A shark pond soon. Planning on about 4' deep, and about 10 feet in diameter. Any suggestions as for equipment and such? Any advice on keeping sharks in general?
ya maybe 6' deep and 20' diamiter and make sure you do your reasearch and get a big big big skimmer because sharks are messy no copper and make sure you keep the water clean
Well i just wanted to keep bamboo sharks and epaulettes. I could make it bigger, that was just a starting idea. All I know is that this is gonna be EXPENSIVE.
I'm a fan of the Koi...much more fun to look at in a small settingif you ask me. Not much color in sharks. Have you considered them? Check my koi pond, the link is in my signature
Indoors or outdoors? Outside you will have to fight salinity issues unless it is fully covered. Indoors will give you a major humidity problem to deal with. The types of sharks you listed are easier to house since they are not constant swimmers and will mostly lay on the bottom doing nothing. While it may not be the prettiest way to keep them, I had one of these set up in my garage for a few months and it worked well. You will need some large bioball or fluid bed filters to provide filtration as you will want to keep the swimming area as open as possible. A big skimmer is also a must.
Do your research as sharks are extremely sensitive to their enviroment. Having kept a few sharks for a short term, my advice would be to pass on them altogether. They just don't adapt well and once the coolness factor wears off, you will tire of the expense and effort necessary to properly house them.
Thanks for the replies. I wanted to keep them outside in a patio area. But sharks are the reason I got into saltwater tanks. I wanted sharks, of course as I did my research I learned that what I had wasn't nearly enough room or filtration as they needed. But I'm really serious about trying to make this work in the best way possible for these sharks.
I don't know how consistent the climate is in southern california, but I'd be concerned about water temp in an outdoor shark pond. Do you have a plan for temp control?
Not really. I was going to ask for some advice about that, I figured I'd need heaters and chillers, and something strong enough to handle that much water is going to be expensive, but if I know what exactly I'd need I'll get it.
Hmmm. I would have never thought to use a pool heater... That might be a good idea. But I know a chiller is a must it's already like 98 degrees out here.
This may depend on the species of shark... I've never researched them, but if you need to maintain a ~80 degree temp, you're probably talking about a 20 degree pull down for 2000 gallons if it really is outside. That's a 2-3hp chiller, and a $3-$4k price range. Which may be credible, but you also want to consider contingencies (failed chiller or power failure), in which case a redundant chiller or automatic generator may be in the cards. Of course these are debatable, but you're now in the $10-$15k range.
Another option would be to put the tank in some kind of sunroom, which has some temperature control through the house HVAC system, but you're still going to need a chiller.
You can get by with bamboo/epaulettes with a much more shallow tank than what everybody is saying. I know somebody with a 6ftx10ft indoor pond that is about 2ft deep. That doesn't make it humane per say but they've lived for a long time and seam totally healthy.
You will get much better info on the following message board. There are people on AP experienced in what you are trying to do and not reef tank keepers passing on second hand info. Please do as much research as possible. As I stated above, I have housed sharks before and it is not for everyone. In most cases, it does not work out well for the sharks or the owners.
Yes, his pond isn't really in the house though because of humidity problems and heating costs. His pond was built in a greenhouse coming off the back of the house instead. He has a heater in the tank and an air condition in the room that keeps it around 80 all year round.
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