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Hi again all.
We're planning our fish/reptile/amphibian shop that we want to open in a few months (have been planning for months now), and need a little advice on big tanks.
We want to keep our little shark (who will eventually get to 3 - 4ft long) and we're considering getting a:
12ft long x 3ft wide x 2ft high tank for him.
What sort of thickness glass will be needed? (we're getting a professional company to make it on sight, but would be nice to know now anyhow). Also, the potential shop that we're looking at doesn't have concrete floors, unfortunately it has fairly old wooden floorboards.
We were thinking maybe taking up the floorboards where the tank would be and getting a sort of concrete table made, with a sump underneath the main tank.
How have others supported their large tanks (in shops or whereever), and is it essential that it be on concrete flooring? I'm not sure if we can have the floorboards taken up and concrete the entire floor, as half the city is listed buildings (because half the buildings are 100-600+ years old), but I do believe the shop building is relatively new, so we may be able to get away with it =).
Also, how have people here held up their stock tanks? We're looking at 3 rows of 3 x 3ft tanks (divided into 1.5 ft each), so 9 tanks total (or 18x1.5ft if you look at it that way), but not sure how to support them, as they would be on top of each other up the wall to save space:
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(that's 9ft along and 3 tanks high (5ft high maybe)). Should we use metal frames (screwed to the wall I guess?), and again, will we need concrete floor?
We're also considering using the shark tank's sump for the stock tanks, giving a much higher volume of water and saving money.
Is it worth getting a professional company in to build the tanks + plumbing + filtering, or should we save ourselves a huge amount of money and do most of it ourselves? I am reaonably confident I could plumb the tanks in myself.
Thanks for the help!
Tom.

IMO, I wouldnt hook up the shark tank with the stock tank as sharks are very fragile to medication and if you were treating ich on fish in the stock tanks then the shark will be effected.

We would treat ill fish in separate quarantine tanks that aren't hooked up to the rest, no chemicals in the shark or stock tanks.

I hope I understand what you are saying here...the floor boards are not necessarily old, but what is under them? The standard joists of a standard floor would not safely support the weight of a shark tank that size. I serviced a 600 gallon (six feet long, 3 feet high, and two feet wide I thinkg) tank that needed six steel poles in the basement underneath to support that kind of weight safely and the sump and filtration all sat in between the beams. Figure out the weight and figure on the side of safty (high), you don't want that whole setup crashing through the floor one day.

On the other hand, if there is no lower floor, you may be able to remove the floor and put in a cement slab in its place. The sump/filtration would then sit beside it/behind it, etc. hidden in a cabinet or whatever. I also would keep the shark system water seperate from anything else.

I would say it's quite a bad idea to have all the tanks use a common sump. Thats not so bad in some setups, but thats really something you don't want to do when keeping things as fragile as sharks. At the first sign of disease, whatever it is will already be in the tank with the sharks as well, not a good idea. I'd go with two large, seperate sumps.

I also would say to use a seperate setup for the shark tank because sharks remain VERY susceptible to disease. While you may catch disease early in your other tanks and move the diseased specimens to quarantine tanks, that disease may move throughout the entire system before you see a single sign of it. While most of the fish would probly be unaffected by such a slight exposure, the shark(s) could be affected fatally.

I'd also recommend a different tank setup for him too. Instead of a 12*3*2, I'd recommend a 10-12' length by 4-5' width and 2' height. Ideally, a 12*5*2 would work great, but even a 12*4*2 or 10*4*2 would be substantially better for the shark. As he grows, he's going to need more room to turn around in the tank, so he'll need a width that is a little greater than his body length. Hence, a tank that's not necessarily as long but is wider is more ideal for his keeping than an extra long tank that remains too narrow. Remember that their body structure causes them to have a VERY wide turning radius, otherwise, the plan sounds great...

PM/email/msg me if you have any questions/comments regarding me or my knowledge or if you want me to read a thread.

i would get a tank that is 12x5x5 amybe that way it would have plenty of room to turn around in

good luck

6x2x2 - Firemouth and Oscar Tank
30+ royal pythons.

Back in the game after 4 years out ..

My LFS has a shark pond... it's really quite cool. I think they said it's 2000 gallons and I've seen three or four sharks in there at a time (each about 2-3 foot long). They're for sale if you have a huge aquarium.

I imagine THAT would be a huge weight, though it really makes a huge impact. Right when you walk into the store... this like, 15' x 15' pond with sharkies. They make a huge deal of it... shark feedings at noon on weekends or something like that.

I don't know what the expense would be of pond vs. aquarium, but I just thought I'd mention it. It certainly makes an impact on me... every time I walk into the store (which is quite often ), I always say hi to the sharkies.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~