Shark and ray pond build

Aquadog

Dovii
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Jun 28, 2009
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I wouldn't consider myself a Bamboo Shark Expert, but I have raised a couple in a 300g and 480g tank. With that being said, the 300g stock tank would work if the sharks and Ray's are just pups. They will outgrow that tank in 6-8 months if you raised from new pups. The Ray's need surface and the sharks too, since they are really swimmers. My last Bamboo was actually a swimmer and swam all day long, doing laps around my 480g 8' x 4' tank. Mine always took a flying leap to freedom, until I put weighted clear poly carbonite lids on top.

I would look for something like this:

Lots of swimming room and plenty of pond build ideas online using these.

Your skimmer will work for a while, but you will develop a huge bioload, feeding fillets of fish, squid, anchovies etc into the tank.

I'm running a Bubble Magus B12, on my 480g with about 180 gallons in my sump. It barely keeps up with what I feed. Not to mention to smell from the cup if not dumped regularly.

I would take the stock tank you listed and make the sump and drop a couple of your skimmers in there. Could raise your pond up on bricks about 8" and run a skim drain to your sump through the side of the pond.

As far as a sand skimmer, I would skip that and just load your sump with live rock/bio bricks/Seachem Matrix. You should have plenty of sand and rocks in your pond too, helping with bio filtration. Save on that filter and just get giant skimmer or two!

I'm excited to see your build. You will love having Bamboo sharks. My last one was so friendly, letting me rub its belly and hold it. When it came out of water though, it thrashed show much it could have been tie finally show for Shark Week!

Sorry for the long post, I just love building these tanks/ponds and get excited to see them get built. Make sure you post pics of your build!
 
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DanimalK

Exodon
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Dec 9, 2016
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Thanks for the all the info. I appreciate long posts haha. I actually ordered this above ground pool today https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bestway...bove-Ground-Swimming-Pool-56496E-BW/310268674 and I'm going to also buy pond liner to lay over it just for peace of mind, plus I like the black over the blue. I'm gonna go with what you said for filtration (lots of biological in sump) because I feel I'd rather save up and get another monster skimmer. I have a sump I'm gonna use, it will be raised up and I can put the skimmer in there for now and load it with biological but I do need to plan to upgrade it once I get a bigger skimmer to fit both haha.
 
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Aquadog

Dovii
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Jun 28, 2009
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Thanks for the all the info. I appreciate long posts haha. I actually ordered this above ground pool today https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bestway...bove-Ground-Swimming-Pool-56496E-BW/310268674 and I'm going to also buy pond liner to lay over it just for peace of mind, plus I like the black over the blue. I'm gonna go with what you said for filtration (lots of biological in sump) because I feel I'd rather save up and get another monster skimmer. I have a sump I'm gonna use, it will be raised up and I can put the skimmer in there for now and load it with biological but I do need to plan to upgrade it once I get a bigger skimmer to fit both haha.

I did a lot of research looking for a good quality skimmer on a budget, which that word "budget" doesn't really go with Shark Tanks, but the Bubble Magus B12 is an awesome skimmer. Its quiet, skims well, huge collector cup and my main requirement was, it's under 26".

Aquacave was cheapest, with fast free shipping.

 

Aquadog

Dovii
MFK Member
Jun 28, 2009
157
259
102
CA
Thanks for the all the info. I appreciate long posts haha. I actually ordered this above ground pool today https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bestway...bove-Ground-Swimming-Pool-56496E-BW/310268674 and I'm going to also buy pond liner to lay over it just for peace of mind, plus I like the black over the blue. I'm gonna go with what you said for filtration (lots of biological in sump) because I feel I'd rather save up and get another monster skimmer. I have a sump I'm gonna use, it will be raised up and I can put the skimmer in there for now and load it with biological but I do need to plan to upgrade it once I get a bigger skimmer to fit both haha.

From experience, I would be cautious with the liners. When my Bamboos were about 12" they were flipping rocks moving them around the tank. Live rock can be very sharp and I'm sure would have no trouble putting holes in the liner if moved around inside the pond over time. That's one of the reasons when building my tank I changed from Pond Armor/Fiberglass/Plywood base to a PVC base in the the tank.
 
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DanimalK

Exodon
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Dec 9, 2016
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From experience, I would be cautious with the liners. When my Bamboos were about 12" they were flipping rocks moving them around the tank. Live rock can be very sharp and I'm sure would have no trouble putting holes in the liner if moved around inside the pond over time. That's one of the reasons when building my tank I changed from Pond Armor/Fiberglass/Plywood base to a PVC base in the the tank.
Yeah my plan is to use a pond liner over the actual pool liner and then also I was planning actually making the liverock structures connected and sturdy to where they cannot be flipped or tumbled. I've built some caves and large pillars before for other tanks and have used fiberglass or acrylic rods and epoxy to make them sturdy and it's worked pretty well before with some big fish and eels knocking them around haha
 

twentyleagues

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I agree make rock structures solid. I didnt have issues with the tank size with mine but bigger is always better. I do worry about the longevity of a pool like that. The extra layer may help. That 8' one would be nice too. You cant beat the price of that 102×67 though. My skimmer was a special build from bashsea it ran my whole system over 2000g, it was almost as tall as me and 24" around. Get as large a skimmer as you can afford/find.
 

DanimalK

Exodon
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2016
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I agree make rock structures solid. I didnt have issues with the tank size with mine but bigger is always better. I do worry about the longevity of a pool like that. The extra layer may help. That 8' one would be nice too. You cant beat the price of that 102×67 though. My skimmer was a special build from bashsea it ran my whole system over 2000g, it was almost as tall as me and 24" around. Get as large a skimmer as you can afford/find.
Yeah I mean the pond liner I'm gonna get is from a store I used to work at and was very well reviewed and great for outdoor ponds, so I cant imagine this beating it up more than an outdoor pond.

I'm definitely going to get another skimmer, gonna save a little money for one and at least going with the above ground pool being cheap (even with liner on it) I'll be able to put that extra savings into better filtration.
 

Aquadog

Dovii
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Jun 28, 2009
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I'm curious what your guys thoughts are on this product. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html
Is it a good alternative to live rock in a sump? Seems like more surface area than most live rock but I've had no experience with it.
I've used them before. They are pain though when doing your annual or semi annual deep cleaning of your sump area.

I've always wanted to try these, https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/x...tY__6NNEMfaAekBfflUzxdR95MEmHOixoC2h4QAvD_BwE

Looks like sump life made easy with couple stacks of these.
 

twentyleagues

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If you dont have a saltwater store near by then stuff like that is fine. If you do have a saltwater store near by just get live rock. Or get live rock online and wait for it to readjust. Honestly I never really had issues with saltwater. Ammonia and nitrite were always 0 and honestly before I hooked up a biopelet reactor my nitrites didnt go over 20. Just a deep sand bed and lots of live rock and alot of macro.
 
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