yukonblizzard
New member
Hey guys! It's been a very long time since posting here (the last few years have been crazy; undergraduate school, getting married, living out of the country, veterinary school, the list goes on). I had a build thread of a 600 gallon tank we made nearly 10 years ago. I'll see if I can find the link for anyone that is interested... I have been meaning to start a build thread for some time now, but I continue to procrastinate, so I figured I would at least put together this first post to hold me accountable to show you all the complete build from start to finish.
I figured I would give a brief outline of the projects leading up to this one.
We started with a 180 gallon glass FOWLR tank and tinkered around with that for a few years.
After a few years the fish really seemed to outgrow the 180 and I wanted to get into sharks and stingrays so we built a 600+ gallon tank from scrap materials.
Unfortunately I can't find any good pictures of the finished product. I will keep digging. I wish I had taken better pictures more often; it's funny how much things have changed in just 10 years, now we have HD cameras in our pockets every where we go.
So then after a few years of the 600 gallon tank we decided to go even bigger! The sharks and rays just seemed to cramped even with an 8ft x 4ft footprint. This time it was more of a saltwater pond rather than an aquarium as we didn't incorporate any viewing panels into it. It was constructed out of wood and pond liner and naturally lit by skylights in our shed.
Again, unfortunately I didn't record many good pictures/videos of this setup. This was a short lived project, perhaps just a couple of years, my intentions were to breed sharks and rays. Unfortunately this setup suffered from a crash and I lost nearly 80% of the livestock, including all of the elasmobranch. I decided to scrap the project and downsize back to the 600 gallon tank that had yet to be taken down with the surviving livestock. It such a devastating blow that if I had lost the entirety of the stock I likely would not have continued in the hobby.
For a couple of years things were pretty stagnant, momentarily defeated by failure. After a while the spark for the hobby rekindled and I began to get more involved again. Fast forward a few more years and I was planning yet another project.
Okay, enough burying the lead, here are a couple recent photos of the finished 3,000 gallon tank.
-outside view
-inside view
Like I said above, I am going to give a complete build from start to finish with tons of pictures and videos, I just figured I would get the ball rolling with this first post since I had the time.
I figured I would give a brief outline of the projects leading up to this one.
We started with a 180 gallon glass FOWLR tank and tinkered around with that for a few years.
After a few years the fish really seemed to outgrow the 180 and I wanted to get into sharks and stingrays so we built a 600+ gallon tank from scrap materials.
Unfortunately I can't find any good pictures of the finished product. I will keep digging. I wish I had taken better pictures more often; it's funny how much things have changed in just 10 years, now we have HD cameras in our pockets every where we go.
So then after a few years of the 600 gallon tank we decided to go even bigger! The sharks and rays just seemed to cramped even with an 8ft x 4ft footprint. This time it was more of a saltwater pond rather than an aquarium as we didn't incorporate any viewing panels into it. It was constructed out of wood and pond liner and naturally lit by skylights in our shed.
Again, unfortunately I didn't record many good pictures/videos of this setup. This was a short lived project, perhaps just a couple of years, my intentions were to breed sharks and rays. Unfortunately this setup suffered from a crash and I lost nearly 80% of the livestock, including all of the elasmobranch. I decided to scrap the project and downsize back to the 600 gallon tank that had yet to be taken down with the surviving livestock. It such a devastating blow that if I had lost the entirety of the stock I likely would not have continued in the hobby.
For a couple of years things were pretty stagnant, momentarily defeated by failure. After a while the spark for the hobby rekindled and I began to get more involved again. Fast forward a few more years and I was planning yet another project.
Okay, enough burying the lead, here are a couple recent photos of the finished 3,000 gallon tank.
-outside view
-inside view
Like I said above, I am going to give a complete build from start to finish with tons of pictures and videos, I just figured I would get the ball rolling with this first post since I had the time.
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