diy shark pond

There's a pet shop in the Chicago area that has a shark pond. Its pretty much like what the previous poster said, a plywood box with a pond liner...

Its about 3 feet deep, 15-20feet across.
 
I would like to build one and use a pond skimmer for the over flow. That might be cool. Go with something like 16'x16' 4'deep
 
BUTYL liners do NOT leach chlorine... but if you are in any doubt, get samples of liners from your local pool store, roll them up, in a glass of sea water for a couple of weeks, then use a pool test kit to test for chlorine. all PVC fittings can leach chlorine, but the levels are negligable. I agree with Mike... a small(-ish) round pool would be the best option, but you should replace the PVC liner with Butyl. Back in the UK, we retro-ed a 15' round pool with a full-size surface skimmer, sand filter and 1HP pump! The angled outlet was pointing away from (but mounted right next to) the skimmer, and resulted in the whole pool turning into a giant vortex chamber! the pool accumilated all the debris in the centre, and the only clean it ever needed was to vacuum an area about 2' round!

If you mounted a bottom drain in the centre leading out to a pond-style foam filter, you'd hardly have any maintenance (in the water) at all

If you went for a box-welded liner, you could request a pattered sand coloured base... I've seen liners with a sand and pebble design on them.

Use obscene amounts of UV, and use ozone in your skimmer, and you may even be able to keep the algae down!

How are you maintaining the temperature in this? have you thought about water-changes yet? look on Horticultural websites for 1000 litre (food grade!) opaque water storage vessels
 
im going to build my pond like the one on aquariacentral.com.
(except on a slightly larger scale).im going to put insulation between the walls and the liner.i figured that would help it from losing alot of heatand over loading my heaters.also i guess iwill have a large sump for my filter,skimmer and what else i need.any suggestions?
 
I built a koi pond for my shop as follows. I got 8 foot 6x6 posts and laid them in a box fashion with the ends overlapping. Then we drilled through the ends and used threaded rebar and lock washers and nuts to cinch it down. We then lined it with 1/2 plywood cut to fit, but not attached anywhere- water pressure covers that. Then installed a pond liner within the frame. For a shark you would want to get some 1/4 inch plywood and make bent radius corners (1/4 circles). Easy and cheap to do- I think it was 150 bucks of wood and a 20x20 liner.
 
Just courious where do you plan on putting this Shark pond? outside or inside?

(if outside) I just imagine a duck landing in it...and it being a messy scene, heheh
 
i have a spare bed room that measures 12x15.the floor in the room is concrete, it was an addition by the previous owner. perfect shark pond room!
 
I've read that you should double up on the pond liners. Double layered, 1 on top of the other. I think I took that from Aquarium Sharks and Rays by Scott Michael.

Also, just a mention about proper ventillation. Be sure you address the venting issues. All that humidity/eaporation can do alot of damage.
 
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