You are a living legend :O
15,000 gallon shipping container aquarium idea
- Thread starter Abyssalisk
- Start date
I'd love to hear about how you built this pond. The shark guys would get a kick out of it, $6500 to build a 25,000 gallon lagoon is insanely low.
My steps, roughly:
-- dug a sand pit about 1.5-2.5' deep along the house - grade slopes away from the house (by hand, so no formal expense)
-- built the enclosure around the pit and attached it to the house side - 4x4 posts, roof boards, shade cloth, UV-treated tarp on top, insect netting for walls - no expenses included in the numbers above as these are not directly related to the tank construction
-- one 50' wall is the house wall, so built two 15' sidewalls out of wooden posts and doubled up 3/4" plywood, all pressure treated of course
-- built the window, 42 feet x 43 inches to be exact, joining five ~9'x43"x3/4" acrylic panes with four 2' wide posts (posts are outside of the tank) made of laminated sheets of acrylic, posts are 7' tall (~1/2 dug in ground, ~1/2 of the post height is above ground); glued 2'x43"x1/2" panels to each of the 4 joints on the inside, plus 6" wide strip all around the remaining perimeter of each of the 5 acrylic panes inside and out, top and bottom; plus two 3" wide acrylic strips along the top inside and out and a 6" wide acrylic top (to make a T top) along the entire 42' length; the glue is weld on #40 at $550 for 4 gals before shipping from Interstate Plastics, California, took 16 gals; watch and listen to the video above
-- all acrylic is from Craigslist, all cell cast - fish tank appropriate, NOT extruded
----- 9'x43"x3/4" five, $950 all
----- 7'x5'x1/2" eight, $400 all
----- 8'x4'x1/2" five, $600 all
-- attached 60'x20'x45 mil EPDM rubber liner to the window -
----- cross section: window | Dow 795 | liner | 3" wide acrylic strip, 1" thick
----- the 3" strip runs entire length and sides, one piece, made out of 1/2" acrylic
----- the 3" strip compresses the liner and Dow silicone with 1/4" stainless steel 316 marine grade bolts every 4.5", about 100 bolts
----- the vertical sides have no bolts but are screwed to the wooden side posts with stainless steel 6"x5/16" screws
-- dressed the sand pit, made an ~45 degree angle at the window to eliminate blind spot below the grade - the window only shows top 43" of the overall 4'-4.5' depth
-- laid down make shift liner underlayment - 4-5 layers of high quality, thick, used greenhouse plastic, waste scavenged from my neighbor who runs an orchid nursery
-- spread the liner
-- water tested, holds water
That's where we are at. I am fixing the liner to the top perimeter and building a wet/dry filter for the tank that will run on ~7000 nylon mesh pot scrubbers. Projected flow - eight to ten 5000 GPH pumps.
-- dug a sand pit about 1.5-2.5' deep along the house - grade slopes away from the house (by hand, so no formal expense)
-- built the enclosure around the pit and attached it to the house side - 4x4 posts, roof boards, shade cloth, UV-treated tarp on top, insect netting for walls - no expenses included in the numbers above as these are not directly related to the tank construction
-- one 50' wall is the house wall, so built two 15' sidewalls out of wooden posts and doubled up 3/4" plywood, all pressure treated of course
-- built the window, 42 feet x 43 inches to be exact, joining five ~9'x43"x3/4" acrylic panes with four 2' wide posts (posts are outside of the tank) made of laminated sheets of acrylic, posts are 7' tall (~1/2 dug in ground, ~1/2 of the post height is above ground); glued 2'x43"x1/2" panels to each of the 4 joints on the inside, plus 6" wide strip all around the remaining perimeter of each of the 5 acrylic panes inside and out, top and bottom; plus two 3" wide acrylic strips along the top inside and out and a 6" wide acrylic top (to make a T top) along the entire 42' length; the glue is weld on #40 at $550 for 4 gals before shipping from Interstate Plastics, California, took 16 gals; watch and listen to the video above
-- all acrylic is from Craigslist, all cell cast - fish tank appropriate, NOT extruded
----- 9'x43"x3/4" five, $950 all
----- 7'x5'x1/2" eight, $400 all
----- 8'x4'x1/2" five, $600 all
-- attached 60'x20'x45 mil EPDM rubber liner to the window -
----- cross section: window | Dow 795 | liner | 3" wide acrylic strip, 1" thick
----- the 3" strip runs entire length and sides, one piece, made out of 1/2" acrylic
----- the 3" strip compresses the liner and Dow silicone with 1/4" stainless steel 316 marine grade bolts every 4.5", about 100 bolts
----- the vertical sides have no bolts but are screwed to the wooden side posts with stainless steel 6"x5/16" screws
-- dressed the sand pit, made an ~45 degree angle at the window to eliminate blind spot below the grade - the window only shows top 43" of the overall 4'-4.5' depth
-- laid down make shift liner underlayment - 4-5 layers of high quality, thick, used greenhouse plastic, waste scavenged from my neighbor who runs an orchid nursery
-- spread the liner
-- water tested, holds water
That's where we are at. I am fixing the liner to the top perimeter and building a wet/dry filter for the tank that will run on ~7000 nylon mesh pot scrubbers. Projected flow - eight to ten 5000 GPH pumps.
Haha, if you mean at killing fish and spending wife's money, then yeah, I am a legend.You are a living legend :O
That was insane Vik!!! Congrats!! Can't wait till fish go in.
A friend of mine in Holland built a 50,000+ gallon system out of three shipping containers.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Would it be easier to cut the side out of a dumpste container and weld track to the inside to slide the window in ? And maybe weld a couple of cross beams over the top for added suppot. I don' know but this sounds alot more sturdy than a shipping containers .
I been doing some thinking on the dumpster container idea . Feel free anyone to give me their opinion .
Put a 35 foot dumpster and place it (or stack it inside) into a 40 foot
The 35 foot dumpster will be the fish tank itself . The 40 foot container will have the extra 5 foot for filtration and plumbing work.
Optional insert here: Place a viewing window in both . You get the idea, you can be creative at this point .
Then concrete the middle of the side walls between the two ( It'. My opinion but I feel here that it might lend some wieght protection) And the extra 5 foot at the door end for maintenance.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Put a 35 foot dumpster and place it (or stack it inside) into a 40 foot
The 35 foot dumpster will be the fish tank itself . The 40 foot container will have the extra 5 foot for filtration and plumbing work.
Optional insert here: Place a viewing window in both . You get the idea, you can be creative at this point .
Then concrete the middle of the side walls between the two ( It'. My opinion but I feel here that it might lend some wieght protection) And the extra 5 foot at the door end for maintenance.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
There is a Co in western Canada whose business is just that, except they make shipping containers into swimming pools with windows: http://modpools.com/
