75,000gal tank Looking for information sources

[Ilawis]

Just a thought.... Google Bob Fenner. He's an aquarist and author whose name pops up on message boards when I'm doing internet searches. I met him scuba diving at the Place of Refuge in Kona about 8-10 years ago, when he found out I had a dive company he was very engaged in conversation. He's been looking at starting a public aquarium at times and I'd bet he knows a lot of people on that end of the business. I don't know him, but from my limited experience with him and seeing his activity on message boards, he seems very approachable. He might be the kind of contact you are looking for.

OK cool I'll have to look him up

 

[Ilawis]

I wasn't really recommending using ATM for the exact reason you suggest, but since you are so far they might be willing to impart a little information. There's gotta be someone in Asia and elsewhere that builds large tanks, or public aquariums whose curators were directly involved in the build and at least knows some of the basics of of what was used for plate thicknesses, spans and materials that can get you pointed in the right direction, but you'd need someone locally to do the engineering. A bunch if DIY guys who've worked with 200- 4000 gallon tanks really don't have the background for the type of thing you're building. Good luck, it sounds like a very exciting project!

Thanks it will be quite a undertaking as it's not only a tank but also a house built around the tank
Even tho as you say the experience of building a few tanks that are only 200-4000 gal there is still a point in asking the people on here going for a build that's 4000 gal up is not a huge leap in know how just in scale and the information gained from me doing the larger build may help the people who are building 4000gal tanks to doing 10000 gal tanks and I think that's what the guys at ATM have seen too they use to do much smaller tanks than the ones at the casinos and such but I think it clicked to them I bigger tank doesn't nesarry mean harder it just means bigger

 

[Oompa Loompa]

This tank would crush any tank of its kind by around 20,000 gallons (well, any privately owned one). That's a SERIOUS tank. I would follow what people here are telling you, it's good advice. Especially about contacting public aquariums, they're generally pretty good about responding.

Talk to A arapaimag about this. He buit a 52,000 gallon tank in-house on his own, he's your man for this

 

[spiff44]

Yeah, you're talking about getting into waters that very few enter.. so many unknown variables... just the weight alone does weird thing to the ground below it. For the money involved, not getting a professional to analyse the ground it'll be on would be an extreme oversight. Not to mention the structure itself and how its designed.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Placing a foot or two into the ground would probably help. You're talking about putting the equivalent of 2 houses on one spot smaller than the average house - 600,000 pounds. That's a LOT of water. Have you considered building a pond and then building an underground room right next to it, and add in a thick viewing window or two, or three, or however you want? That would be a lot cheaper than having to place 600,000 pounds of water on the top of the ground.

Even if you do a pond, you're talking about at the very least 6" glass or acrylic, plus concrete around 2 feet thick(I would imagine)

 

[Ilawis]

Placing a foot or two into the ground would probably help. You're talking about putting the equivalent of 2 houses on one spot smaller than the average house - 600,000 pounds. That's a LOT of water. Have you considered building a pond and then building an underground room right next to it, and add in a thick viewing window or two, or three, or however you want? That would be a lot cheaper than having to place 600,000 pounds of water on the top of the ground.

Even if you do a pond, you're talking about at the very least 6" glass or acrylic, plus concrete around 2 feet thick(I would imagine)

That's is actually what I'm doing. I'll try get a quick sketch up sometime soon so everyone will know what the outcome will look like I'll put a few measurements on it too but they will be in metric as that is what I work with here

 

[cassd]

Metric for the win

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Yeah, I never saw - what kind of dimensions we looking at? The deeper you get the harder it is to build, keep that in mind

 

[Ilawis]

This is a quick sketch of it I think I've drawn it roughly 1000:1 but the proportions are correct and the measurements I've put there can be used for reference to size

 

[Ilawis]

I might try do a couple of 3d renders in my lunch break to give better details