Help turning Pool into tank

[xxkenny90xx]

Get a tight fitting lid, marlins are jumpers!

 

[LadyMac]

To each his own but I would be making this a fish only with coral inserts. Understand that I HATE coral inserts but a live reef that big would be a monster to care for.

Green star polyps everywhere!

 

[TvanB1]

I have done an install similar in size to this.
There is a lot of maintenance involved with a system like this.
Start up cost is expensive; Expect to pay over 50k.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I have done an install similar in size to this.
There is a lot of maintenance involved with a system like this.
Start up cost is expensive; Expect to pay over 50k.

Any pictures?

 

[harley32907]

I could see in Florida, even then you would deal with the heat

 

[ichthyogeek]

The wife and I purchased a home not too long ago which came with an inground indoor salt water pool. There is a glass window on the side so you can watch people dive in under water. My wife and I do not swim but she wants to convert it into a saltwater fish aquarium. Where can I buy reefs and stuff? Are there people that can be hired to set up aquariums? Are larger fish available to the public? I am a massive Marlin lover.

I'll be very real with you, with the way most pools are designed (squared off corners, etc.), you'll be hard pressed to keep any of the BIG pelagic fish (tuna, billfish, sharks, etc.).

Water stuff: It's going to be expensive. Even using tap water will be complicated, and rain might bring in contaminants into the pool...hello algae blooms!

Heating/Cooling stuff: You're gonna get really dinged by the NorthEast's (Pittsburgh, PA?) hot hot summers, and frigging cold winters, so heaters and coolers would be a necessity. If you decided to do something like build a greenhouse on top of the pool in order to keep it heated better, that would be a good step to getting it to at least heat up nicely during the winter, although I remain unconvinced that the electrical bill for heating the pool would be worth it, unless you're running something like geothermal heating.

Water movement stuff: So corals need water movement. A (non-wave) pool isn't exactly great at moving large quantities of water around (anywhere from 10x the water volume upwards in most reef tanks nowadays). Your best bet is to use fake decorations throughout most of the pool, and then BLAST the viewing window area using submersible pumps if you want to grow coral. Although I maintain that you're better off just using fake decorations.

Fish stuff: hmm....24.3K gallons...have you considered stingray species? A shark (depending on how rounded off the pool's corners are) may work as well. There are also quite a number of large fish (lookdowns, atlantic spadefish, aforementioned Pomacanthus angelfish, etc.) that will look nice. There are vendors for the larger fish species, but most of the time, people will figure out what they want to buy, do the research for the care requirements, and find the fish that way. You'll also have to keep in mind the sheer feeding costs of feeding those fish as well.

Life Support System stuff: Yeah. With a fish only setup, it's manageable, since you can do stuff like hang baskets of macroalgae into the pool, do large water changes, etc. They do sell very large protein skimmers (and have fun cleaning them!). But corals are a complete game changer....you'd either be okay, since it would be such a large volume and water changes would be able to sustain the coral population...OR, you'd be screwed over and spend way too much money on dosing reagents + equipment.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Personally...I'd just go with a pond. You add in various pond plants during the spring, and have an absolute blast with things like lotuses, water lilies, etc.

And then you can have a bunch of tropical ornamental fish (think neon tetras!! Discus! Gouramis!, Arowanas!!!), that you buy a bunch of, and then sell back to the LFS once winter comes. Or buy goldfish, chinese hi fin banded sharks, white cloud mountain minnows, shiners, darters, and other coolwater species, and let them overwinter (again, greenhouse on top of pool would be great).

 

[Ippyroy]

It is 5 below zero outside right now. Indoor heated pool is always at 84. It costs less to heat it than my house. I think cooling it would be a much bigger issue. We also spend more money heating the water for the laundry. And we have a hot tub at 103. Two separate heaters.

 

[Jon Fishman]

OP: “I know nothing about nothing. I want to do this huge costly project that would be awesome”

Everyone: “Oh boy I can’t wait to see this”


Yeah, it can, and has been done. Based on the posed questions already I give about 10% chance of FOWLR setup, and 0.0 of any kind of reef.

A swimming pool with an observation window that is in a house is pretty amazing enough... “oh we don’t swim”. Probably should have purchased a different $1M + abode to rest your bones in then.


Sheep. so many sheep. I would really like to be wrong, but we won’t be seeing pictures of this pool-tank anytime soon.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I'll be very real with you, with the way most pools are designed (squared off corners, etc.), you'll be hard pressed to keep any of the BIG pelagic fish (tuna, billfish, sharks, etc.).

Water stuff: It's going to be expensive. Even using tap water will be complicated, and rain might bring in contaminants into the pool...hello algae blooms!

Heating/Cooling stuff: You're gonna get really dinged by the NorthEast's (Pittsburgh, PA?) hot hot summers, and frigging cold winters, so heaters and coolers would be a necessity. If you decided to do something like build a greenhouse on top of the pool in order to keep it heated better, that would be a good step to getting it to at least heat up nicely during the winter, although I remain unconvinced that the electrical bill for heating the pool would be worth it, unless you're running something like geothermal heating.

Water movement stuff: So corals need water movement. A (non-wave) pool isn't exactly great at moving large quantities of water around (anywhere from 10x the water volume upwards in most reef tanks nowadays). Your best bet is to use fake decorations throughout most of the pool, and then BLAST the viewing window area using submersible pumps if you want to grow coral. Although I maintain that you're better off just using fake decorations.

Fish stuff: hmm....24.3K gallons...have you considered stingray species? A shark (depending on how rounded off the pool's corners are) may work as well. There are also quite a number of large fish (lookdowns, atlantic spadefish, aforementioned Pomacanthus angelfish, etc.) that will look nice. There are vendors for the larger fish species, but most of the time, people will figure out what they want to buy, do the research for the care requirements, and find the fish that way. You'll also have to keep in mind the sheer feeding costs of feeding those fish as well.

Life Support System stuff: Yeah. With a fish only setup, it's manageable, since you can do stuff like hang baskets of macroalgae into the pool, do large water changes, etc. They do sell very large protein skimmers (and have fun cleaning them!). But corals are a complete game changer....you'd either be okay, since it would be such a large volume and water changes would be able to sustain the coral population...OR, you'd be screwed over and spend way too much money on dosing reagents + equipment.

The op has an indoor pool

 

[ichthyogeek]

The op has an indoor pool

Well that’s an oop on my end

 

[Jon Fishman]

It is 5 below zero outside right now. Indoor heated pool is always at 84. It costs less to heat it than my house. I think cooling it would be a much bigger issue. We also spend more money heating the water for the laundry. And we have a hot tub at 103. Two separate heaters.

It’s -5 in Montana right now?!?!? It’s 75 in NE Ohio!

 

[724wakefield]

I’ll be honest. I recently really got into aquariums. I bought 5 red belly piranha fry and was hoping to find other people who shared the same interests in aquariums. I accidentally joined this one not realizing it was a saltwater reef forum. Salt water stuff looks amazing but it’s not something I’m ready for yet. Maybe one day. Thought I’d make a ridiculous post to see what kind of responses I’ll get. I have a 120 gallon tank. Not a swimming pool.

 

[fishybizzness]

Well that's not a very nice thing to do...

 

[724wakefield]

Well that's not a very nice thing to do...

It kept a few of us entertained both myself and forum members during a global pandemic. Not the worst thing someone could do.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Well gunna Unwatch this fourm now. That was some wasted reading.....

 

[lapin]

If you got a chiller you could do penguins.

 

[Jon Fishman]

If you got a chiller you could do penguins.

Those ones in the movie with the talking lion and zebra were just fine in Africa.....

 

[MaxxuM]

The wife and I purchased a home not too long ago which came with an inground indoor salt water pool. There is a glass window on the side so you can watch people dive in under water. My wife and I do not swim but she wants to convert it into a saltwater fish aquarium. Where can I buy reefs and stuff? Are there people that can be hired to set up aquariums? Are larger fish available to the public? I am a massive Marlin lover.

Not sure if someone hasn’t already mentioned it, but saltwater pools are still based on chlorine. Conservatively, I’d say $50,000 for setup and more than $1,000/mo for maintenance. Stocking a tank that size could run over $100,000 easy.

 

[Swooshjvm]

The ultimate king I think would be a great white just start stocking up on frozen cows now