Building a Mega-Home Marine Tank (18,000 GA) Need Advice All Welcome

[Yanbbrox]

Kudos to the OP for even planning a project this big. Not only would some design pics be nice, but how about your basement where you intend to put this thing in? Oh and lastly, what do you do for a living?

The last question is extremely valid, we don't find many top sportsmen on this board let alone the diy section

Q: Can the home foundation support the weight of the aquarium?
A: If your home is built on a traditional concrete slab foundation built into the ground weight should not be a problem if the land under your home is compact soil as what is located in North Texas. Now the exception would be if your home is built on wood support, clay, gravel, mountain, or rock. I have a civil engineer guiding me on this project and he is licenses so if he says anything I will let you guys know.

75 tonnes on a standard home focused on a tank base?

I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm just curious and hoping this will work out for you

Why don't you try throwing a little something together with Google Sketchup. I think you might have a few more people grow in support if you showed what you are planning. Especially with the filtration system.

Anything live would help us all to understand the project, can you provide pictures of where the tank will be, you say your remodeling the 'game room' If I had game room I'd have a camera as well, if I needed one or not?

I hope it works out and we can all see this come together.......

 

[zennzzo]

 

[Yanbbrox]

Indeed

 

[snaggle]

Q: What is the size of the room that the aquarium will be located in?
A: The room will be the south living area of the home. The living area has 30’ ceiling space, open area up to the second floor so it offers the height required. The room 60’x 75’ so it’s a very sizable room and will become the focal point of the home.

Wow your games room in over 4 time the size of my house.

 

[Yanbbrox]

Wow your games room in over 4 time the size of my house.

Hence my Question?

 

[gran charismo]

alternative power is definatly not cost-efficient for a project this size, a 3 phase 415V supply to your property is essential at a minimum, the chillers alone will require 3 phases

being such a large project id imagine that all chiller and pump configurations would have to be duty standby/fail-safe meaning that you would need at least 2 sets of chillers/pumps, when using chillers of the size youll require, you may probably also need a condenser water/cooling tower system to precool the water that will be used to cool the condenser section of your chiller

get into contact with a certified electrical engineer asap, you may also need to cost in upgrades to the supply authorities power grid as well as the cost of subcontractors for most of the electrical work you cant DIY power, esp in a job of this size

if youve got the budget for this then good luck - everything really is always bigger in texas

 

[ghengis]

Sorry to wade into this debate, xtrememarine, but looking at some of your questions, I get the impression that you have not really fully researched or planned this project too well. Not dissing your idea at all, bro, it just seems to me that you might be out of your depth on this. Your idea of a multiple biotope, Tropical Pacific/deep coldwater ocean combo will be pretty much impossible to achieve. You are obviously, also, having drama's fathoming the sheer size and complexity of the filtration needed to support a system like this. Fair enough, you seem to have ample room to fit 18,000gal of water, but where would all the ancillaries be located? Remember, you'll need approx. half your display tank volume in sump/fuge... Also, I see no mention of lighting systems and the power required to drive the whole setup.

If you have the drive, the vision and more importantly, the dollars, go for it, will definitiely be a wicked project. I'd just suggest you do alot more research on this, though. Maybe talk to the blokes (and blokettes) over at Reef Central about your ideas...those guys do this sort of thing all the time and really know their stuff.

 

[awault]

Next week I will post some images of the plans etc.

Can't wait.... good luck with your project.

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

Hi everyone this week we have been working on the basics of the aquarium but before I get into everything I just wanted to answer questions from some of the posters:
Q: What is the size of the room that the aquarium will be located in?
A: The room will be the south living area of the home. The living area has 30’ ceiling space, open area up to the second floor so it offers the height required. The room 60’x 75’ so it’s a very sizable room and will become the focal point of the home.
Q: How about using wind as a means of power support?
A: North Texas is located in the Texas wind corridor and North Texas like today can be quite windy. So it is a strong possibility it would need to be studied more but all in all I think it’s a great recommendation.
Q: Can the home foundation support the weight of the aquarium?
A: If your home is built on a traditional concrete slab foundation built into the ground weight should not be a problem if the land under your home is compact soil as what is located in North Texas. Now the exception would be if your home is built on wood support, clay, gravel, mountain, or rock. I have a civil engineer guiding me on this project and he is licenses so if he says anything I will let you guys know.
Q: Will there be enough room for the filtration system?
A: You have to take in account the amount of surface area we have to work with for the filtration system because of that the height is compensated with the width of the tank. Being the fact that everything will be custom made those adjustments will work out well.

Ok updates….

For sure we will use carbon fiber and because the market and what seems to be a economic slowdown the material prices are declining day by day which helps in the purchase and budget of the materials. Using carbon fiber we can use a material that has incredible strength but be light enough to move and assemble than steel also it helps with things like pressure and the fact that the structure will not sit on a concrete foundation. Also acrylic is falling day but day so where able to save money there as well. I have a few questions and thoughts I would like to get some opinions on?
1. When determining the filtration (life-support system) how would you I accurately calculated the needs of the tank. Everything in the tank will be live so no artificial corals / reefs or anything will be used. Live sand, real drift wood and sea planet life will be used so any advice would be great?

Next week I will post some images of the plans etc.

i think that in the ocean the volume of water is the only reason wood is a viable part of the ecosystem. in any aquarium, even one as large as yours, it wood be a constant battle to keep your pH at acceptable levels. i think that if you want wood in a marine aquarium fake is the only way to go.

awesome dream by the way!!! i hope to see it progress from drawing board. good luck!!!

 

[cassharper]

Pink is good, tan is almost as good, both browns work at different levels, great does not work.

When you figure the cost of a wind generator (and this is one of the smaller ones) hitting about $5,000 a couple of windy days won't cut it.