Hey Guys,

(a little background)
I am managing a project in Ambergris Caye, Belize and the owner has asked me to put in a large aquarium in the large 9000 sq/ft house. He doesn't care how, or how much, he just wants it done.. Right now, piles are being placed to bedrock to begin the foundation and we expect the house to be completed September 2010 so I really need to get started on this one. Any comments, concerns, questions, ideas, would be GREATLY appreciated.

As far as the tank is concerned I come to you:
Looking at rough dimensions 10'L x 3'W x 6'h. (or larger)

Since the house will be on the beach and a 1/2 mile from the reef, I was thinking it may be possible to plumb the aquarium directly to the ocean...

Now hear me out:
Run pvc under ground out about 200ft from the shore. Split it 3 ways and put filters on the end to prevent blockage (if one is blocked 2 others should work fine)

Put the pump in the pool pump house because I imagine that thing will be loud. Then, pump to the aquarium in main house. Let the water overflow and gravity feed back to the ocean via pvc..

House does have generators in case electricity fails.
House is a vacation home and will be kept up by local workers so the tank needs to be easily maintained..

Ok so is this feasable? Has it been done? Potential problems?
I promise this is a real project so any input on this would be great.

Now I know, many probably don't believe me, so if that is the case, go to facebook and search "the Belize house" and become a fan. I post daily updates to the project there, but I would like to start a real thread here about this tank as soon as I get a little more info..

Thanks in advance!!

Holy jumpin' that's a big tank I just did a quick calculation and the thing is nearly 2100 gallons based on your listed measurements.

If I understand your plumbing route, this is going to be designed as sort of an ongoing, running sump with the ocean actually acting as the sump and returning a constant level of real ocean water almost like an ongoing, change of water? The concept is rather interesting to think about

Now, one glaring problem hits me here and it really depends on the water movement in the reef area where the pipes are going to exit. Even with filters over the end, you are going to possibly run into algae clogging whatever type of filter you might use. Depening on the size of the filter, you may get silt from storm stir-up unless the pipes are fairly deep in the water column. Problem is, the deeper you go in the water column, the further problem you may have with larger animals (skates, rays, small sharks) bumping into the pipes and dislodging things. I admit I am not familiar with the Belize area so am not sure what sort of marine wildlife is present and at what depth.

If there is a marine biology study group/lab in the area, you might contact them in order to get the information on what is around the area. They will be better able to give you a heads up on problems you might encounter. Also, your idea also depends on the health of the ocean itself. The marine ecology folks in the area should be able to get you the available information on the dissolved oxygen levels, any pollution problems and general ocean water parameters that are present during whichever time of year.

I am also guessing that to plumb a land aquarium directly into the ocean, you are going to need some type of permit. While the chances are slim, if a non-native aquarium fish or algae were to somehow make its way into the ocean, it could cause a problem with the ecology.

Just out of curiosity, have you checked into the type and availability of the glass you are going to need? That is going to be some prety thick glass for something of that volume.

oregonreef.com take a looksee

Steve Weast's tank was (he took it down )awesome but this would be a totally different thing. I hate to do this but I would suggest posting this question on r.c., if you are realy serious about this project. The wealth of information some of those guys have in regards to huge tanks will help you.

Good luck, sounds amazing!

Tlkng1: Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, huge tank. The house will be constructed from concrete and we have put additional reinforcement under the tank. You got it, one giant sump . This should eliminate the need for anything other than a pump and light if I have enough water going through the system. Am I right?

Here is a little background of the location of the home:

The house is located on the island of Ambergris Caye, Belize. Made famous for its amazing scuba diving.
http://ambergriscaye.com/
More specifically, the house is located one lot south of "Mexico Rocks" a popular snorkel spot on the island
http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/parkmexicorocks.html

So water quality/temperature etc should not be an issue. I expect to stock the tank with species caught within 1 mile from the home. (probably even catch them myself) Not much in the way of regulations in this country so no permit would be necessary.

But yes, you are right about the silt issue and that is what I was stuck about as well. During a storm there is definitely some silt stir up and I think that in a system like this, it is unavoidable. Basically, the barrier reef is located about a 1/2 mile from the shore. From the shore to the reef, the water depth doesn't get deeper then 20ft. About 200ft from shore, there is a big rock structure that extends about 2 feet from the surface. (dangerous for boats I know) What I was thinking is bury the pvc to that point, then bring it up to a depth of about 10ft to avoid some of the major silt. Regardless though, during a storm, the tank will be murky but as soon as the storm passes, the tank will be back to normal.. I think? I'm thinking that someone will probably have to clean out the intake every month or so as well. Do you think it will clog with constant clearing?

And yes, I have started to look for glass. Nothing is available in the country so probably going to have to ship some stuff down. Not a huge problem though as I have a steady stream of containers leaving florida and houston.

MikeTR: Nice setup! Hopefully I can avoid all of the mechanical filtration and keep this setup simple to run for a local caretaker.







Hey matty, I actually did post it on R.C. without any replies! I've been a member here for a while now and figured that this would get a response here..

I've dove frequently off Mactan Island Philippines and they intake water from the ocean to go into their lagoon system (really a giant aquarium that tourists swim in) and they don't use filters on the ends of the intake pipes(think of the maintenance hassle, but have the filters up on shore (say in the pool pump house, for instance) which is much more convenient to maintain.
I was last on Ambergris Caye 30 years ago and the biggest hotel had 6 rooms and no house was bigger than about 500 sq. ft. The reef was pristine.

you need to get the guy from LA fish guys on this, that would make for a cool video. check out LAfishguys.com or LAfishguys on youtube. He installs and services tons of tanks like that, the website will have some more pics and stuff to help/inspire you.

I think the easiest thing to avoid the tank getting silted up would be to have a closed loop or some big powerheads for internal water movement and just shutoff the supply pump when a storm is coming. There is enough water volume that the tank should be okay on it's own for a few days or even a week or two. You're going to need more water movement than just the supply pump anyways.

Also, you will probably need two different pumps. One to pull the ocean water over the long distance and fill a supply tank, then one in the supply tank to pump to the aquarium. You should probably also consider multiple pumps in parallel to give yourself some redundancy in case one goes out.

As was suggested , you might wnat to put secondary filters at the pump itself or in three or four easily accessible locations throughout the piping system. This might keep any silt infiltration from a storm down to a minimum.

yardboy: Yeah I have seen the lagoon setups, just never seen it done in an aquarium. Thinking that it should work though. 30years huh? The island has changed (to say the least) since you visited. Still, no building is higher than 3 stories, but lots more development. Still that small island feel though.
And the reef looks pretty good. Got pretty beat up a couple of years ago when hurricane dean rolled through.

systemtool: Hah. I'll look into it.

fewskillz: Probably a good idea. I'll probably end up putting a closed loop in there and yeah, didn't think about the volume. Just turn off the pumps to outside for a day and let the storm pass. Smart. Multiple pumps in parallel. Also smart. Thanks for the ideas, keep'em coming.

So supply tank? How large?
Also, lighting? I was thinking that this tank would replace a wall in the main room. It would be accessed from the second floor and lighting could go in there. Potential problems?

Rather than run it in a continuous loop, couldn't you have the intake empty into a reservoir? That way, you could 1) pump in ~1000gal of seawater and then have the pump shut off. 2) filter the water in the reservoir through carbon filters 3) run the new water into the tank, [with your afformentioned gravity overflow discharging displaced water.] You could do this on 3-4 day intervals, if there is always going to be groundskeepers. The bottom of the reservoir would also trap any heavy sediments or other sealife before they would could enter the filters and display tank.

This is a good idea. We designed a saltwater intake/filter system to be put on a pier so an aquarium could truck their water a mile down the road rather than spending 80 grand a year with Instant Ocean. We did the storage tank with filter loop there. We had two tanks so they always had water ready, but on a single aquarium one tank is fine.

Some sand filters would be the easiest and least amount of maintenance. A lot of the aquarium people we talked to like ozone, but that would be a bit much for some groundskeeper to maintain. An air/dirt separator, or even just a dirt separator meant for HVAC hydronic piping could possibly be utilized, some companies make stainless and plastic versions.

The best temperature control method would probably be a heat exchanger, water to refrigerant style, connected to a small HVAC heat pump.

The cool thing with large systems like this is you can save money by going with real world and industrial equipment, rather than being stuck with the common aquarium brands that actually overcharge because they're marketed towards the hobby.

As far as tank size, I would think something at least 3 to 400 gallons, if not 8 or 900. For that pier job we spec'd Design Tanks tanks, but listed Dolphin Fiberglass as an alternate. Dolphin is based out of Florida so shipping to one of your container facilities would probably be cheaper from them.

Here's how I would do it: have a pump or two pull water from the ocean, I would go open pipe, fill your storage tank, then close it off. Then have a smaller circulation pump run the stored water through a series of filters for a few days. When it's water change time have some valves close and a valve to the tank open emptying the tank into the Display, which has it's own internal circulation. Have an overflow from the display back to the ocean. When the storage tank is empty, close the valve to the display, shutoff that pump and fire up your ocean pumps again, repeat when storage tank is full.

I wouldn't worry about in-tank filtration in the Display, just have liverock and a relatively light bio-load for a few thousand gallon tank. The frequent water changes will take care of the rest. I would do infrequent feedings, preferably right BEFORE a water change.

no tang in a nano

I was in Ambergris Caye (and all over the rest of Belize as well) the summer before last, beautiful place.

I think you're going to want to plumb the water intake (if you're even allowed to do this) quite a bit further out. The first 100 yards between the shore and the reef are a race track for water taxis. I'd imagine it is a bit polluted (I didn't see many fish until you get about 200 yards out).

Also, that area of Belize gets its power from Mexico and when I was there, Belize and Mexico were having a 'war' over fair power pricing. Mexico was shutting down the power for several hours at a time to teach Belize a lesson or something, so the whole hotel (Las Terrazas) was off the grid.

I'll be following your build, though! Good luck!

fewskillz: Your proposed system does make sense. Just wondering what type of filtration you are suggesting after the water gets to the supply tank. The water is already in pristine condition, so I'm assuming this would be to clear the sediment? Like I stated earlier, this system has to be operable for someone that knows nothing about fish, but can handle swimming pool maintenance. (local belizean) So the less steps the better in this I am thinking.

Is this system possible? I'm really shooting for as little filtration as possible since I am pulling water from a natural reef:

2 pipes with pumps to supply tank (400-600gallons)
From supply tank, run water through some type of filtration to remove sediment (cartridge or sand) then to tank.
Let water overflow and gravity feed back to the ocean.
Also running a CLS on the main tank.

In case of storm, just leave CLS running. If storm lasts longer then 2-3 days, the supply tank can be turned on and a water change can occur. (worst case you run the entire system and it clouds up during a storm.. right?)

DHaut: No tangs. Got it. haha.

Optikal: Very funny that you stayed at Las Terrazas. I pass that resort every day on my way to the site. The house is located about 1 mile north from there (very close to Mexico Rocks) and boat traffic decreases the further you go north. The location in front of the house has many areas where the reef breaches the water, so water taxis and private boats stay clear from the property.
So yes, the house will be on the same grid as Las Terrezas and yes they do get some of the energy from Mexico. But for this reason we have planned for a separate generator room that will automatically kick in when the electricity goes out.
Crazy coincidence that you recently visited!


Like i said earlier, check out "the belize house" on facebook to see the construction of the house. I'll keep this thread updated so everyone can see the tank from its initial design phase all the way to completion somewhere around April 2010.

the reason for the supply tank and filtration to the display tank, is for sediment but also for anything your going to suck up from the ocea, things that might eat away at your coral or things that irritate your fish and coral. that is pretty basic for a system, just running a pump the the supply then back to the ocean and pump that stuff from the supply into your system. i love the idea. the only thing im wondering about is how to surface skim, because if you dont have surface skimmer stuff builds up on the surface and thats not good. while a CLS would make circulation it wouldnt fix that problem. unless you just had an overflow that is just then pumped right back in.

Something like an air/air dirt separator is simple like pool filtration. Most of them are self cleaning. To clean them there is usually just a blow down valve that needs opened for a few seconds to let the thing clean itself out. They're strictly mechanical. A sand filter is pretty is pretty low/no maintenance also.

You should look into some photovoltaic power or wind-driven stuff to help out with the off the grid stuff. There's a lot of sustainable energy sources that are becoming more affordable now. You can get some ideas on things you could do from the USGBC's LEED for Homes system if the owner is interested in that kind of thing.

there is a aquarium in the virgin islands that pumps water out of the ocean into the tank and gravity takes it back to the ocean. its like one big contunious loop. u may want to look into how they do it.

if the home owner has that kind of money he should just hire and train somone to take care of the tank full time. on my 250g if i leave it alone for a week it starts to look like ####. i couldnt imagine having a bigger tank and leaving it the hands of a noob.