It's an idea, and one that I've been dreaming about of for years. I've sketched-up similar tanks to the one you posted. My problem is where would I park a 20 to 40 foot shipping container or an aquarium of that size. In a pole barn? Nice if you already own one. Otherwise there would be additional costs to building a shelter with electric, heat, air, and running water for a tank of this size. Personally, I'd need a budget of at least 200K if I were to do this myself. Even If I could buy the property and get the building permits, I'd have no time to build it myself because I'd be too busy working at my job trying to pay for it all.
15,000 gallon shipping container aquarium idea
- Thread starter Abyssalisk
- Start date
I've been planning and saving to move to Washington in a few years for exactly that. I'm purchasing a plot of land outside of Seattle and building a shipping container home with the 40 foot tank being the main wall for the open floor plan between the kitchen, dining area, and family room. It's ambitious but it's my plan. If/when I ever leave the home I'll replace the wall with a different container and add a room where the tank was. Of course, getting a construction loan would be a challenge which is why I'd hire an architect to design it professionally and have a construction team build it in order to add value to the home. I'm currently not in a mortgage (renting) so if I can make this house for under 200k and get say a 15/30 yr mortgage loan to pay it off I'll be a happy camper. It all depends on planning and getting approved. I highly recommend checking out tiny living and shipping container homes. They're cheap, look great, and make a profit. I totally agree on not having the time to build the facility myself. Life is too demanding to give people enough time doing the things they want to instead of need to...
Juat curious how you got to 35k. Containers are $2500 delievered. 2 viewing panels.....comes to 8500.......where is the other 26.5k?
The 40ft containers in my area average around 3.2k. If you look at my drawing on the first page you'll see that it has 10 full 4x8 viewing panels. I was quoted around 3k per panel so there's 30k right there. Yes, it would be way cheaper if I just had two panels and only did it on a 20 footer but I if I'm gonna do it I'll do it the best way possible. Plus I have to pay for the steel supports on the front and top so there's even more expenses.
This is a very ambitious project if it every happens (Not that I am doubting you). From my stand point with fabrication background this is no little task. If I was to do this fabrication wise I would ask alot of money and take no responsibility for any outcome. When you start cutting into a container like you are talking about you take alot of the structural integrity out of the equation. You haven't accounted for sealing, filtration, decor, plumbing, pumps, blowers, heating, fabrication. I could see this project snowballing really fast into a 100,000 dollar build
I also had thought about how cutting into the container would compromise it's integrity. I was blown away by how A arapaimag 's build has held up so much pressure with his viewing windows being 1" glass. I'm a wood worker so I'm not going to pretend that I know the strengths of metal. I'd probably get a professional opinion on the matter before I got serious just to see how strong it'd really be with the steel frame instead of the normal walls. I currently have an 850 gallon aquarium housing silver arowana, pacu, cichla, stingrays, catfish, and bichirs. I have no interest in keeping gigas. My goal is to have tons of cichla with stingrays, arowanas, and other South American predators.
VLDesign's 2600 gallon basement build is one of my favorites here at MFK. It's not close to being a 15k gallon container volume wise, but his tank was 29' feet long x 5' wide x 3' tall. The footprint is what matters most, as most fish don't use much vertical space anyway.
It makes me wonder if the satisfaction level of a 15k gallon container tank would be anymore than that of VLDesign's 2600 gallon tank.
It makes me wonder if the satisfaction level of a 15k gallon container tank would be anymore than that of VLDesign's 2600 gallon tank.
I actually haven't seen that build. I'll check it out! I know that I want a deeper tank so it can have a paludarium look. Here's an example
