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Unread 06/25/2020, 10:28 AM   #1
yukonblizzard
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3,000 Gallon Indoor/Outdoor Aquarium Build

Hey guys! It's been a very long time since posting here (the last few years have been crazy; undergraduate school, getting married, living out of the country, veterinary school, the list goes on). I had a build thread of a 600 gallon tank we made nearly 10 years ago. I'll see if I can find the link for anyone that is interested... I have been meaning to start a build thread for some time now, but I continue to procrastinate, so I figured I would at least put together this first post to hold me accountable to show you all the complete build from start to finish.

I figured I would give a brief outline of the projects leading up to this one.

We started with a 180 gallon glass FOWLR tank and tinkered around with that for a few years.




After a few years the fish really seemed to outgrow the 180 and I wanted to get into sharks and stingrays so we built a 600+ gallon tank from scrap materials.



Unfortunately I can't find any good pictures of the finished product. I will keep digging. I wish I had taken better pictures more often; it's funny how much things have changed in just 10 years, now we have HD cameras in our pockets every where we go.

So then after a few years of the 600 gallon tank we decided to go even bigger! The sharks and rays just seemed to cramped even with an 8ft x 4ft footprint. This time it was more of a saltwater pond rather than an aquarium as we didn't incorporate any viewing panels into it. It was constructed out of wood and pond liner and naturally lit by skylights in our shed.



Again, unfortunately I didn't record many good pictures/videos of this setup. This was a short lived project, perhaps just a couple of years, my intentions were to breed sharks and rays. Unfortunately this setup suffered from a crash and I lost nearly 80% of the livestock, including all of the elasmobranch. I decided to scrap the project and downsize back to the 600 gallon tank that had yet to be taken down with the surviving livestock. It such a devastating blow that if I had lost the entirety of the stock I likely would not have continued in the hobby.

For a couple of years things were pretty stagnant, momentarily defeated by failure. After a while the spark for the hobby rekindled and I began to get more involved again. Fast forward a few more years and I was planning yet another project.

Okay, enough burying the lead, here are a couple recent photos of the finished 3,000 gallon tank.



-outside view



-inside view

Like I said above, I am going to give a complete build from start to finish with tons of pictures and videos, I just figured I would get the ball rolling with this first post since I had the time.



Last edited by yukonblizzard; 06/25/2020 at 01:06 PM.
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Unread 06/25/2020, 04:51 PM   #2
thirst
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Wow!! Amazing!


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Unread 06/25/2020, 08:17 PM   #3
yukonblizzard
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thirst View Post
Wow!! Amazing!


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Thank you, I appreciate it!

I am still scrounging up photos of the build process trying to get all the details etc. in chronological order, but I just made a video that kind of gives an idea of how the system operates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LZdj0hdC24


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Unread 06/26/2020, 08:52 AM   #4
Michael Hoaster
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Cool design! I love outside-the-box ideas like this. I like the viewing from both in and outdoors. Also like the greenhouse roof. I can't imagine doing weekly water changes for that tank. If it was me, I'd drive that refugium a lot harder, so you could just export macro algae instead. It's a much more concentrated nutrient sink than the water. I look forward to following along on the build!


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our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey

Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018
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Unread 06/27/2020, 01:26 PM   #5
yukonblizzard
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster View Post
Cool design! I love outside-the-box ideas like this. I like the viewing from both in and outdoors. Also like the greenhouse roof. I can't imagine doing weekly water changes for that tank. If it was me, I'd drive that refugium a lot harder, so you could just export macro algae instead. It's a much more concentrated nutrient sink than the water. I look forward to following along on the build!
Thank you! I didn't start out doing weekly water changes, but the shark produces so much waste that it helps me keep up with the nitrates. I plan to build a larger skimmer so I don't have to do so many water changes. I agree that the refugium needs to be driven wayyyy harder, but for the life of me I cannot get the cheato nor caulerpa to grow well/fast. I thought for sure the natural sunlight and heavy waste load would have me drowning in macro algae, but it turns out to not be the case. It seems that there is an algae that has a film like appearance that quickly smothers any new growth. I am going to experiment in shading part of the refugium to see if that can allow the macro algae to out-compete the nuisance algae!


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Unread 07/09/2020, 06:49 PM   #6
yukonblizzard
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Alright, no more teasing, so like I said we were doing some much needed renovation to the back yard. This area the tank currently is was a pond before that had been neglected for several seasons and torn apart by the dogs and quite frankly looked like crap lol so we were going to clear out the area to anyways. During the process, I just so happened to stumble across a pretty cool build on YouTube that sparked the idea of a huge tank; this is why build threads can be dangerous! haha Long story short, we came up with the idea of digging out the area under the deck to incorporate a building underneath the deck that would house the system.


-beginning to dig out underneath the deck - June 2017





-the mud pit created by the skid steer (this is the now patio area in front of the tank)




-all of the earth removed from beneath the deck




-another view of where we dug out beneath the deck





-couple weeks later we can see things starting to come together. Things probably would have gone smoother if we weren't simultaneously re-landscaping the entirety of the yard! But landscaping and plants is another thing that I find really fun to imagine/design/implement, I think it has a lot of parallels to this hobby.




-getting closer... the walls of the tank are made of 2x6s every 12 inches before putting up the treated 3/4" plywood




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Unread 07/09/2020, 06:53 PM   #7
yukonblizzard
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My wife and I put together this fun little video the other day of us cleaning the tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKKp8KnXZs&t=9s

And here is just a simple video of the tank as it sits presently from a few different vantage points from outside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CBI-xjunY


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Unread 07/09/2020, 07:15 PM   #8
Michael Hoaster
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Very cool, thanks for sharing! Enjoyed the construction pics as well as the vids. It's a gorgeous tank with beautiful fish.

You need a bigger scraper! I wonder if you could shade the viewing panels so no light hits them. This would likely cut down on algae.

I'd love to see more construction pics, as well as some explanation of how you did it. So cool!


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As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance,
our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey

Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018
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Unread 07/09/2020, 08:52 PM   #9
Ziggyreef
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Awesome build and story need more pictures

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Unread 07/16/2020, 10:39 PM   #10
pco1988
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Looks awesome so far and very excited to follow this build! This is a dream of mine to do down the road!


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"The ones who have had a tank crash, and the ones that are going to have a tank crash"

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Unread 07/28/2020, 10:42 AM   #11
stempy07
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That's an amazing build, very impressive. What are the dimensions of the tank? We're in the planning stages of our 8x4x4 build and this is inspirational for sure.


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Unread 08/01/2020, 08:44 AM   #12
BearCoral
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That's a lot of work.


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Unread 08/16/2020, 07:02 PM   #13
Coral Frenzy
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This is great! A ton of work but will be worth it in the end.


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Unread 08/17/2020, 01:33 PM   #14
Hellsangelbx
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ALot of work but looks amazing. Totally worth it


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