A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

I moddified your picture a little bit to show you what I mean. the only difference between water flowing downhill this little channel and water flowing downhill in a large pipe is that there is bascally a "top" to the pipe.
5.jpg
 
I just remembered something. Last year at IMAC West, a gentleman named Joseph Yaiullo gave a presentation about his own giant tank project, which eventually became the 20,000 gallon reef system at Atlantis Marine World Long Island Aquarium. He might have some very valuable insight regarding this project. The Atlantis Marine World Web site lists Mr. Yaiullo's email address as animalcare@amwny.com.

I went to see that tank, pretty amazing. Unfortunately the tour did not included the behind the scenes area of this tank :(
 
I went to see that tank, pretty amazing. Unfortunately the tour did not included the behind the scenes area of this tank :(
If I'm ever in New York, I'll have to swing by and check it out. So far, I've only seen the presentation he gave in California last year about the tank.

The weirdest thing from his talk that stuck in my memory: While diving in the tank one day, wearing a wetsuit, he was actually chased out of the reef by parasitic isopods. They were big enough to draw blood when they found the gaps in his wetsuit. That's crazy.
 
with all the room you have around the tanks, maybe you should build a large holding tank, and have water circulating through a uv filter, this way if there was ever a problem you would have some clean fresh sea water ready to go.
 
a reservoir for emergency fresh water would sure go a long way for peace of mind, should you ever have an extended period of poor harbor water quality to wait through. But then, would making a reservoir large enough to be useful for a system of this size introduce more problems, like how to keep that water "fresh" and not stagnant?

Another thing to think about is, since this system will be wired into the native ecosystem, I'd strongly suggest that you proceed super cautiously with housing non-native species in your tank. Mother Nature has ways of defeating pretty much every human-developed preventive barrier. I say this after reading Time magazine's top-10 invasive animal species of the globe article yesterday. Even unknown hitchhikers on live rock or sand, or even fish, pose a chance of escaping out into your harbor via your plumbing system. I don't know if there is a fool-proof way of ensuring that EVERYTHING in your display tank stays out of the harbor, but it definitely warrants extensive wargaming sessions. Cirolanid isopods, invasive mussels or flatworms, the list of potentially harmful organisms that could harm the harbor water is really big. Sorry to be such a doomsayer on a thread that is awe-inspiring to say the least, but in taking on a project like this, you truly are accepting a role in your local environment's well-being. I hope this all works out and we can all celebrate your success on your "tank" build! Good luck!
 
a reservoir for emergency fresh water would sure go a long way for peace of mind, should you ever have an extended period of poor harbor water quality to wait through. But then, would making a reservoir large enough to be useful for a system of this size introduce more problems, like how to keep that water "fresh" and not stagnant?

Another thing to think about is, since this system will be wired into the native ecosystem, I'd strongly suggest that you proceed super cautiously with housing non-native species in your tank. Mother Nature has ways of defeating pretty much every human-developed preventive barrier. I say this after reading Time magazine's top-10 invasive animal species of the globe article yesterday. Even unknown hitchhikers on live rock or sand, or even fish, pose a chance of escaping out into your harbor via your plumbing system. I don't know if there is a fool-proof way of ensuring that EVERYTHING in your display tank stays out of the harbor, but it definitely warrants extensive wargaming sessions. Cirolanid isopods, invasive mussels or flatworms, the list of potentially harmful organisms that could harm the harbor water is really big. Sorry to be such a doomsayer on a thread that is awe-inspiring to say the least, but in taking on a project like this, you truly are accepting a role in your local environment's well-being. I hope this all works out and we can all celebrate your success on your "tank" build! Good luck!

Very good point however I would think the natural flora of the incoming sea water supply would undoubtedly establish itself and dominate in this system just as it does at high tide in other areas naturally, aside from introducing a known foreign species into the sea I would think it unlikely the circulating water in the display tank would pose a threat to the nearby harbor or sea, ie there are several public aquaria that circulate natural sea water through their displays. However there is always the possibility of an unknown organism that hitch hiked in with a shipment of livestock would flourish, escape and harm the local environment. One could set up an inline UV on the outflow pipe as a precaution.
 
There's got to be a way to do it. (keep non-native species from escaping) Especially if places like public aquariums that we assume are careful about this type of thing are using natural sea water to circulate their displays. I don't pretend to be any expert on this point, but I know enough to know I don't know enough, you know? ;) In our age of being able to FedEx an animal around the globe, it's something that responsible reefers should be aware of, and this awesome build makes the possible escape of non-native critters a lot easier than a teenager walking his pet python down to the sewer line at the end of his street!
 
If I'm ever in New York, I'll have to swing by and check it out. So far, I've only seen the presentation he gave in California last year about the tank.

The weirdest thing from his talk that stuck in my memory: While diving in the tank one day, wearing a wetsuit, he was actually chased out of the reef by parasitic isopods. They were big enough to draw blood when they found the gaps in his wetsuit. That's crazy.

Just know that you have to go allllll the way to the end of long island pretty much and you could run through this place pretty quick. That tank is whats to see there.
 
Just know that you have to go allllll the way to the end of long island pretty much and you could run through this place pretty quick. That tank is whats to see there.
Well, I'd have to go alllll the way across the country to end up on Long Island in the first place (Phoenix, AZ to New York, NY), so that last little bit of extra distance across the island probably wouldn't be a deal-breaker. Then again, from what I hear of New York traffic, it might take almost as long as the prior 2,500 miles. :)
 
Since I don't have any actual photos to show you. I can share some designs we have for the aquarium. Here is the seating area design:

seating-area-design.jpg


Keep in mind that the area facing the seating area is around 11m (~36ft) wide.

Any ideas?
 
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