swmming pool reef
- Thread starter coffeedolphin
- Start date
coffeedolphin
New member
my buddy sugested running multiple fiberoptic hi res camera like the ones used in arthroscopic surgery from differrent view points via cable to a mac based Hi def switcher with output in full HD to largescreen to view the reef- and said also could sebd live lower res feeds online for reaearch etc on coral growth rates- behaviours etc
coffeedolphin
New member
he said that way i dont need full height enclosure- just say 12 inch riser- drain system with plexiglass framed cover over pool- this would save a bundle- and makes more sense than making a building that would really serve no purpose... would have to have vents with fan system in place and ability to clean plexiglass
Fuegofish777
New member
well, i'l be in your area while im home for summer. I wouldnt mind helpin you out. Cant garauntee (sp?) any specific hours or anything, but I would love to work on a project like that. Im minoring in aquaculture so experience would also be great. I'll also be spending alot of time in costa mesa, so not exactly out of my way. PM me if you could use a hand.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
I do not understand the purpose here...
The plexi cover is going to cost a fortune and be hard to maintain. It will be a nuisance danger (people and animals walking on it,etc). It will scratch and will never provide a good viewing situation.
A simple greenhouse would be very easy to build and maintain.
What are the dimensions of the pool?
Is this for a business venture or for personal viewing? If it is a business venture, then the greenhouse will also serve as the work area. If it is for personal viewing... what is the use? Who wants to look down at the top of coral from the edge of a pool?
The "aquaculture" business brings into question even more. Do you really want to sink all of that money into (1) aquaculture tub? A crash, bug, or other nasty outbreak will bring the whole operation to a halt.
How will you harvest your corals from a tank that large? You will need to either dive to get them or build a gantry system and have the corals suspended on scafolds near the waters surface.
Will you have several hours a day to devote to this setup or will you pay a nearly full time person to maintain it?
What kind of water storage facilities will you use to mix and store change water? We are talking thousands of gallons at a time here. How will you arrange to dispose of the change water?
Do you have a loading dock? You will need it to unload the bulk consumables that you will be using.
Have you considered how you will provide balanced alkalinity and calcium dosing?
I am not being rude here, but this appears to be a silly idea perpetuated by people who do not understand what is on the auction block. The city paying for a saltwater pipeline to your house? Not a chance. Digging a ditch beside the pool and installing a window? Not a chance for any reasonable cost. Did you think about the sump pump to keep the ground water out of the ditch?
We can go on and on! There are a hundred reasons why this is a silly idea and honestly not many reasons why it is a good idea unless you want to keep very LARGE fish or sharks.
If honestly have enough money to do something this silly, then you have enough money to fill in the pool and build a proper aquaculture setup with a greenhouse and individual tubs where you can SEE and MAINTAIN the livestock. It would actually be MUCH cheaper.
If this is not a business and just for personal viewing, you could put a greenhouse up and put a few very large glass or acrylic tanks in it for MUCH LESS than the pool conversion. You could build an above ground concrete or similar tank with a very large long viewing panel or panels. You could configure it in a U or similar shape and provide a LOT of viewing area with proper plumbing nad depth.
A local reefer has just built such a facility (aquaculture greenhouse) and is near the 10,000 gallon mark. He has done it for a fraction of what you listed above. Maintenance and upkeep costs will be a fraction of what the "pool" will be.
If you are out to just spend money to prove you can buy what "you want", then by all means cover the swimming pool with plexiglass and fill it with saltwater. Anybody can spend money of they have it. On the other hand, if you want to get enjoyment out of the setup or enter into a business venture, then you need to scrap the swimming pool idea and go about this from a logical and intelligent angle.
don954
New member
If you do this, i would suggest that you incorporate into a business is permissible by city code, and get interns from your local marine college for help. This sounds like a large scale reef similar to many aquariums nowadays and it would be a valuable experience for many students, and provide you with cheap labor... 
sounds like a headache to me...
75g is enough work. as much as Id love to have a mammoth tank some day(800g tops) the work would only be worth it if I could REALLY enjoy it.
for aquaculturing a pool is no good IMO, youd be better off with ridiculously cheap basin pools, you can get them for a few hundred bucks with 1000g of shallow water. and then your systems are seperate so you dont lose it all to 1 mistake.
you spend all this money, what happens when this local fish store figures out this isnt a good plan for them and bails? you hiring a fulltime crew to maintain it?
75g is enough work. as much as Id love to have a mammoth tank some day(800g tops) the work would only be worth it if I could REALLY enjoy it.
for aquaculturing a pool is no good IMO, youd be better off with ridiculously cheap basin pools, you can get them for a few hundred bucks with 1000g of shallow water. and then your systems are seperate so you dont lose it all to 1 mistake.
you spend all this money, what happens when this local fish store figures out this isnt a good plan for them and bails? you hiring a fulltime crew to maintain it?
TriniStylez
New member
I grew up with a "reef pond" at my house in the Caribbean and it kind of sucked for viewing...it was only 400G. Looking down at everything gets really boring and annoying after a while unless its fish.
If 400G was not good for viewing, how would a pool look?
Seems like you could do much better with a huge TANK.
If 400G was not good for viewing, how would a pool look?
Seems like you could do much better with a huge TANK.
TriniStylez
New member
Maybe you could just drain your pool and put a bunch of tanks inside it...
Beaner3
New member
I'm with TriniStylez, thats hilarious. I say if the guy has piles of cash to throw around, let him do what he wants, I personally think I would be snorkeling in that thing every day, better yet, Buy yourself a snuba rig so you have no time constraints on your underwater time. I'm totally subscribing to this thread.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Good grief... now I suppose the guy is a victim.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Or better yet instead of blindly encouraging him to waste his money, why not encourage him to refine the idea so that the logistics are reasonable and the actual goals can be defined and met.
It is very easy for groupies and wannabes to spend other peoples money. Almost every one of the "go for it" posts in this thread is from a very uninformed perspective.
The OP is either totaly full of it and he is playing this thread at for all it is worth...
-OR-
The OP has the disposable income to throw at a big tank project but very obviously has not put a lot of thought into the goals, let alone the logistics.
-OR-
The OP THOUGHT he had the disposable income to do something like this but will soon find out that it may be too much money and too much work.
I would suggest that he (and many of you) take a long trip over to the large tank forum and read about what this volume takes. I would then take a look at Bill Wan's setup and others like it.
Aquarculture and display setups are two different beasts. A tank this large is not a good idea for aquaculture (all your eggs in one basket) and a swimming pool is not good as a display. So both scenarios beg the question, why spend the cash on such a setup when it does not meet the needs of any situation?
stugray
Premium Member
I'm with Bean on this one.
Why spend so much money for something you cannot See?
If you are truly made of money, hate your swimming pool, and still want a "Holy Crap" Reef tank, do the following:
1 - Build the greenhouse around the pool. ( this will ADD to the resale value of the home even in CA ) Put in lots of opening sky lights.
2 - Build a steel structure over the pool that can support a 3000-5000 gallon tank. Install a nice viewing area even with seating & "lounge area". You could open the roof and get a tan while watching your school of Sohal Tangs!!
3 - Install tank, using the pool area underneath as a sump, refugium, workspace. You could even fit a large water change tank in there.
This would make the whole thing easy to view, easy to maintain, and keep the ugly parts of the system out of view.
You also have to consider the dent in the resale value of the property if you try the reef tank thing & need to sell. Pools are hard enough to resell ( at least in colorado ).
HTH
Stu
Why spend so much money for something you cannot See?
If you are truly made of money, hate your swimming pool, and still want a "Holy Crap" Reef tank, do the following:
1 - Build the greenhouse around the pool. ( this will ADD to the resale value of the home even in CA ) Put in lots of opening sky lights.
2 - Build a steel structure over the pool that can support a 3000-5000 gallon tank. Install a nice viewing area even with seating & "lounge area". You could open the roof and get a tan while watching your school of Sohal Tangs!!
3 - Install tank, using the pool area underneath as a sump, refugium, workspace. You could even fit a large water change tank in there.
This would make the whole thing easy to view, easy to maintain, and keep the ugly parts of the system out of view.
You also have to consider the dent in the resale value of the property if you try the reef tank thing & need to sell. Pools are hard enough to resell ( at least in colorado ).
HTH
Stu
Beaner3
New member
So both scenarios beg the question, why spend the cash on such a setup when it does not meet the needs of any situation? [/B][/QUOTE]
Because he has the money! The guy is an orthopedic surgeon, in Cali.,... last time I checked, they don't start around 30k a year, I'm sure the feasability of a project of this magnitude has already been debated, and re debated before even thinking about undertaking a build like this. It's California man,....they do things different out there.
I for one "misinformed wannabe groupie" want to see it done. Just to prove nay sayers like you completely wrong Beananimal.
Coffeedolphin,...........Run that thing! But make sure your water is completely stable, Why not try a FOWLR in ther first? See how the fish do and maybe slowly add a frag or 40 here and there. Post a pic of your skimmer!
Because he has the money! The guy is an orthopedic surgeon, in Cali.,... last time I checked, they don't start around 30k a year, I'm sure the feasability of a project of this magnitude has already been debated, and re debated before even thinking about undertaking a build like this. It's California man,....they do things different out there.
I for one "misinformed wannabe groupie" want to see it done. Just to prove nay sayers like you completely wrong Beananimal.
Coffeedolphin,...........Run that thing! But make sure your water is completely stable, Why not try a FOWLR in ther first? See how the fish do and maybe slowly add a frag or 40 here and there. Post a pic of your skimmer!
medic29
Premium Member
That was tactful. Specific. And NOT attacking at someone's idea. I'm not saying the idea was reasonable; sounded like a good idea to me, but I admit, I have no clue if it was reasonable or not. From reading his initial posts, he didn't know if it was possible or not either. Sure there was plenty of encouragement, most likely from those that don't have a clue whether it would be feasible or not, but liked the idea. The tone of the attack could have been done without the attack, such as stugray's comments. Yes, he is the victim to a rude attack. A suggestion, thought, idea he put up wondering if it was possible. Absolutely, no reason to attack the idea like that; it tends to shutdown anyone else from posting their ideas, dreams, or creative energy.
Just my thoughts!!
Just my thoughts!!
Bean, I agree this is a pipe dream...
I had a raised pool in the UK... 6000g, 6' walls on 3 sides, I worked out a hundred different ways to do this, but none were feasable! for instance...
plumbing; all the pool pipes were sunk into concrete and would need replacing prior to use due to anti-algae sealants used in the swimming pool industry
heating; pool heaters are predominantly based on brass and copper heat exchangers (or titanium and copper) and as such, a completely new heating method would be needed... solar heating, is simply not controllable enough.
the idea of a saltwater pipe is simply madness! no one in their right mind would use seawater collected from the immediate coast, and to source from further out would simply be financially impractical. a better idea would be a deep bore-hole which could be sunk deep enough to source salt-water... but only if the bore is close enough to the coast, and the area has no agricultural land nearby, to contaminate it!
livestock; exactly where do you think you will be able to source the corals for this display? sure you can buy small and grow, but corals large enough to not look out of place, would take decades to grow.
my advice? enjoy the pool, enjoy your tank, and use the money on some diving/snorkelling holidays!
I had a raised pool in the UK... 6000g, 6' walls on 3 sides, I worked out a hundred different ways to do this, but none were feasable! for instance...
plumbing; all the pool pipes were sunk into concrete and would need replacing prior to use due to anti-algae sealants used in the swimming pool industry
heating; pool heaters are predominantly based on brass and copper heat exchangers (or titanium and copper) and as such, a completely new heating method would be needed... solar heating, is simply not controllable enough.
the idea of a saltwater pipe is simply madness! no one in their right mind would use seawater collected from the immediate coast, and to source from further out would simply be financially impractical. a better idea would be a deep bore-hole which could be sunk deep enough to source salt-water... but only if the bore is close enough to the coast, and the area has no agricultural land nearby, to contaminate it!
livestock; exactly where do you think you will be able to source the corals for this display? sure you can buy small and grow, but corals large enough to not look out of place, would take decades to grow.
my advice? enjoy the pool, enjoy your tank, and use the money on some diving/snorkelling holidays!
