Way out there question for the experts

[Abbysdad24]

Ok, I am a student about to graduate college and hopefully get into med school. I have been thinking about this for a couple of weeks and I found this forum so I thought I'd see if anyone has any useful feedback on this. By useful I do not mean flamming or berating me. This is only an idea, but that's where all great things start. This is not a project that will take place in the next 5-10 years, it's just hypothetical. However, it is something that I am interested in pursuing in the future possibly. Ok, with that done on to the question...What is the largest saltwater pond or aquarium you have ever seen or read about. The idea here is to build a saltwater pond/aquarium in the middle of a landlocked state. There are a couple of reasons behind this. 1) I love the ocean but also love where I live and am probably here for the haul. 2) I think this could be a profitable business one day. I would like to build a saltwater pond about 100 x 100 yards and about 20 ft. deep. I would like to stock this with coral and fish from the ocean. Make it as much like the real thing as possible. Just wondering if it could be done or if it has been done before. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[AndyH5512]

That would be one heck of an undertaking. With rain, and sun, you would be completely overloaded with work. The effects they would have on an outdoor "tank" would be tremendous. There was a previous post to this effect, and the consensus was that you would be better off going to Sea World twice a week, LOL.

 

[i have crabs]

i agree a lot of biger citys have some kind of indoor aquariums in a zoo or park of some kind

 

[AndyH5512]

By the way, I assumed you meant outdoors since you said "pond." If you have the cash flow to build and and maintain an indoor facility, then more power to you! Id like to see it if you do.....

 

[shawmutt]

Could it be done?

Sure, anything can be done.

However, you would want a building built around it, a full staff of caretakers, a budget that would feed an entire third-world country, and improved technology.

According to our calculator, a tank that size will be about 13,464,935 gallons, so you'd need a bit of water as well. At least you'd be able to claim the world's largest aquarium, as the current largest is 3 million gallons ( http://www.sheddaquarium.org/ ). There is one that is being built by a billionare that will be 5 million gallons ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/chitribts/20050819/ts_chicagotrib/inatlantaabiggerkettleoffish ). It will be done this fall. The fish, including two whale sharks, are all being transported by UPS--I wonder if anyone had to sign for them .

 

[sdellin]

You'd need a really big heater!

 

[malkore]

Wow, that's 6,732,467.5 cups of salt for the initial fill. I could never begin to hope to afford the salt mix, let alone everything else.

Undoubtedly it'd be the coolest thing to have though.