A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

[nahham]

i would just like to say again like maroun.c that i would have great concerns before proceeding that the local water is safe.

have you grown corals with this water pumped from your local source?

If his local water has reefs, and those are growing corals, I see no problems.

I believe that right now nothing is entirely certain. However, all the previous evidence showed that the water is definitely good enough for fish only. The water quality next the aquarium is comparable to that in open waters; water tests showed that much. The water next to the aquarium also has fish that is common in reefs here.

In a worst case scenario, the aquarium will be fish only, but I don't believe that will be the case or it will suck

 

[maroun.c]

Really hope you will be able to keep SPS in the tank.
I've seen people using water for the meditarenean sea which is more contaminated in our region so I'm sure you have better chances there, the only concern is that there is a boat passage where yo uwill be getting the water and boats through all kind of nasties in the water...
Why not experiment on smaller scale with few corals and fish in a small tank for a couple of months while waiting for the tank to be ready?
Hopefully it'll be a success.

 

[nahham]

Really hope you will be able to keep SPS in the tank.
I've seen people using water for the meditarenean sea which is more contaminated in our region so I'm sure you have better chances there, the only concern is that there is a boat passage where yo uwill be getting the water and boats through all kind of nasties in the water...
Why not experiment on smaller scale with few corals and fish in a small tank for a couple of months while waiting for the tank to be ready?
Hopefully it'll be a success.

We are planning to get the water from a salt water well so this should take care of the 'nasties'

The tank should be ready by the end of the month. I was supposed to start running water through it before I left on the 10th. If no leaks are found then the tank should be up and running on schedule.

 

[KarlBob]

That's really coming along fast. For a project this size to stay so close to schedule is impressive.

 

[palmer373]

post pics when you get back please!

 

[cam1270]

This is one awesome build, I'm definitely going to follow all the way through.

 

[zemuron114]

Are there no Fish stores in UAE ? If not, that would be a great investment opportunity for someone local there!

 

[Haksar]

Are there no Fish stores in UAE ? If not, that would be a great investment opportunity for someone local there!

There are many but we don't have LFS selling the good stuff like TUNZE/Vortech/Reef Crystal etc..etc..:strange:

 

[nahham]

That's really coming along fast. For a project this size to stay so close to schedule is impressive.

It's not going as fast as I want it to, but then I would like to take longer and make sure everything is correct rather than have to redo anything.

post pics when you get back please!

I can't wait to get back for photos, I'll have someone take photos for me, the suspense is killing me :bounce1:

This is one awesome build, I'm definitely going to follow all the way through.

Thank you for comment, and for joining us on this ride. It is one fun ride

Are there no Fish stores in UAE ? If not, that would be a great investment opportunity for someone local there!

There are several good stores here (from what I hear) but we welcome new ones as well.
Please feel free to open one. This build is somewhat special because it concentrates on local fish and reef. At least I think so (about the somewhat special part)

 

[nahham]

Teaser 2010-03-18

Teaser 2010-03-18

I have several photos I'll post courtesy of my brother (thanks big bro) but I'll do that later today. Here is a sneak peak though:

More coming soon..

 

[Jay180reef]

Do you live across the street? Do you have any drawings of the rest of the facility?

 

[KarlBob]

Wow. That's going to look amazing when it's filled with water, fishes and corals.

What's the orientation of the tank, roughly North/South or more East/West? The shadow line in the picture shows how parts of the area under the deck will receive sunlight at different times of day. There might only be a small area under the middle of the deck that needs artificial light.

 

[KarlBob]

Do you live across the street? Do you have any drawings of the rest of the facility?

We actually have 4 houses facing the aquarium (me and my brothers). I'm not keeping a good track of the expenses because I really don't want to or else I would stop building this

I was worried about birds but running the fish farm for 6 months with around 150 fishes in there, we didn't have a problem with any birds. We did have an incident where guy wandered into the our 'backyard' and decided he might have better luck fishing in the fish farm than in the sea, but thankfully the fish didn't bite, I did

Here is the location of the aquarium in the 'backyard':

PS: The design is a concept and is changing for sure.

 

[nahham]

Wow. That's going to look amazing when it's filled with water, fishes and corals.

What's the orientation of the tank, roughly North/South or more East/West? The shadow line in the picture shows how parts of the area under the deck will receive sunlight at different times of day. There might only be a small area under the middle of the deck that needs artificial light.

The tank's orientation is nearly dead-on East-West. The amount of light it will get under the deck will also change between winter and summer because of the angle of the sun. I might leave that area empty with live rock in open areas.

BTW, I'm giving you the title of "honorary owner" of the tank you answer so many questions that I even forgot I answered.

 

[The]

I usually lurk around these forums.
But i just had to stop and say

WOW.

 

[nahham]

Updates 2010.03.18

Updates 2010.03.18

As promised, here is the photo update:

A picture showing the refugium and saltwater well.

The refugium and tank. As you can see as well, the 'hut' is removed.

I'm liking the color..

The fish farm aka fish spa..

The area for the pumps..

Fish just outside the tank in the sea

A long way to go .. :eek1:

 

[Reefski's]

are there corals growing in the water we see in the photos? the water that has a lot of boating traffic?

 

[AquaBison]

This looks like its going to be great. I'll be tagging along.

Can't wait to see some water in there.

 

[Diver Dan SD]

Amazing.
I check this thread everyday for updates and can not wait to see it filled!
TOTM? Would this even count as a tank?

 

[AquaBison]

This was probably already mention, but I'm too lazy to read through all the pages.

Are you going to have any UV filtration? I know on marine tanks, it's usually useless, if not harmful, killing what you want in the water column. But, in this situation with using seawater, it might be beneficial.