Seriously, consider this.

Ok, so e and my good lady are looking at buying a house in kelowna (British Columbia) the one thing that we both agreed upon is a pool, so trawling through the millions of houses we come across some houses with indoor "salt water" swimming pools . . . . . . . . . . Both being avid divers we look at each other and almost in sync say "pour the tank into the pool and create our own diving reef"
After we finished laughing the reality sets in . . . . . . . . . . . Would this even be possible ? No looking at spending a billion $. But is this possible ?

 

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. People have SW ponds, a pool wouldn't be much different.

You already have the pool filtration for saltwater. You will need a huge skimmer. Everything you need (for the most part) for a reef tank would just be multiplied x 10,000. lol.

This is basically my dream here...a saltwater reef pool.

 

I don't have the slightest clue where to begin. Now I know you said you don't want to spend a fortune, but I'm sure it'll be a small one at least haha.. Needless to say you'd need to add a LOT more filtration, all of which would need to be inside. SW pool filters aren't exactly the same as what's needed for a reef.. Have you thought about lighting at all? I don't know how much sun BC gets, but maybe like a big skylight or something? Who knows.

 

Not sure about the amount of sunlight - if it is bright and the pool is indoor...go with a million and one of these. lol. You'll save a lot of money.

Solatube Daylighting System and Tubular Daylighting Devices for residential or commercial daylighting and sunlighting needs are the smart, green and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional skylights

 

First off what is normally described as a SW pool really isn't very accurate. While there are some true SW pools in existence the vast majority are not saltwater as we think of it in ocean terms. It's really describing the method of cleansing the water. In a SW pool system water and NaCl (ie the salt piece of it) pass over an electrode which causes the chemical bonds to break and "generates" chlorine for use as a sanitizer. The level of salt in the pool is actually fairly low. The "chlorine generator" that makes a SW pool a SW pool would actually not be a piece of equipment you would want in a reef environment. It's a great way to maintain chemical levels in pool though.

I see your dream though...I often ponder what it would take to turn our pool into an 18,000 gallon reef tank.

 

That's deeply disappointing. lol.

But if one were rich enough, couldn't you make a pool that actually uses all SW..as in it's basically an aquarium built into the ground (asin concrete structure like pool - no glass) that we like to swim in?

 

Like reef said. The term salt water pool is misleading. You cant even tell your in a saltwater pool, I know plenty of people who have them. But I've thought about making a mini ocean so to speak out of a pool. I think about it every time I look in my backyard lol because i have a pool. I would think a skimmer rated for eh.. 34,000 or so gallons would suffice. lol. Im not at all aware of the markt for such behemoths but it be something Sea World and most large aquariums would use. I would go fishing on the ICW and catch snook, redfish, trout, sting rays, baby bonnet head sharks, tarpon and make a mini lagoon in my back yard filled with mangroves like you would see in the river along the banks. That be so sweet. But so would a full blown chunk of the great barrier reef in your back yard. But that be really pricey for alllllllllllllll the coral that would require to make it a reef. But with direct florida sunlight i dont think it take long to grow!The first one would be the most feasable imo because you would just need all the equipment because livestock would be entirely free so would food. I could catch all the fish locally, just like i would when i caught the little devils it be pretty time consuming but worth it i think!. If i win the power ball 3reef, you better believe there will be a build thread about one of these 2 lol.

 

this.


also its a pretty good system far cheaper then using regular chlorine.

 

you could drain the pool and do some construction to it to turn it into a reef instead of a pool. A lot of the equipment is similar. i remember on our old pool it had a skimmer that could do like 20000 gallons an hour. Find an engineer and you could find a way to tweek the pool skimmer into a protein skimmer. the flow could be controlled by the powerful jets most pools have.

Like reefer said you cant add your reef to the pool. But why not drain the pool mod the equipment and turn the new pit into a massive reef tank.

But when you say you dont want to spend a fortune, Consider the ongoing cost of this lets say 20,000 gallon reef dive tank. dosing chemicals and salt would run in hte thousands per year.

Since your living in bc, kelowna you would get a ton of sunlight all year round, so the sola tubes would work great.

this is possible im guessing with the pool already built you could drain and mod all the equipment and get sola tubes put in for 10-15 grand realisticly. But then rock and sand might be around alot also.

Ive got a few engineer friends whom weve joked about this but the basic protein skimmer could be easily configured from a pool skimmer to a protein skimmer.

 

I still really like the idea.
I would save thousands just by canceling 1 dive trip a year, that might offset the running costs, I wouldnt need all live Rock I could add the cheap stuff and seed it with live to keep the costs down.
Would even be able to pop a reef tip shark in there without the debate about swimming and room to grow starting again, maybe do inland reef divining and charge by the hour to support it's costs ?
I'm starting to see a "$" opportunity now as well