Resturant lobster tank

[PanamaJim]

I want to build a 3x3x5 foot raw water tank for a restaurant, a pick your dinner tank.
The restaurant is on the water, the plan is to pump directly from the bay and return to the bay with constant circulation.
The frame will be 2" angle iron, supported top and bottom and corners.
How thick should the glass be?
What else so i need to know?
Thanx
Jim

 

[SlugSnorter]

raw water tank?

anyways, what lobsters? where? depending on the bay that could be some violation.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I want to build a 3x3x5 foot raw water tank for a restaurant, a pick your dinner tank.
The restaurant is on the water, the plan is to pump directly from the bay and return to the bay with constant circulation.
The frame will be 2" angle iron, supported top and bottom and corners.
How thick should the glass be?
What else so i need to know?
Thanx
Jim

I’d go acrylic for a restaurant. 3/4 to 1 inch

 

[HuduVudu]

I want to build a 3x3x5 foot raw water tank for a restaurant, a pick your dinner tank.
The restaurant is on the water, the plan is to pump directly from the bay and return to the bay with constant circulation.
The frame will be 2" angle iron, supported top and bottom and corners.
How thick should the glass be?
What else so i need to know?
Thanx
Jim

I would use T-Slot not iron ... guaranteed you will get unsightly rust on the tank. This will be a huge turn off if the customers can see it.

Depending on the temp of the bay you are going to need to make sure that the water temp stays down. You might be better off with a skimmer or some sort of filtration and then do regular water changes when there are no lobster in the tank. If you are already running a chiller then just feed the water through that.

You are right go with glass. The thicker the better and probably you should use a tank a manufactured tank.

One other note DO NOT set this up near a place where the tank gets any sun. Also be very careful with your lighting. Algae will be your enemy. If you use lighting make sure that it is perhaps underpower T5 or lower power LED. Also make sure that you get a lot of blue in the mix ... the water is going to get a LOT of tanins (hence the skimmer suggestion) and will therefore color yellow pretty badly. People percieve whitish/bluish light as "cleaner" and this will enhance their experience.

Yes, I maintained one of these and the store shut it down because it became a disgusting mess and no one would buy from it.

Hope that helps.

 

[Tonycass12]

raw water tank?

anyways, what lobsters? where? depending on the bay that could be some violation.

To add to this you may end up pumping some nasty toxic stuff into the tank. Lots of garbage, oils, detergents, fertilizer among other things end up in the water that close to shore. Places where I've lived close to the ocean heavy rains would frequently wash all the land born pollution into the local bays as well as a good bit of raw sewage. You will definitely want to operate this as a closed system.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

its no different than a bait well on a fishing boat.

for lobsters your main concern will be the temp as they want cold water

i would still set it up to just fill empty and refill from the source water or do big water changes and still have filtration running constantly on the tank . i would recomment ozone, skimmer and uv if you want to do it and have it look good and people wanting to eat out of it, the uv and ozone will make the water clear.

 

[bnord]

maine or spiny?

 

[HuduVudu]

maine or spiny?

Nerd

 

[RichReef]

Had a guy we were doing some tile work for in The Keys that had a tank where he was pumping water right from his dock and overflowing back. It was a really nice tank but his biggest problem was pests.

During storms it really clouded up.

Red tides didn't help either.

But all in all it was a sweet tank. Very healthy.

Not so sure I would go this route with a restaurant tank though. I guess it depends on the location.

 

[SlugSnorter]

To add to this you may end up pumping some nasty toxic stuff into the tank. Lots of garbage, oils, detergents, fertilizer among other things end up in the water that close to shore. Places where I've lived close to the ocean heavy rains would frequently wash all the land born pollution into the local bays as well as a good bit of raw sewage. You will definitely want to operate this as a closed system.

i mean a violation going in and out, I agree