80,000 Gallon Saltwater Aquarium

kangadrew · Sep 16, 2015

UPDATE:
So, I've worked on the stock list. Basically, I'm going for an indo-pacific design. I have all of the fish species planned, however I'm not sure of inverts and CUCs, or numbers of each. I'll take any info I can get for those. I know temps are a little bit off (some super cold water species and some warmer water), as are compatibility, but he's not worried about that - as long as they're from the same ocean region he's happy. Species:

Sharks (coral cat, whitespotted bamboo, brownbanded bamboo, epaulette, port jackson, zebra, leopard)
Angelfish (goldspotted, yellowtail, golden, bicolor, coral beauty, lemonpeel, flame, russet, pearlscale, lamarck's, king, blue ring, emperor, bluegirdled, blue koran, blue yellowfaced, royal empress)
Boxfish (yellow, bluespot)
Butterflyfish (featherfin, pakistani, indian vagabond, saddled, sunburst, raccoon, blackback, atoll, lemon, dot-dash, spotbanded, latticed, golden, doublesaddle, teardrop, vagabond, copperband, long-nose, black pyramid, pennant, black pyramid)
Clownfish (yellowtail, peacock, orange)
Damselfish (whitetail dascyllus, spinecheek)
Chromis (black axil, green)
Moray Eels (zebra)
Porcupinefish (freckled)
Pufferfish (stars-and-stripes, guineafowl, blackspot, spotted sharpnose)
Rabbitfish (barred spinefoot, orangespotted spinefoot, foxface)
Basslets (mimic roundhead, bartlette's, orange fairy)
Batfish (orbiculate)

Aside from that, I feel like I have determined some answers to my questions:

The front panels will be 7" acrylic. I have been told they should be "jointed on site" - what does this mean? The rest of the tank will be reinforced concrete sunk into the ground, and sealed with Dow 795.
The cycling system will be as follows. Water will start by going over the overflow. It will then flow into a tank where the water will be pre-filtered for large particles, using some sort of media like ceramic noodles, along with powerheads to keep the water stirred up, and the particles suspended, and therefore easier for the media to capture. It will then flow into a tank for the water to be mechanically filtered, using sponge media. Again, powerheads will be used in this tank, just not as large of them, as the particles will still be pretty stirred up (the idea is that as you run through the system, the media gets more dense, the particles get smaller, and the powerheads get weaker; I know that the pumps will run the sump, but the powerheads will directly move water about off of the bottom in order to get particles more stirred up). It will then flow into a refugium, which will house macroalgae and tons of copepods and amphipods to biologically cycle the water (not to mention some LR and a DSB). Chemically will be the next tank - I'm not really sure how to chemically filter a tank this size - any recommendations? The final tank will be a sort of bubble catcher, so that the top of the tank stays cleared up and not all bubbly and stuff. Where would the skimmers, pumps, etc go in this? Just directly into one of the existing tanks, or should more be added?
Sounds like I will be giving Bill a call for a pair of huge skimmers to keep this tank cleaned out.
For flow, there will be a Hydrowizard powerhead hidden in each corner. Those things sound amazing - thanks @RAD Aquatics!
I will be running the entire sump with a pair of 3 hp pumps - does this sound like a good amount?
Still have no lead on a dosing unit - any help is welcomed!
Sounds like a normal top off system will be used, just rigged to run at a much higher rating.
A pair of heat pumps designed for pools will be used as a heater/chiller - one will be for backup.
An ozone reactor will be used in place of a UV reactor.
A pair of fluidized bed reactors will be used for the reactors (again, only one at a time, because one's for backup in case of malfunctions)
Foods will be mostly capelin and locally caught small fish, like anchovies, etc. Also, something like @RAD Aquatics! suggested, a homemade block of foods filled with vitamins and minerals for the fish.
Instant Ocean 20,000 gallon bags of salt will be stored for use in a tank of this size.
The final thing is lights. A skylight will let in natural light throughout approximately the middle 2/3rds of the aquarium. 100 watt pendant lights will be used, in combination with LEDs and metal halides on the parts where the skylight won't reach.

That's where the project stands as of now. Thanks guys!

kangadrew · Sep 16, 2015

Mike in CT said:
I think there was a little confusion if it was going to be an actual build, and not knowing the budget probably made it harder for people to wrap their head around it.
Did you ever contact ATM? I would think they could give you a ball park figure pretty quick considering its a school project.

Have not contacted them - I'll give them a call later this week though probably

RAD Aquatics! · Sep 17, 2015

For salt, also look into a company called AquaCraft. They may be able to beat IO prices.

Finally, you can consider a swimming pool chlorine dosing pump as a dosing unit. They're basically huge dosing pumps!

Best,
Kent

Mike in CT · Sep 17, 2015

Do you really need dosing pumps if your not going to have coral in this tank?

prdubois · Sep 17, 2015

For Skimmers, you would need 6 or 7 ATB Giga Size Skimmers. Each one is rated for 13,000 gallons.

Here is a sample of them running a Sea Lion tank.

ATB-USA.com

steelheader.262 · Sep 17, 2015

WOW!!!

prdubois · Sep 17, 2015

Here is the tank they are running:

retiredsailor · Sep 17, 2015

This seems pretty far removed from Marine Biology. I understand it's a theoretical build and all, but this seems more of a multi-discipline project. Engineering, ecology, architecture, hydrology, marine biology (yes, I am contradicting myself), microbiology, and a lot of others I'm sure.

It seems like it would be a really fun project but I don't see how it would advance your knowledge of marine biology. What is the learning objective? I'm just having a hard time seeing how this would make you a better marine biologist.

TylerS · Sep 17, 2015

kangadrew said:
Part of the grade for the assignment is to bounce off of other's ideas (basically), but not just copy everything from someone. For instance, it must replicate a natural environment, and the stock list must be entirely from the same area. I have already run the forum by him twice, and he's perfectly fine with it.

I read your first post where you stated this and posted my reply, which is I don't believe you. PM me or post the university, course number, and professor and let me run this by him. If it is actually allowed and suggested, then I'll humbly let you be. However, I might have some feedback for the professor regarding the appropriateness of using public forums for a significant portion of a university level assignment.

kangadrew said:
UPDATE:
Aside from that, I feel like I have determined some answers to my questions:

The front panels will be 7" acrylic. I have been told they should be "jointed on site" - what does this mean? The rest of the tank will be reinforced concrete sunk into the ground, and sealed with Dow 795.

The cycling system will be as follows. Water will start by going over the overflow. It will then flow into a tank where the water will be pre-filtered for large particles, using some sort of media like ceramic noodles, along with powerheads to keep the water stirred up, and the particles suspended, and therefore easier for the media to capture. It will then flow into a tank for the water to be mechanically filtered, using sponge media. Again, powerheads will be used in this tank, just not as large of them, as the particles will still be pretty stirred up (the idea is that as you run through the system, the media gets more dense, the particles get smaller, and the powerheads get weaker; I know that the pumps will run the sump, but the powerheads will directly move water about off of the bottom in order to get particles more stirred up). It will then flow into a refugium, which will house macroalgae and tons of copepods and amphipods to biologically cycle the water (not to mention some LR and a DSB). Chemically will be the next tank - I'm not really sure how to chemically filter a tank this size - any recommendations? The final tank will be a sort of bubble catcher, so that the top of the tank stays cleared up and not all bubbly and stuff. Where would the skimmers, pumps, etc go in this? Just directly into one of the existing tanks, or should more be added?

Sounds like I will be giving Bill a call for a pair of huge skimmers to keep this tank cleaned out.

For flow, there will be a Hydrowizard powerhead hidden in each corner. Those things sound amazing - thanks @RAD Aquatics!

I will be running the entire sump with a pair of 3 hp pumps - does this sound like a good amount?

Still have no lead on a dosing unit - any help is welcomed!

Sounds like a normal top off system will be used, just rigged to run at a much higher rating.

A pair of heat pumps designed for pools will be used as a heater/chiller - one will be for backup.

An ozone reactor will be used in place of a UV reactor.

A pair of fluidized bed reactors will be used for the reactors (again, only one at a time, because one's for backup in case of malfunctions)

Foods will be mostly capelin and locally caught small fish, like anchovies, etc. Also, something like @RAD Aquatics! suggested, a homemade block of foods filled with vitamins and minerals for the fish.

Instant Ocean 20,000 gallon bags of salt will be stored for use in a tank of this size.

The final thing is lights. A skylight will let in natural light throughout approximately the middle 2/3rds of the aquarium. 100 watt pendant lights will be used, in combination with LEDs and metal halides on the parts where the skylight won't reach.

Thanks for proving my point. None of this is your idea or original work, which violates just about every university honor code.

retiredsailor said:
This seems pretty far removed from Marine Biology. I understand it's a theoretical build and all, but this seems more of a multi-discipline project. Engineering, ecology, architecture, hydrology, marine biology (yes, I am contradicting myself), microbiology, and a lot of others I'm sure.

It seems like it would be a really fun project but I don't see how it would advance your knowledge of marine biology. What is the learning objective? I'm just having a hard time seeing how this would make you a better marine biologist.

I agree. That's why I used the acrylic thickness as an example and suggested the student contact the professor for the calculations to figure it out. That's a mechanical engineering problem and shouldn't be considered a portion of the project in my opinion.

I think the only thing that makes sense is that the student is getting graded on the marine biology portion of the report (stock selection from a specific portion of the world, and maybe explaining the biological process that will go on in the aquarium?) and the rest, like acrylic thickness, filtration, pumps, etc. is fluff that the professor isn't going to spend much time on for the grading. However even for this I still don't think it's appropriate to be using forums like the student is. I think the assignment being a large aquarium shows that the project is supposed to be unique work and not copying others ideas like he is. A smaller tank like 180 gallons would be easily copied from somewhere on the internet.

ThePriceSeliger · Sep 19, 2015

TylerS said:
I read your first post where you stated this and posted my reply, which is I don't believe you. PM me or post the university, course number, and professor and let me run this by him. If it is actually allowed and suggested, then I'll humbly let you be. However, I might have some feedback for the professor regarding the appropriateness of using public forums for a significant portion of a university level assignment.

Thanks for proving my point. None of this is your idea or original work, which violates just about every university honor code.

I agree. That's why I used the acrylic thickness as an example and suggested the student contact the professor for the calculations to figure it out. That's a mechanical engineering problem and shouldn't be considered a portion of the project in my opinion.

I think the only thing that makes sense is that the student is getting graded on the marine biology portion of the report (stock selection from a specific portion of the world, and maybe explaining the biological process that will go on in the aquarium?) and the rest, like acrylic thickness, filtration, pumps, etc. is fluff that the professor isn't going to spend much time on for the grading. However even for this I still don't think it's appropriate to be using forums like the student is. I think the assignment being a large aquarium shows that the project is supposed to be unique work and not copying others ideas like he is. A smaller tank like 180 gallons would be easily copied from somewhere on the internet.

I agree, something still seems off about this whole thread from the first time I saw it. The project seems far-fetched, and for some reason I expected someone willing to take on a 80,000 gallon (theoretical) build would know more of the basic details than the OP presented. Just my 0.02.