I am dreaming big right now, maybe too big. I have a perfect place in my backyard to create a saltwater pond dedicated to one bamboo/cat shark and possibly a ray or two. The majority of the pond will be underground with small portions of 2 inch thick acrylic peepholes of an undecided size. The pond will be almost perfectly circular, 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep. This is around 750 gallons, give or take, and 6,000 lbs of water. It will be constructed on top of bedrock hardpan, which is like natural cement, so it'll have a great foundation. It will either be a type of modified pool or completely constructed out of cement and chicken wire, for shaping, finished with a plastic seal for a smoother surface. I'm not sure of filtration yet but I know I'll be using two large canisters and I'll probably end up creating an oversize sump with two large skimmers(maybe, depends on cost vs. benefit). This should require 2 large pumps, or up to four, I'm not sure. Another option for filtration would be to create a smaller pond with sections of filtration materials which would serve as a large sump and bio filter. This would only need two large pumps. A high-turnover DI unit is desired, but I'll have to look into that later in the planning. The substrate will be standard fine aragonite(I don't need a whole lot of substrate) with no live rock and I'm thinking of sculpting some small reef structures for hiding places close to the center of the pond. Once most of the pond is finished, a shed-type building will be constructed over the top of the pond with semi-opaque skylights and louver-vents on the walls for ventilation. Standard fluorescent lights will be used for lighting when needed but the skylights should take care of most lighting needs(they are minimal), this is good, becasuse lighting corals in that large of a tank would be extremely costly. Sharks don't require near as much light. The goal of this project is not to achieve any sort of aesthetic goal, but simply to create a small environment to raise and study sharks and rays.
I figure my biggest cost is filtration requirements and salt. most of the building materials will be cheap in bulk at home depot. This project is almost entirely conceptual as of now and I'm having a hard time finding resources for design ideas. If anyone would like to contribute their thoughts, it would be much appreciated. I want to be successful in making this happen.
I figure my biggest cost is filtration requirements and salt. most of the building materials will be cheap in bulk at home depot. This project is almost entirely conceptual as of now and I'm having a hard time finding resources for design ideas. If anyone would like to contribute their thoughts, it would be much appreciated. I want to be successful in making this happen.
