New here- have new 3500 gal tank!

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D

destro

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2008
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Hebron, Indiana
Greetings! I hope to soon join you all in the ranks of the monster fish keepers!

I have just "inherited" a 3500 gallon indoor pond. It belongs to my company and the boss said I can set it up if I want.

I have been keeping aquariums for the last 20+ years at home (120 gallon is my biggest) including salt water. This tank was built in 1968 and is enclosed in our foyer. It was been drained and empty for the past 5 years. When they got the buildings someone with "pool" experience wanted to do as I am now, but they treated it like a pool and just dumped in chlorine. It ended up all green water and the project died out after a couple months. They wanted just a water feature but didn't put in any plants or anything- this pond is in an enclosed greenhouse with trees and full skylights. It will need a good amount of shade plants on the surface I think. The pond is all ceramic blocks and at one point (previous company back in the '60-'70-80's) had saltwater tidal pool fish/corals in it.

The good news is they bought a new pump and filter at that time (no UV though). My plan is to keep the existing mechanical/biological filter (and 3300GPH pump) with all new media, and add a second submersible unit with UV and a water feature run off the submersible pump. I will also add some sort of aeration (bubble curtains?).

The pond is 15'8" by 15"8' X 25". I want to get the water going and filtration setup but I would like to do freshwater rays and arawanas. Koi are a cheaper option (and I will probably start with some cheaper Koi to get things going).

Any thoughts or ideas to help? I am right now just reading all I can before I purchase anything. I have a budget for this (cool, I get to do this on the company dime!).

Cheers!
~Kevin
 
sounds awesome... post some pictures up...

Welcome to MFK!!!!
 
:welcome: lets see some pics of this bad boy!!!
 
I will bring a camera on Monday and take some pics. It really will be a cool setup, just got the OK from the boss to put water in next week and test out the pumps/plumbing.

We have a huge pump and filters down in the basement, but I am afraid the cost of making any changes down there (other than filter media) will turn him off to the project. I am going to add a second filter w/ UV that is submersible. The pump room downstairs has what looks to be a sealed pressure system with direct drain (overflow goes right into the drain, valves for main pump return to go down drain or into filters). There is a cannister with paper filter (need to find a replacment- I'll post pics on Monday) and a Bio Filter that once upon a time had sand in it. The previous "pond keeper" thought it was "icky" so dumped it all out and just left an empty chamber for bio filtration! There is also a remote tank heater- The plumbing is mostly PVC, but some is still the old stainless steel from when the building was built! I would like to add an inline UV filter (and may eventually) but the all-in-one unit is cheaper.

Here is the unit I am thinking of:
http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/page_2737_302/lifegard_complete_pond_filter_system_with_uv.html

It is only rated at 1500 gallons, but when added to the pressure system I think it should be OK (I mainly want it for the UV, the extra filtration is mostly because it is only a bit more expensive than just a pump and UV filter).
 
If you work for an evil company, you can put piranhas in there. When you have clients you don't like, show them the pond, throw a bucket of pig guts on them, and push them in there.

If your company isn't so evil, maybe you should just go ahead and disregard this post.
 
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