Help turning Pool into tank

724wakefield · Oct 22, 2020

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.

Webslinger · Oct 22, 2020

$100K, i'll set it up for you.

jpnegrete14 · Oct 22, 2020

Def following! Do you know the approximate gallons of the pool?

Jib · Oct 22, 2020

724wakefield said:
I am a massive Marlin lover

I'm not sure how many gallons your pool is, but I'm certain it's not big enough for a Marlin.

vetteguy53081 · Oct 22, 2020

Theres a fellow on Facebook who did this successfully
Look up : Bill Wann

Thaxxx · Oct 22, 2020

Your electric bill would be through the roof. It gets too cold where you live to feasibility do it.

piranhaman00 · Oct 22, 2020

Thaxxx said:
Your electric bill would be through the roof. It gets too cold where you live to feasibility do it.

Using gas to heat wouldnt be too bad, also I think OP has money

jpnegrete14 · Oct 22, 2020

Jib said:
I'm not sure how many gallons your pool is, but I'm certain it's not big enough for a Marlin.

Just to clarify my question about the gallons was not meant to suggest he could put a marlin in there. I 1000% agree no marlin should be in any residential pool. But I still am curious how many gallons this pool is ;Woot

Mooses · Oct 22, 2020

Webslinger said:
$100K, i'll set it up for you.

$75k! I'll even get you a baby Marlin

Silent · Oct 22, 2020

Ohio fish rescue has done that with their indoor pool but it is freshwater. Still something to see and they have a table and chairs in the shallow end so they can sit with the fishes.

724wakefield · Oct 22, 2020

jpnegrete14 said:
Just to clarify my question about the gallons was not meant to suggest he could put a marlin in there. I 1000% agree no marlin should be in any residential pool. But I still am curious how many gallons this pool is ;Woot

24,300 Gallons. Why would it not be large enough? They say 10 gallons per inch. 11 feet is only 132 inches. I am not set on Marlin. Just would like 1 large fish to be the "king" of the aquarium if that makes any sense.

kput · Oct 22, 2020

I don't have experience in this at all, but I wouldn't think there's too much needed to make the conversion. You've already got the pumps and equipment needed to run a saltwater pool.
Not sure if there's a top-off system to help with evaporation, but you'd like want a high volume top off tank.
Heating the tank will depend on what you have currently. Can your pool stay around 80 degrees year round? If not, a heater upgrade would be necessary.

Then of course, you'd want some sort of skimmer. Several guys on here have made huge DIY skimmers that work great. Buy tons of live and dry rock to make the "reef". And maybe look around at what some of the guys with 10,000+ gallon tanks are doing for livestock. I doubt you can just purchase large fish from a retailer, but you can buy them small and grow them big.

You'd also possibly want to look into some type of Quarantine setup. I'd reccommend looking into both PaulB's posts on here, as well as Humblefish to see how exactly you'd like to run your tank.

Good luck! This is my dream to have one day!

CCauthers · Oct 22, 2020

@Hedgedrew66 is the only one I know with a tank even close to this large

tautog83 · Oct 22, 2020

He said I'm a marlin lover lolol. I mean maybe you can get an orca too , title the thread ,"free willy 3, they should have never gave me money " lol all jokes aside if you got money there always someone that will take it

Silent · Oct 22, 2020

Here is a thread to understand what you might be in for with a saltwater tank of that size.

Monster Build - Introducing my home 17k gallon reef

www.reef2reef.com

jpnegrete14 · Oct 22, 2020

724wakefield said:
24,300 Gallons. Why would it not be large enough? They say 10 gallons per inch. 11 feet is only 132 inches. I am not set on Marlin. Just would like 1 large fish to be the "king" of the aquarium if that makes any sense.

There are a lot of really big beautiful fish you could get but IMHO a fish that spends his day swimming above the thermocline and then frequently dives 500-600ft throughout the day and sometimes as deep as 2,600ft and can burst into speeds of 72mph probably isn't a good choice for a residential pool.Even if its 24,300gal. Just my two cents. (I put a link to the article I pulled those numbers from below)

Also I know you said you weren't set on a marlin so I say we don't turn this thread into "should a marlin live in a pool debate" and instead move on from that so you can get some actual helpful information for your build.

You could have all kinds of large angels. A queen angelfish grows well over a foot and is stunning. I'm excited to see this build and wish you luck.

blue-marlin-biology-and-physiology

CCauthers · Oct 22, 2020

You could get a nice school of naso tangs

Stuartmercer · Oct 22, 2020

I am going to follow along because I'm intrigued.

Mr_Knightley · Oct 22, 2020

This should be interesting to watch, I do not think you could successfully convert it for under $100K though. Electric bills would be in the thousands per month and the equipment to run such a tank would at least cost you $5K. If you have the money it may be possible, but I wouldn't even think about doing it unless you've kept saltwater for years beforehand. Also, maintenance for such a tank would take hours to complete. I had a measly 220 gallon tank that was a nightmare to clean and maintain, so over 100X that should be extensively difficult.
I'm interested to see if this takes off, but I am skeptical.
I'll link a Youtube channel I've been following that displays a tank if similar size, maybe you could learn from this channel before you dive in.

Eli Aquarium

Eli's 30,000 liter home reef aquarium

www.youtube.com

724wakefield · Oct 22, 2020

jpnegrete14 said:
There are a lot of really big beautiful fish you could get but IMHO a fish that spends his day swimming above the thermocline and then frequently dives 500-600ft throughout the day and sometimes as deep as 2,600ft and can burst into speeds of 72mph probably isn't a good choice for a residential pool.Even if its 24,300gal. Just my two cents. (I put a link to the article I pulled those numbers from below)

Also I know you said you weren't set on a marlin so I say we don't turn this thread into "should a marlin live in a pool debate" and instead move on from that so you can get some actual helpful information for your build.

You could have all kinds of large angels. A queen angelfish grows well over a foot and is stunning. I'm excited to see this build and wish you luck.

blue-marlin-biology-and-physiology

A man who cites sources and strong in critical thinking. I like this guy.