Huge outdoor saltwater aquarium

[kalas]

Hello everyone

I live near the sea many years now and I enjoy the “communication” with the water and its creatures. That’s why I decided to create a saltwater aquarium. My problem is that I want to create a very big, lets say a huge reef tank, that cannot be housed inside my home. I have the following vision:

I own a piece of land very near to the sea. It ends just 2 meters from the point that the sea ends. It is elevated approximately 1 meter from the surface of the sea.

I am thinking to bring a bulldoze in order to create a large pit with the following dimensions:

8 meters wide

5 meters length

3 meters height

If you do the math (8 X 5 X 3) you get 120 mm3, or 120.000 liters.

My idea is to pump this amount from the sea. I will have a tunnel created by pipes that will allow the communication of the tank with the sea, and thus there will be realtime interchanging of the water.

The walls of the tanks will be made by cement and the whole tank will be putted inside the soil and will have a large shadow over it by the nearby trees.

The fishes will be caught from the nearby sea.

I would like to ask if you think that the whole system will work. What are your ideas to this? Could you give me some advice?

Thanks in advance

[blueheaven]

IMO, its a novelty but I do not think it is good to leave it exposed to the elements like that.

Btw, where do you stay? Is it near a reef?

[kalas]

Hello again,

The climate here is very mild (we do not have acid rain or tornados ) so there is not really any great threat for this project. The area cannot be reached by most of the people, because it is far away from any location with tourist interest and there are not any wild beasts over here.

I live in Greece and there is not any significant reef nearby. Thus I would like to create one . I know that is difficult to create a very detailed microenvironment like most of you do, but I would like to have all these common fishes which live to the sea in front of me, to my “private” sea . So realistically speaking I would like to create more like a sea “simulator” than a reef.

Any more ideas are more than welcomed

[Kelmen]

Getting the real salt water from the sea as tank water may have some concern.

Unless the water source is from deep, else the upper layer water are generally dirty.

Not to mention "natural" sea water bring along many bad thingys, which have "natural" predator put a hold onto them, but not in your tank.

Unless you going to setup a "controllable" tank for the hobby. Making a sea-pond or "personal-lagoon" is something out of general reefers experience.

You may have some legal issue too.

Better get a good marine biologist to help you on the "personal lagoon".

good luck

[kalas]

Could you give me an estimate of what hardware do I need? What I have to do in order to expand the life span of the fishes? Which is the best method to keep clean such a large tank? PH, temperature, PO2 and PCO2 will be at normal levels because there will be communication with the sea?

Thanks in advance

[gerald28]

i think bro u are a very lucky guy ,you should just learn suba diving and dive in when u wanna see fishes as you are the real lucky guy who can enjoy nature as it is and not in a tank

[kalas]

I will use the tank also for fishing . It will be very interesting to go fishing at Cristmass at the tank . The fishes are very clever and they cannot be catched with the "usual" fishing methods, so I will have the chance to breed them and catch some of them during the year for eating

[wil_lee76]

welcome welcome to singapore only, best reef channel ......SRC!

[sunny03]

Guess u will need a big filtration system to filter the seawater before entering your saltwater pond. And does water change every high tide or full moon etc. Some pumps for water movement in the pond. Water wheels if possible to provide oxygen and water movement also.

Most importance of all what are stuff you going to keep in the pond. Fishes only or with some corals.

[Clownfish]

sounds great!

this is seriously 1 of my dream.... too bad i wont get the chance to do that in singapore... wish u success!

[Acanthurus sohal]

unless you live on your own island(sentosa maybe!) !! it is only a dream brudder......1) the land belongs to the goverment, 2) the energy bill would be huge 3) the maintenance is tremendous as we are un a tropical climate.with direct sun....algae is big issue.I have a 7 foot tank in my car porch (covered) , costing me ard $300 in power, not to mention hour each day to feed, maintaining

[Gouldian]

Hello everyone

I live near the sea many years now and I enjoy the “communication” with the water and its creatures. That’s why I decided to create a saltwater aquarium. My problem is that I want to create a very big, lets say a huge reef tank, that cannot be housed inside my home. I have the following vision:

I own a piece of land very near to the sea. It ends just 2 meters from the point that the sea ends. It is elevated approximately 1 meter from the surface of the sea.

I am thinking to bring a bulldoze in order to create a large pit with the following dimensions:

8 meters wide

5 meters length

3 meters height

If you do the math (8 X 5 X 3) you get 120 mm3, or 120.000 liters.

My idea is to pump this amount from the sea. I will have a tunnel created by pipes that will allow the communication of the tank with the sea, and thus there will be realtime interchanging of the water.

The walls of the tanks will be made by cement and the whole tank will be putted inside the soil and will have a large shadow over it by the nearby trees.

The fishes will be caught from the nearby sea.

I would like to ask if you think that the whole system will work. What are your ideas to this? Could you give me some advice?

Thanks in advance

I have a friend who tried that in secluded part California.

What he did was a sealed lagoon near the sea.

Water from the sea are being collected 20meters out, sand filtered, Ozoned before chanelling into his "tank".

Water from his tank are being overflowed into a sump where it will be pump out into the sea 50 meters away and where the current will carries the effluent away from his collection point.

With this method he dun need a massive man-made skimmer as the ocean is his skimmer already.

However, he mentioned that he still needs to treat the water coming in to prevent unneccessary made-made polution and also planktonic algae or diseases from spreading.

[Gouldian]

unless you live on your own island(sentosa maybe!) !! it is only a dream brudder......1) the land belongs to the goverment, 2) the energy bill would be huge 3) the maintenance is tremendous as we are un a tropical climate.with direct sun....algae is big issue.I have a 7 foot tank in my car porch (covered) , costing me ard $300 in power, not to mention hour each day to feed, maintaining

He is from Greece.

[Kelmen]

IMO:

I'm concern that such direct taking and outputing into the sea from the personal-lagoon will "pollute" the sea, and have adverse side-effects later.

He may get some outlandish stocks, which may carry some disease\parasites not exist in the region. And these bad thingys once release into sea will having their fun. Because the livings there probably don't have protective\immune system for these new "invaders".

I highly suggest you go nature way as one suggested, scuba diving. And can spend your loving and care to help protect and study them in the wild. Unless your going to setup a self-contained tank, isolated from the sea and not direct outputing.

[XPeriment 626]

I think a single mini-lagoon will have almost no effect on pollution in the sea. It's like saying that by farting, you could pollute the world's atmosphere in a significant way. Industrial and reclamation work is indescribably more destructive to reefs and education + public pressure on govts is better than individuals refraining from keeping a few fish.

In fact, if you succeed in making your lagoon work, you could use it to create awareness of the wonders of marine life and reefs, and from there it will make a bigger impact in conservation than if you just do nothing and scuba dive.

[Kelmen]

Well... probably I'm just over concern

[Gouldian]

Your concern is valid Kelmen. In fact, in order to do that he has to ensure that the species of fishes he kept are from the region and not alien species that when escape will be detrimental to the environment.

I know for a fact that even before he does it, he has to engage independant consultants to propose and endorse his lagoon. Not just anyhow build overnight.

[kalas]

Your concerns are more significant than some may think so. My only concern is to fill this "lagoon" with local fishes, catched in the nearby sea. I dont intent to bring some exotic species over here. Secondly the waters are not poluted, so there is not any change to pumb poluted wated into the tank. Also, I dont think that the sea has to be afraid of my actions, because if I manage to achieve the same environment to the tank as the sea, then there is no reason to add even one ml of toxic, chemical substance. If there is a way to have the fishes there, and to live without an external help then everything will be ok and I will proceed to completing my plan. If there is no way to mantain life there, without external help, then I am afraid that I have to leave the fishes in the sea. The magic word here is the interchanging of waters, which will hapen continuously, because there will be a 24/7/365 communication of the tank with the sea by a large pipe.

I dont know if it is gonna work, thus I would like more ideas. Do you think that there may be a chance for the creation of a suitable environment (O2, CO2, PH) by only allowing the tank to communicate realtime with the sea. I will try to put the tank deep enough in the soil in order to have the upper part of the tank at the same level as the sea, and thus no power will be need for the water that will come in and out of my tank.

[M4rk4nth]

Wow your very lucky to live so close to the sea... I always had a fantasy and it involved living beside the sea and huge aquarium. I even drew the pictures while fantazing. see picture -->

[Kelmen]

Well, my initial term of "pollution" is not about chemical, but rather about the biological one.

Probably read too much of Dr. Ron marine invertebrate articles.

It seems to me the lowest life forms can infest fast in new environment (such as our tank) without natural "guardian" over them.

Do highly suggest you check in with some specialist\professor around your region about the setup. Legal issue may be a "hidden" we always neglected.

Good luck