I am starting the process of designing a mega house tank that would basically turn my game room into a home / public aquarium. The aquarium will be:
L x W x H = 420 x 60 x 180 and will be about 18,000 gallon tank. The tank will have a theme of basically being a snap shot of the Pacific Ocean had hold everything from blow fish to sharks, and octopus. The tank will have three dimensions in the middle would be open ocean sand, rocks etc, on the right would be coral reef, and on the left would be more deep depth ocean. So each specimen would have its own habitat to be comfortable in.
I am building the tank with a structural engineer friend of mine and I wanted some advice from people who have built large tanks I wanted to save money on the cost effective side. I have seen people make large tanks out of wood, fiberglass or going all acrylic would be more expensive. I was going to use gunite or concrete but I want to have the ability to if need disassemble the tank to relocate if need be. So I was think of using light weight aluminum for the structure, expoy base and wood exterior for decoration. That way if I was going to take apart would be able to disassemble. Also only the front would be viewable like a commercial aquarium. I would like advice on where I could by the Acrylic and work could I save money. Also the filtration system would be on the top instead of the bottom cause the tank would go from floor up not base/stand then take so all together height about 17 feet w/ filtration system.
Please email me or post any and all advice welcome!
L x W x H = 420 x 60 x 180 and will be about 18,000 gallon tank. The tank will have a theme of basically being a snap shot of the Pacific Ocean had hold everything from blow fish to sharks, and octopus. The tank will have three dimensions in the middle would be open ocean sand, rocks etc, on the right would be coral reef, and on the left would be more deep depth ocean. So each specimen would have its own habitat to be comfortable in.
I am building the tank with a structural engineer friend of mine and I wanted some advice from people who have built large tanks I wanted to save money on the cost effective side. I have seen people make large tanks out of wood, fiberglass or going all acrylic would be more expensive. I was going to use gunite or concrete but I want to have the ability to if need disassemble the tank to relocate if need be. So I was think of using light weight aluminum for the structure, expoy base and wood exterior for decoration. That way if I was going to take apart would be able to disassemble. Also only the front would be viewable like a commercial aquarium. I would like advice on where I could by the Acrylic and work could I save money. Also the filtration system would be on the top instead of the bottom cause the tank would go from floor up not base/stand then take so all together height about 17 feet w/ filtration system.
Please email me or post any and all advice welcome!
