set up. I'm trying to get in touch with them to see if I can get some information regarding husbandry and the set up of their system.
 

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