Fellow aquarists,
I suppose many of you have seen the Thread Of The Month at Reef Central, entitled "Sun-Powered Reef". It is about this Portuguese guy who built a small embedded tank (like a small swimming pool) buried in his backyard, visible only from the topview.
The URL is
This is a hypothetical question:
Supposing a friend of mine had an existing small swimming pool (not an Olympic size, please), what would it take to convert it into a reef pool?
The assuimptions being:
1) the aquarist will have to dive/snorkel inside to maintain the pool.
2) lighting will be natural sunlight, but there will be some sort of glass cover to prevent fresh water from coming in, and to prevent excessive evaporation.
3) we will need LARGE versions of eveything (skimmer, chiller, etc).
4) Water change will not be a problem (access to NSW is not so difficult)
5) operating expenses should be within range.
Supposing I were crazy enough to even think of seriously doing this, would anyone be interested to help set up?
Just to start people thinking..... And to start people responding to this thread with the big picture issues, challenges, equipment, etc
Phil