Thinking about a mega tank

[aldiaz33]

I believe Arapaimag's tank is in Canada. His build thread has some info that would be helpful to anyone thinking about taking a mega tank on: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/building-my-50-000-gallon-monster-mega-tank.8952/

The Shedd is in Chicago, IL...it gets cold up there.

It's doable, but you'd have to be prepared to spend an enormous amount on temp control.

The cost to run mega tanks is crazy. This poor guy had to tear his tank down because his electric bill was too much to handle: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/news2014/uks-biggest-private-freshwater-tank-is-closing-down

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but just sharing some facts about what it really takes.

 

[o5b0rn3b]

It's almost imperative that you live in the tropics, I'm not sure there a public aquariums outside the tropics that have a heated tank this size, would be good to know if there are...

Pittsburgh aquarium has two tanks at least 50k gallons. one is completely open, tons of surface area, you can see steam coming off it in the winter. I can't imagine what they spend a year just on that tank. has been running for years. actually a couple arapaima in there.

 

[AZ Red]

When I contacted ATM to ask about a custom tank that would be around 250-300 gal, I was given a $4k-$7k estimate.

If you're really interested, I would say to contact them. Although they make small-ish tanks, they specialize in huge tanks like that. And they deliver, install, set up, and stock them, too...

AZR

 

[Bill L.]

Better get a good job.Just maintenance for that will be hundreds of dollars a month . but good luck i hope you make it some day!

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Just for a frame of reference, if you want a large tank. Zoodiver spent $500,000 building a 5,000 gallon cylindrical shark tank - and some of the livestock was already owned (the nurse shark, 2 eels, and 2 blacktip reef sharks). He has also estimated that a 15,000 gallon shark pond can be had for as little as $4,500 (without stock). Another shark sales guy I have talked to says he set up and filled a 26,000 gallon shark pool (just the pool and the water, nothing else) for under $5,000.

I know you don't want to go saltwater, but those are some pretty good examples of what big tanks cost. It goes to show that if you want something massive, an above ground pool is MUCH cheaper. But, you sacrifice underwater viewing (check out Turbo's setup, he's got a viewing panel on his tank - not big, but you can clearly see his "kids" underwater) for cost. Someone on here built a 2,500 gallon concrete tank, I think I saw a $7,0000-$8,000 figure being thrown out there - granted almost all of the project was DIY and this was like 12 years ago. JohnPTC built his tank (he got it up to 10,000 gallons before tearing it down I think) out of cinder blocks and concrete and he spent over $100,000 on it.

Mega tanks aren't something to take lightly.

 

[AZ Red]

Possibly the cheapest per gallon price for a tank getting close to that size would be a water storage tank with the top cut out. No, there is no side view, but you could get something maybe in the 1000-1500gal range for less than $2k. Might be a good 1st step towards something even bigger, and could easily be re-purposed as a sump/reservoir.

AZR