Your Own In-Ground Reef Tank?

[Staghorn]

Take a trip down to the Florida Keys and check out a hotel called the Kon Tiki. They have a saltwater pond in the back. Last time I was there was quite a while back but there were 30 or 40 pound cobia and redfish living in there along with a huge assortment of other fish. I didn’t see any corals and the water was kind of a murky
Gulf of Mexico pond. But it was really cool to see all those fish in there. We filleted our fish that day Fed all the carcasses to the fish in the pond. I think if you were to only use native species you could pull it off. As long as you’re willing to keep a biome pond of what’s available locally it would be pretty cool. You could drag around a plankton net inshore near where your pond is going to be and I’m sure you could collect larva of a huge variety of species which would settle in your pond. Lots of sponges, tunicates, some corals and fish. You never know.

 

[SamsReef]

I would also think that most of the coastal sea water is not conducive to vibrant coral health with all the runoffs. I have always imagined retiring in an area next to ocean where I can pump sea water straight off the ocean(maybe a mile away from the coast), clean with skimmer and UV and pump into the tank….
We see how things turn out close to retirement (I still have time).

sam

 

[davidcalgary29]

Found some older pics of the canals with sea turtles. Sorry for the poor quality -- I should have used more than an iPod!

 

[timry2]

the reality is even with a barrier, you are introducing exotic animals and species into the local water, which is illegal. Think along the lines as a spanning pair of clown fish. Fry so small noway to keep them all in. Of course they would probably be eaten but you get the idea. Second is pollution, your so close to land you will have runoff and depending on where your at raw sewage. Look at San Diego beach warnings

 

[ZoWhat]

If in Florida.... Florida Fish and Wildlife Officers would come and take you to
J A I L

....for intruding on State wildlife resources

.... for potentially introducing out of control macro algae that could possibly take a strangle hold on natural wildlife and killing local ecosystems

A Prosecutor and Judge would have a field day with this not being managed thru State Officials and State Marine Biologists

Those FWC boys are bad*** (as much as ATF Officers are) and they carry some bad*** weapons.

They ain't no Barney Fifes. They're serious as a heartattack

 

[DocRose]

This is awesome guys. Lots of stuff I never knew. And lots of stuff I never thought of. Wish we could get a bit more creativity in the mix though.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Oh but the hitchhikers would be pumped!

 

[davidcalgary29]

Are you still planning this build, @DocRose? This thread randomly popped into my head a few minutes ago. I was thinking that a modified plan might work with enough planning: how about building a canal around a room, with the tank as the tidepool?

 

[DocRose]

Are you still planning this build, @DocRose? This thread randomly popped into my head a few minutes ago. I was thinking that a modified plan might work with enough planning: how about building a canal around a room, with the tank as the tidepool?

lol No.... I was never actually planning it. I just thought it was a cool idea and wanted to start some discussion around the thought.