cincyreefer
Active Member
The shark tank is about 27' x 9' x 4 1/2'. The main worry during setup was whether or not the one side of the tank would hold ok... It was on an outside wall of the store, so we built a basic 2 x 4 wall structure alongside the actual wall. Then we filled in the that wall structure with styrofoam on either side, to allow for expansion and contraction for heat/cold. As far as the bottom of the tank, we just put down about a 4" layer of sand under the liner.
For the remaining 3 sides, it is actually rather simple. We just used the rebarred cinder blocks (not actual cinder blocks that you normally see, but same basic idea) that go about 2' down into the ground, and filled with concrete... I am not sure about the exact concrete used. Then on the inside of that there is a layer of styrofoam. A wood structure was also built in the corners to round them off at about a 30 degree angle.
The pool was then covered with a liner made by Tetra (similar to roofing liner, but suppose to be better quality). That was pulled tight and then nailed and glued in, on the top layer of cinder blocks.
Around the acrylic viewing windows, we have a 2 x 4 structure similar to the one on the outside wall. The acrylic was then set in place on the inside of the liner by screws inserted every few inches in the wood frame, and massive silicon was used to seal it on the inside and out. We then used an exacto knife to cut the liner out of the viewing section and scape off the extra silicon. I can't remember the exact thickness of the acrylic, but i think it was about 2 inches.
Then to finish off the pool, we put a wood trim around the top of the blocks with acrylic shields slanting in to prevent the sharks from jumping out and people reaching in.
The overflow is located on the far end of the picture and goes into the sump that is shown where the cabon bucket is dripping water in as well. The water flowing in on the left side of the picture is the water coming in from the overflow. The 2 returns are on the same wall, with two being up along the surface and two being lower down on the tank.
I know this is somewhat vague, and it is hard to describe without pictures, but I would be happy to answer any other questions.
For the remaining 3 sides, it is actually rather simple. We just used the rebarred cinder blocks (not actual cinder blocks that you normally see, but same basic idea) that go about 2' down into the ground, and filled with concrete... I am not sure about the exact concrete used. Then on the inside of that there is a layer of styrofoam. A wood structure was also built in the corners to round them off at about a 30 degree angle.
The pool was then covered with a liner made by Tetra (similar to roofing liner, but suppose to be better quality). That was pulled tight and then nailed and glued in, on the top layer of cinder blocks.
Around the acrylic viewing windows, we have a 2 x 4 structure similar to the one on the outside wall. The acrylic was then set in place on the inside of the liner by screws inserted every few inches in the wood frame, and massive silicon was used to seal it on the inside and out. We then used an exacto knife to cut the liner out of the viewing section and scape off the extra silicon. I can't remember the exact thickness of the acrylic, but i think it was about 2 inches.
Then to finish off the pool, we put a wood trim around the top of the blocks with acrylic shields slanting in to prevent the sharks from jumping out and people reaching in.
The overflow is located on the far end of the picture and goes into the sump that is shown where the cabon bucket is dripping water in as well. The water flowing in on the left side of the picture is the water coming in from the overflow. The 2 returns are on the same wall, with two being up along the surface and two being lower down on the tank.
I know this is somewhat vague, and it is hard to describe without pictures, but I would be happy to answer any other questions.
