Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank

[liberalswine]

*bows down*

 

[arapaimag]

actually, that is a good question. roughly, how much time do you spend on maintenance each week/day. and what do you use to drain 10,000 gallons of water. also, where do you put 10,000 gallons of water. i would imagine it doesnt just go down the drain.

Actually I probably have closer to 20,000 gallons over a week. Since I do another 4,000 in the 15K, over 1,000 in my 800 each week. As well changes in all my other tanks.

I have swimming pool drains on the bottoms of the tanks and use valves to drain. I also have swimming pool overflows on the top of both of the bigger tanks. Almost all of my other tanks have overflows drilled in them. Most of my tanks have plumbing and valves to them to refill them.

I live in the country and have several ponds on my property so the drainage is not a problem. I use my wells to refill the tanks.

 

[badkarma44]

das uber tank

 

[rainmun]

Thanks for kind words

I hosted the Paralympic Silver medal winning Aussie girls team at my wc bb tournament in July
You can see their pictures at my bb website listed below and also a few other hobbyists big tanks.

I checked with one of my financial advisors who actually lectured at the time on the properties of glass at a large university. I also studied several large reptile aquariums in the area and spoke with the builders of their tanks.

I built the walls 12" thick with double rebar every foot. As well I mixed into the concrete a fibre material that helps stop cracking of the concrete. It comes in 1lb packages here and has possibly a few hundred pieces per pound. I aslo de-aerated the concrete with a vibrating pump to help remove air bubbles.

have you got a website of your store? Do you sell monster fish?

keep smiling.

Thanks for the reply, I have checked out your website its very cool I hope our team gets the Gold next time, they play very hard thats for sure (one of our customers actually helps with the team and lets us know their progress all the time). There are some purely amazing aquariums also on your site, but once again nothing compares to your aquarium.

Also thanks very much on the info about the glass thickness, and concreting. I will definately pass on the info to my father about the concreting techniques, as my father is pulling his hair out on how to re-build the ponds. And I'll contact some engineers about the glass as most of our merchants don't have a clue.

I have a website for our store (but its currently under construction), its www.marysaquarium.com . Hopefully it will be completed just before Xmas.

Unfortunately over here in Australia, our import regulations are very strict so most of the beautiful Monster Fish are not allowed into the country (which I am spewwing about, as I would love an Araipama, Asian Arowana, Red Tail Cats and other things).

But there are quite a few avid collectors over here that have managed to obtain these fish and are breeding them, and I'm slowly carrying more and more monster fish. I do carry some things like Cichla sp. , Datinoides (when available), Giant Gouramis, and a whole host of other Australian monster fish like both Liechardts and Jardin's Arowana's (they're called Saratoga over here ), Barramundi (Lates Calcarifer), Australian Lungfish (Neoceratodus Forsteri), and the Murray Cod.

Once again thanks for the info, and hopefully one day soon I will have a monster tank to share of my own .

PS: Sorry about the poor grammar in the first post, I was overly exticed to post.

 

[arapaimag]

Thanks for the reply, I have checked out your website its very cool I hope our team gets the Gold next time, they play very hard thats for sure (one of our customers actually helps with the team and lets us know their progress all the time). There are some purely amazing aquariums also on your site, but once again nothing compares to your aquarium.

Also thanks very much on the info about the glass thickness, and concreting. I will definately pass on the info to my father about the concreting techniques, as my father is pulling his hair out on how to re-build the ponds. And I'll contact some engineers about the glass as most of our merchants don't have a clue.

I have a website for our store (but its currently under construction), its www.marysaquarium.com . Hopefully it will be completed just before Xmas.

Unfortunately over here in Australia, our import regulations are very strict so most of the beautiful Monster Fish are not allowed into the country (which I am spewwing about, as I would love an Araipama, Asian Arowana, Red Tail Cats and other things).

But there are quite a few avid collectors over here that have managed to obtain these fish and are breeding them, and I'm slowly carrying more and more monster fish. I do carry some things like Cichla sp. , Datinoides (when available), Giant Gouramis, and a whole host of other Australian monster fish like both Liechardts and Jardin's Arowana's (they're called Saratoga over here ), Barramundi (Lates Calcarifer), Australian Lungfish (Neoceratodus Forsteri), and the Murray Cod.

Once again thanks for the info, and hopefully one day soon I will have a monster tank to share of my own .

I hope you have the tank of your dreams also.

Saratoga are neat fish I have 3 jardini at present. I really like THE GORAMY and I know many people call them the giant gouramie on this site also. I have 3 of these in my 15k. 1 is the regular and 2 are the red fin. I've had them about 8 or 9 years. I had a large female regular in my 52k but she passed away last year with a few of my other favourites. No one knows the reason. I did have a small house fire which killed a few air breathing fish immediately a few years prior. I noticed some of the cats slowly going downhill after that. Of course the goramy also could have breathed the bad air.

I will soon put out a list of some of the fish I presently have which will include the year I got them and their size then and size at present and who I purchased them from.

Some of my fish I raise very slowly. They generally live longer and eventually still get just as big. Of course some fish just never get big because their parents might have been quite small.

From what I read on this site the australian lungfish is now available in the States but I have not seen them in Canada yet. I do have a couple of African Protopterus annectens.

You are fortunate to have the beautiful Australian birds just by looking out your window. I've had many as pets and this was a sad week as my favourite Australian King named ELVIS passed away. I've had him about 10 years and I don't have a clue why he died. I had just hand fed him and he was fine. An hour later I was feeding my group of toucans located in the same room as Elvis's cage and noticed him dead. I do have a breeding pair of Kings and hope they have a few chicks this coming year. I still have a Galah, several barabands, several rosellas, a couple of port lincolns, pr crimson wings, a rosey bourke & cloncurry all from Australia. I have several others from Africa (breeding colony of greys) and hornbills and softbills from South/central america toucans & aracari. I had many more but when I tore up both rotators playing bb I had to cut back.


I put your site on my favorites so I can see it when it is finished.

Hey! I saw the goldfish bowl on your site now.

I had a goldfish bowl when I was 4. Even took them outside each day to get sunlight so they could turn red faster. They were still brown.

Have fun Downunder

ps check out the tank I added in Monster Tank Hall of Insanity it is the very last one. I could never have thought to build anything like that. I saw it on a German site I was surfing. I added the site to my small list of monster sites and joined it. It is really fun since I can't speak German. thankfully for Alta Vista.

 

[Zygaena]

Pure inspiration is what it is! Thanks Arapaimag! I've always dreamt of a monster SW reef tank. Now I know it's do-able.

One dreamer to another: thanks, man! I needed that.

 

[seldumscene]

I dont know what to say, other than DAMN!!

 

[H20Boy]

In regards to your access doors rusting I had my stand sand blasted and powder coated so far so good 2.5 years (salt water) works like a charm.
If that is not a option you might want to try brushing on a rust converter followed with a top coat of rust inhibitive paint….just a thought but--looks like you have thought of everything.
NICE TANK!

 

[arapaimag]

In regards to your access doors rusting I had my stand sand blasted and powder coated so far so good 2.5 years (salt water) works like a charm.
If that is not a option you might want to try brushing on a rust converter followed with a top coat of rust inhibitive paint….just a thought but--looks like you have thought of everything.
NICE TANK!

Thank you very much for that idea. I really will try powder coating it in the spring.
I have two walkout basement doors which are close to the tank and I would like them open while I do the work. But its a little cool right now (-15) and might get chillier in a couple of days.

I've had no rust problems in the tank below water. (so far).

I wish I had done that with some of my metal stands doublestacking my 180's. Some broke and damaged the tanks. Nolemite has been over helping me build some new wooden ones.

This is a great site for getting help..............thanks again

 

[arapaimag]

Pure inspiration is what it is! Thanks Arapaimag! I've always dreamt of a monster SW reef tank. Now I know it's do-able.

One dreamer to another: thanks, man! I needed that.

WOW! now that would be incredible if you build the monster SW reef tank. Trust and Neoprodigy I am sure will love to have the pictures and all of us will really enjoy looking at them. Please Keep me posted if you start your project.