Shark Pond Move 2022


I have had this shark pond, which I affectionately call my redneck hot tub, for about 10 years now. I bought a house a little while back and recently finished the room that I wanted to make my pond’s “for now permanent home”. With the new shark room prepped, I now was tasked with having to move the pond from one side of my house to the other. I also figured that now would be a good time to do an update on the pond.

Over the years, I have housed many different species of small benthic (bottom dwelling) sharks in this pond. They have all done extremely well since I understock my pond and am very mindful of each current inhabitant’s species, temperament, individual personality and size. This is very important to pay attention to if you plan on housing more than one shark in a pond like this.

My Epaulette Shark Amelia in the pond – Image Source: Erica Fischer/Aquapparel.com

My pond is a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. I have had many configurations for this pond over the years. Most recently was the reverse sump which you can see how that worked in this video:

When I moved into this house, I decided to not have the reverse sump set up since I only had 2 small sharks at the time. I had moved and reconfigured the reverse sump several times so I either needed to start over or remove that part of the system all together. So I chose to leave it out this time.

Currently I have 2 full grown sharks that live in my pond. There is Link the horn shark and Lola the whitespotted bamboo shark.

Link the horn shark and Lola the whitespotted bamboo shark – Image Source: Erica Fischer/Aquapparel.com

They both get along great and my canister filter has done a phenomenal job of keeping the water clean and providing plenty of biological bacteria for them. These two sharks have been absolutely thriving in here!

And now for the room prep…

When I moved into this house there was a very large mirror on the wall and there was a chandelier. I hired a handyman to remove both and install a ceiling fan in place of the chandelier. I wanted to make sure that nothing in the room could rust or be in the way.

ME and my handyman getting ready to remove the mirror from the wall – Image Source: Erica Fischer/Aquapparel.com

Once those tasks were completed, the wall was primed. Next up was my electrician. They came in and swapped out the original electrical outlets with GCFIs. These were installed in order to protect the electrical system in my home and my equipment since there is a lot of water in my pond. Once you get used to caring for a large system like this, you spill water a lot less. However, just to be safe, I had these installed. Once the electrical was addressed, the wall was painted, a surfboard that the guy who sold the house to me gave me was hung up on the wall and l had these led lights installed on the crown molding in the room.

The shark pond in the new shark room – Image Source: Erica Fischer/Aquapparel.com

Now the led lights are not a necessity, but the species that I keep are mostly nocturnal. In captivity I have noticed that they don’t really have a “schedule” pre se, but I do know that they don’t like bright lights and they don’t like it shining directly on them. So this way, I can have light in the room that won’t be disruptive to them – and it looks pretty cool too! 🙂

Once all of that was done, it was time to start disassembling everything. The first step was to remove the greenhouse roofing covers. From there, I started to drain the pond and remove the rocks. Next, I used the water from draining the pond to fill up a transport container. I then added aeration and the sharks.

Once the pond was mostly empty, we were able to push it across the house into it’s new room and position it so that all of my equipment would fit nicely and so that I would have access to everything including being able to easily maintain my canister filter. Once the pond was refilled and the rocks were back in place, I replaced the covers and added a personal touch to it. To watch some of the room prep, the move and to learn the current inhabitants rescue stories, watch the video below.

If you are looking into keeping sharks and you want to learn more about them, first watch this video:

If after watching that video, this is still something that you want to do, consider enrolling in my online course: Aquarium Sharks For Beginners.

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