Large Display Tank Suggestions???

Originally Posted by Son Of Skyline

SPS...SPS...SPS (in chant mode)..

sorry, last time I checked, my budget was still way under $1,000,000.00

the tank will have a ladder on one side with an access hatch, I will be diving to clean it and might try some coral propagating in it as well, lighting will be 1000W halides, as sumpfinfishe mentioned I have been thinking of installing a large surge tank, I was thinking of at least 400gallons, flow in the tank will be somewhere around 40-50,000 gph. the overflow will be at the rear wall of the tank spaning the whole length, with returns comming out at many points of the overflow. I like the smoke stack idea, I have been thinking of getting some made out of fiberglass, I wont be able to use them as overflows though as the tank will sit flat on the cement floor. My fiberglass guy does the best replicas in the world, he does alot of the displays for the smithsonian institute, he has moulds for almost every large animal on earth including most whales, he is currently working a a mould from a 120' blue whale skeleton he has in his shop on loan from the smithsonian. He gets alot of cool things on loan from museums all over the world, the pirates anchor Im getting is from the 14th century I believe, also a replica of the first deep dive helmet ever made, as well as a couple other helmets that advanced the world of diving. If I had more room and could figure out how to have access to the top of the tank I would love to put a 3' acrylic cylinder in the center of the tank that you could get lowered into, I think that would be neat...

[Skimmerking]

what ever you do don't let doug see thai he will want to have that tank too.

ANd i know you would doug!!!!!!!!

Mike

once its up and running, eveyone is welcome to come and check it out, as well as the tank raised fish

[little reef]

Where are you going to put this bigass tank?Is this a show tank for a customer or your self? When will it be done? dave

[StirCrazy]

I thought you started on this one over a year ago Kyle? when do you expect it to be done?

Steve

[kari]

How about a pair of sea lions or a Hump Back?

this is going to be our personal show tank to make peoples jaws drop and let them see what we can do, they just have to cut the cheques...the mould for the fiberglass tank was started about 6 months ago, now it has been cut in half and sections are going to be added to lengthen it from 14' to 18' mabey 20' havent decided yet. As you can imagine, the equipment required to run this beast is a little on the pricey side, I have been building, and purchasing equipment for it for the past 6 months, also I have been fine tuning the design of the filtration and lighting and plumbing nightmare, and am working on finalizing the asthetics of the tank such as the rear rock wall with shelfs built in, I want the back wall to look like a reef shelf on the edge of a coralreef, Im drafting support grids to hold up the liverock shelfs, Im also trying to finalize viewing windows so the mould can be finished, do I go with 1 huge window, or 2 smaller ones on the front... Im leaning more towards a single 14'x5' viewing window
The tank is going in a garage/showroom that we are building for the sole purpose of holding our display tank and other livestock holding tanks and a few tank raised rearing tanks. we have all the permit crap figured out, now its time to build when the weather gets better, I have to put cement columns into the ground under the very thick reinforced foundation that the tank will sit on, Im really not sure when it will be finished, basically as more money rolls in I get a little closer to the finish date. It might be done sometime in the summer, hopefully. Thank god some people feel compeled to owe me favors, and thank them so much for being in the position they are in, there are a few big dollar items involved in this project that I dont have to pay a cent for except shipping... the tank alone with the rock work is silly expensive, the 14th century pirate ship replica anchor isnt cheap, the same one in the smithsonian was huge dollars, then we are getting a bunch of replica dive helmets that the smithsonian had copies made of, all silly expensive, and fiberglass display fish... I have helped someone out, and he is returning the favor... Ill gladly accept! The tank will be nothing short of jaw dropping impressive, I have no doubts about that, my fiberglass buddy is an artist with some serious talent!!!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by UnderWorldAquatics

the 14th century pirate ship replica anchor isnt cheap, the same one in the smithsonian was huge dollars, then we are getting a bunch of replica dive helmets that the smithsonian had copies made of, all silly expensive

personaly I think you should skip making it look like a under water junk yard, you can always get a 20 gallon tank and put the tackey bubble treasur chest and diver. why don't you actualy reporduce a section of the reef with that much space you could have both the open and the shelterd lagon side of the reef and all the critters that go with it from eals, schooling fish to sharks.

Steve

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

[reporduce a section of the reef with that much space you could have both the open and the shelterd lagon side of the reef and all the critters that go with it from eals, schooling fish to sharks.

Steve

that is what Im going to try to do, but I think I would like to have the anchor in there too, Im not throwing all the trinkets in, some are just for display purposes, I will house them in acrylic cases. If anyone has some good reef shelf pics, I would love to see them, to get ideas...
Thanks

[StirCrazy]

ok just a anchor would be good, but it might be neet to have it so it is burried in the reef like the ship lost it there and the reef has growen around it. will be cheeper to do also hehe

Steve