Call me crazy!!! Swimming pool tank?

[eatgoodfood]

well i was just doing some research into the cost of inground pools similar to the size hes thinking, they range from about 8,000$ up to aroun 30,000$ depending on material, company, actual size and what not.

So i would say since he has a friend thats a contractor, i suppose he could get a tank build w/o a window for aroun 8-15k, with a window, i dont know what large sheets of acrylic cost, so im going to say another 5-10k.

I also did some research as to greenhouses. There are a Huge number of options. Ranging from pool enclosures to actual greenhouses. I saw prices for 10x20' green houses all the way up to 30k. But i also looked at other commercial greenhouses. You can get a 30'x48' greenhouse with polycarbonate UV resistant covering with 6' high sidewalls for 15k. That is for a freestanding one, which appear to be more expensive than the leanto style(half a greenhouse build against a building or wall). That being said, i would have to say 20k once you factor in addons like fans, airconditioners and what have you.

So on that note, figure about 25k for the pool itself and about 20k for the enclosure. As for rock, he already stated, hes making it himself. Pumps and equipment including filtration and circulation could easily be dont for under 20k, if not much less as stated above, more around 10k if your a good shopper.

All to a grand total of 65k and thats on the high end, and only a ball park number. Obviously not including live stock. A good shopper and good DIY person whom has done lots of research could easily achieve something like this for that price and probably lower.

[evolust]

I guess since price has started to take over this thread I will comment on that part of the project, but I never in my post asked for prices of anything! I have had over 15 building built for me by my general contractor, I have always used the same subcontractors and all the jobs were ground up construction. I have never called in a favor to any of these people even though they have offered many times. I have plumbers, concrete guys, electricians, and so on that I have been giving business for years and they will be more that happy to let me cash in a favor. I can get almost all that type of work done for just the cost of materials. My guess is that It will cost 50K to get saltwater into it, NO livestock. But even if it went into the 100k I would be able to afford it. I hope this will end a lot of the back and forth of price.

[evolust]

As for the auto water changer, does anyone know of a unit that can mix and measure the salt content. I want to be able to fill a 200g bin/container with raw salt and have it pour into a mixer that will fill the pool back up after it drains 100g or so for the water change. It would be a automatic water changer with no help from me. Is it out there?

[clink]

jamesbburges-did you pay 20k for your reef
i think 20k for 300g. come on we all know thats like gold plated
my point is james-get your pipe and smoke it join us
a dream about 20,000g what if he only ended up w/5000g
it would still be very nice and bigger than yours. hey i think i know why you are against it now!!!! sorry just kidding. mines little too!!!!!
thanks for a very cool dream,
i wake in the middle of the night thinking about it!
Clink, just an okie from oklahoma

[eatgoodfood]

Originally posted by evolust
I guess since price has started to take over this thread I will comment on that part of the project, but I never in my post asked for prices of anything! I have had over 15 building built for me by my general contractor, I have always used the same subcontractors and all the jobs were ground up construction. I have never called in a favor to any of these people even though they have offered many times. I have plumbers, concrete guys, electricians, and so on that I have been giving business for years and they will be more that happy to let me cash in a favor. I can get almost all that type of work done for just the cost of materials. My guess is that It will cost 50K to get saltwater into it, NO livestock. But even if it went into the 100k I would be able to afford it. I hope this will end a lot of the back and forth of price.

Sorry, i was just pointing out to the skeptics that it could be done for well under 100k, i did not mean to have the whole thread turn gears to price. And if you can afford it, then more power too you!

I think the whole idea is great, as to your question about a water changer, surely you could do it yourself by pouring 5gal buckets of salt in, but i wonder what the commercial aquariums use to mix seawater, you may wanna call, go visit or email your local aquarium or a commercial aquarium contractor and see if there is sumthing like that available.

[clink]

Evolust- I think you got it going on good luck.

[evolust]

I wish you would read the entire thread JAMESB before you post as you are saying things are going to be this and that when I have already addressed them, as in the live rock and hiring professionals. I plan to hire all professionals needed, I would never think of going at this alone, I dont want to skip corners and not hire professionals and have something built wrong, and waste all my $. I will hire everyone need to do this right!

[evolust]

Eatgoodfood, that comment was not directed at you, your comments have been very helpful, thank you!

[evolust]

I just visited the aquarium at Monterey Bay a month ago and went on a back stage tour, WOW. They cheat as does the aquarium in Hawaii, they pump in water from the ocean into their tanks. It goes through uv and skimmers and some other filters and then through the tank and back into the ocean. I dont think I can manage that from here.

[areze]

well; just brainstoriming; and may not be the best method; but if you mixed 100g of extremly high salt content water; I mean like a few buckets of salt in this 100g; as much as you can possibly get to dissolve; let it circulate. then in another 100g chamger fill it up with 90g or so; then add this salted water via a pump; that aquacontroller thing supposedly can do anything you can program; so give it a salinity meter in the main tank and in the water change tank; have it add the salt water to the water change tank slowly untill the salinities match(could also set it to match temp and whatever other additives with medical peristalic pumps?) when it is all matched; have it automaticly perform the water change.

[areze]

oh yeah; the point; since your just arbitrarily dumping lots of salt into the salt water no measuring; hopefully that water will last for a few water changes worth atleast; no sitting around testing it or measuring it. its not totally automated; but pretty streamlined.

[Henry22]

this might have been metionend and im too lazy to go look at the last few pages but i was looking in the wall street journal and this guy is building a 8500 tank costing 400,000(tcustom tank,water,stocked ect). Although it is a custom tank that is i think two stories high and the focal point is the bar with the backdrop being the 400 gallon+ column. It then goes through the floor and upstairs and around the bar serving as the counter i believe. Its gonna be a reef and cleaned by a SCUBA diver. Pretty crazy, Im sure you can search and find the story online. I dont know how much a custom tank like that would cost, prob the majority of the 400k but a swimming pool is rediculous. I dont think its possible under 100k stocked.

[wakeboarder2342]

i did read the whole post, i was just making the live rock comment to keep in mind the costs can get quite high. I did not mean to be insulting or insinuate that he could not afford this setup. I was mearly making the point that i have seen dozens of threads like this and have never seen a single person actually do it.

Dont get me wrong it would be freakin awsome to have such a setup. Back when i was really into reeftanks i considered doing the same thing when i was building my house this year. However i realized with me hobbies seem to come and go. I have been keeping reef tanks for the past 8 years, but the last 2 i have pretty much lost interest up until the last few months when i put my new inwall system in my new home. I really did consider the pool reef but in the end after doing research i decided i didnt want to drop 100k on it. I did price nearly everything which is where i was getting most of my pricing. My figures with livestock were in the low 100k range. I decided for me that i would probably loose interest so i just went with a small setup being a 180 with 10x15 fishroom.

all i am saying is a system like this is quite a commitment, make sure its what you are really into before taking the plunge,

again i appologize if i was insulting, and i wish you all the best in this undertaking. You can be assured tank of the month if you successfully pull it off!! at least ill be voting for you!!

good luck with the system, cant wait to see it come together.

[evolust]

I'm not insulted, do you have a link to these other threads? I would love to hear more about it!

[jaiden]

OK this is "only" 1100 gal, but this system may give you some ideas.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...4/aquarium.htm

[eatgoodfood]

hey evolust, you might want to check out this website, they have a whole bunch of commercial equipment available

http://www.aquaticeco.com/

They have commercial sand filters, and skimmers that will do all the way up to 1000gpm, commercial ozone generators and commercial uv sterilizers.

Andrew

[evolust]

Great links, Thanks

[illnino]

Originally posted by jsn150
you are officially crazy ... just kidding, you need to see the saltwater tanks at Atlantis resort in the Bahamas

i thought the single small tanks there were lame. the "reef tank" over half was fake, the other half was dead or dieing. i saw one live healthy piece.

[Silencer]

Take a look at the companies showcase. Those aren't exactly the kind of setups we are talking about. We're not dealing with a 50ft cylinder tank that takes a team sent halfway around the world to install. We're talking about a pool with a window in it that happens to be setup with saltwater equipment. It's not even close to being comparable. Also keep in mind the customer base when reading that article, very wealthy people who know absolutely nothing at all about the tanks they are spending fortunes on. I could charge them $45k for a 250g tank too... then go buy a new car with the remaining 35-40k. The simple fact that they are saying 20k for a 300g setup shows how different the tanks and customer bases are for them.

I still think this could be done for a fraction of the 100k you estimate.

[WDLV]

I had started to plan out a similar system. My plan was to essentially build an in ground pool in a greenhouse. If you wish to attempt such a project, I would not bother with the MH lighting. After all you do have the benefit of natural sunlight and you are not planning to keep corals. Here's a description of what I planned to do with mine.

I've actually entertained the thought of buying a 30' Pyramid shaped greenhouse to add on to the property at my next home. Within the greenhouse I would build a 20' circular indoor pool. and building a stair-stepped volcano shaped reef in the center of the pool.Circulation would be provided by a circling water motion for continuous centrifical water movement.
Part of the benefit of this is that it doesn't take a heck of a lot of water motion to keep a lot of water in motion. An added benefit of the circuar water motion is that the detritus naturally moves to the center of the pool. Because the reef would be in the center, any excess detritus would be drawn directly to it and the coral polyps would happily take advantage of that. Then as detritus made its way to the bottom of the reef it would be suctioned into a diatom sand filter by a series of intake ports on the bottom of the reef (visualize a pinwheen on it's side). There would be no need for vaccuming detritus off the bottom. Very little suction would be needed there due to the current of the water being forced in. Obviously the main aquarium would have to be BB. The two side tanks would be filled with two feet of sand. I would have a 20' long, 2' wide, 4' deep pool connected on either side of the main display for a fish nursery and algae filter.
Xenia (nutrient exporters) would be placed on on the walls of the northern side for maximum southern sun exposure just as the reef would be stocked on the southern side for the same reason.
Hair algae would be allowed to grow to absorb DOM and other undesirable elements from the water. This in turn would be eaten by tangs who in turn would turn the material into detritus for physical removal.
The viewing room and filtration room would be on East and West sides so as not to block the sunlight.
Cooling would be provided by running long lengths of coiled piping underground and having water circulate within it. Vents and AC could be the source of atmospheric cooling depending on the outside temperature. There are commercial skimmers available that could handle such a system. I think the name of one company is R2K?
One thing I would not do is to add this structure to my main house unless there was a set of stairs going up and back down to serve as a bulkhead in case of a viewing panel failure. Homeowner's insurance would be unbelievable if it were connected to the main structure.

I'm sure that there are a multitude of things that I have not yet considered but this is the basic plan.

[WDLV]

BTW I would look at the reef at Atlantis Marine World in Riverside NY. Joe Y. may even give you a tour. i think his screen name is just joe.

[jdtaz69]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but if you have the space in your attic you could install some plastic water storage tanks and some large bore pipework and have one huge wavemachine!

[Phan]

xenia is not a very good nutrient exporter when compared to other things.

steve

[WDLV]

Originally posted by Phan
xenia is not a very good nutrient exporter when compared to other things.

steve

Such as??? I'm looking for something for my current system construction project in my tank room. What would you use that is capable of staying attached to a smooth wall in moderate current?

I hope that didn't sound condecending.

[Phan]

i wouldnt. i would do that simply because i like xenia, but not for nutrient export.

here is something though:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=657410

steve