Possible shark tank?

i was cruising around on craigslist the other day and came upon a 400 gallon 6' x 3' x 3' acrylic tank (3/4") for super cheap . so naturally as soon as i got home i took some measurements and found it will fit in my living room.

i could potentially tear down my 125 fowlr, use that acrylic tank as a sump / fuge, get a bigger skimmer and build a new stand / canopy and have a monster setup for pretty little money. i could get a bunch of base rock and pile up my 120-140# of live rock ontop of it making a central island for the sharks / rays to swim around.

my question is will the smallest of aquarium cat sharks be ok in a tank with a 6' x 3' footprint? i'd also eventually want to throw in a small ray or 2, maybe a large lion, and who knows what else.

is this crazy enough to work?

~Will.

 

I'd say you are good to go. I have plans to put a bamboo shark in a 210g. Thats a GINORMOUS tank you are talking about.

 

please do it. I really would love to see this process from start to finish..

 

just be careful with it, most acrylics that big should be 1" thickness, make sure it's not a home made setup

 

theres a few things i have my reserves about. mostly the woman getting a little huffy over the fact that i JUST finished fish tank construction in the livingroom, and now i wanna start all over again on something 4x bigger not even 2 feet away from the last project i finished.

the tank also has a leak and thats why it is so incredibly cheap. theres alot more i have to find out about this thing before i strap it to my truck. at this point i just want to make sure its big enough for a couple bamboo (or other?) sharks to comfortably live in for life along with some rays, a lion or 2, etc.

~Will.

 

That should be plenty big enough. Is it going to be a reef also? Be carefull with your rock placement it can scratch your sharks up leeding to infection.

 

i wouldnt even want to think about the lighting requirements for a 3' deep reef. it would be impressive, but i think this would have to be an ultimate FOWLR for quite some time untill i could get up some serious funds. also i read the cat sharks really dont like bright light, so i dont see it happening at all.

i could always get a cheap 75 gallon for a sump and leave my 125 where it is and have the best of both worlds . . .

~Will.

 

If your women is reading this I would first like to say sorry for saying this. I totally agree dont give up the reef part of the hobby. Just expand into the shark part. Two tanks is better than one.

 

Just posting to say I like the sounds of a 125 reef better than any shark tank unless you're going thousands of gallons.

The amount of activity and enjoyment beyond the awesome factor of having a shark is a hundred times over having a reef than a shark.

But then again coral are way more interesting to me than watching a shark sleep all day and move around once or twice. Ultimately what are you more interested in?

 

I can tell you after taking care of a banded cat shark for a couple of years, it's not fun, it's a ton of work, they are very demanding, you can pretty much kiss going on any kind of vacation goodbye without knowing that you'll likely come back to a dead shark, also you dont want more than 1 in a tank, they dont tend to play well in tight quarters