Some of the coolest tanks I've seen were set up this way. Decades ago, I saw a 30" x 30" tank, thick acrylic, 10" tall, with a 250w DE halide pendant way up high over the tank. Tank had a thin sand bed, central overflow and return tower, and clams. Dozens of clams. Deresa, Squamosa, Gigas, Maximas... biggest was probably 8", bunch of smaller ones. No live rock... sump was full of it, but none in the display. Only fish were pipefish. Banded, yellow, Janss, dragon... must have been 20 of them, many different species. A few big snails... that was it. Very little flow, calm water surface...I do also really love shallow tanks with an option to view from the top
Man, that was a cool looking tank