Bringing Public Aquariums Home: Have you been inspired by something that you have seen in a public aquarium?

[Slocke]

I want this wavemaker haha. However my very unrealistic shark tank with kelp is the other video.

Sorry to those who can't watch them. Which ironically includes me

 

[fish farmer]

I saw Walter Addey's coral reef ecosystem at the Smithsonian Institute in 1991. I was gifted the book describing it several years later.

My first reef incorporated a caulerpa "sea grass" sand flat and a big shiny metal halide.

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

Visited the Seattle Aquarium on May 19, 2021. It was the first time I had been to a large aquarium since setting up my 40 G. I mostly use them to find species I’d never see or hear about otherwise. It’s also a great way to see how corals look and fill in a space when they aren’t a tiny frag.

I’ll use this thread as an opportunity to get an ID on this coral from that visit. Definitely don’t have a tank for it today but always dream and plan the next one.

Thanks!

the one in the middle looks like a clam to me. Maybe a Maxima?

 

[Reefbuds]

The aquarium here at Carolina Beach has a beautiful reef tank with a massive clam. Really amazing, one day I will have such a clam.

 

[homer1475]

Going to the ripley's aquarium in myrtle beach, inspired me to start reefing again.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

One of the things that have inspired me from a public aquarium is when I'm able to view the equipment and control rooms. Seeing the control of the aquarium all nice and tidy and professional looking makes me want to improve in that area!

Let me know if you want a behind-the-scenes tour at Toledo! I learn SO much by visiting other aquariums! I applied for being an Association of Zoo inspector for their accreditation inspections - I then got sent on 8 or so inspection over the years and learned so much along the way.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Have you been inspired by something that you have seen in a public aquarium, at an amusement park, or in a super-sized commercial setting? While it may not be practical to have a massive reef in your home, there is still a lot that we can learn from public aquariums. As you watch video tours, visit the displays, or take behind-the-scenes tours, what have you learned that you can apply to your personal tank?

If you’re not sure where to start looking for inspiration from public aquariums, we have sponsors like Orphek, Tenecor, and others that provide equipment and consulting for public aquariums.

Check out these articles from @Orphek about their experiences with public aquariums:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/orphe...g-lasting-love-affair-part-i-middle-east.877/

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/amazonas-500-led-lighting-is-over-the-tanks-of-nausicaá-the-biggest-aquarium-in-europe.850/

@Tenecor Aquariums has many articles available here on R2R that share a massive amount of information on acrylic and other topics in their "A Tenecor® Explainer" series:
https://www.reef2reef.com/search/3742200/?q=A+Tenecor%C2%AE+Explainer&c[users]=Tenecor+Aquariums&o=relevance

In the discussion below, please share your inspiration and any ideas that you learned from a public aquarium and have implemented in your own tank!

Public aquariums do a lot of things very well. One thing they can fall short on is with small reef tanks. They just don't have the staff needed to mess around with smaller tanks for many hours each week. Joe Yaiullo's 20,000 gallon reef at the Long Island Aquarium is often held up as the epitome of public aquarium reefs. The two huge reefs at Georgia and Steinhart are very impressive, but you lose the "fine focus" of being able to see a reef up close. Toledo has a couple of 2000 gallon reefs that are very nice, given that the staff only has a few hours a week to work on them.
Public aquariums with access to NSW, like Monaco and Monterey can do really great things. Every once in awhile there are real unexpected "gems" like the Cleveland Aquarium that at one time had some Caribbean corals growing for 25+ years.

Jay

 

[Dragon8736]

I am not inspired because I can't even afford a tank that size and second of all they never have any nice corals in their tanks its the mostly the cheap affordable corals you can get. They are also mostly fish dominate type of tanks.

 

[Sycamoron]

I use visits to the Shedd Aquarium to scope out possible fish and corals to purchase for my tank (and to drool over the coral, fish and anemones in their reef tanks). I avoided purchasing PJ cardinals after watching a large cluster of them just floating in one spot seemingly forever. On this last visit I was mesmerized by the orangespotted filefish they had. Just a gorgeous fish. Then I researched what it takes to try to get them switched over from eating acros to more typical foods. I'll just have to visit them at the Shedd in the future.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Going to the Long Beach Aquarium/Aquarium of the Pacific "Adult Night" tonight. We went for my B-day last month on a Saturday during the day. OMG the screaming kids in an echo chamber! If you are a parent, you must have some skills to tune it out. Also when one starts, they all go off. LOL... So tonight will be nice.
Am I inspired? Yes! My surge tide pool tank was inspired by Cabrillo Aquarium. Am I sometimes disappointed and think some things should be done differently? Yes! But as @Jay Hemdal pointed out it has a lot to do with time and money and other limited resources. I also think as home aquarists we can be on the cutting edge of new developments or fine tuning old developments, because out systems are smaller (usually). It is hard to get funding for projects on what is "trending" in the industry and upscaling it to a large scale.
I will say this. Most aquariums are designed around the general public and not around aquarists. Most of the time I leave with more questions than inspiration.
For example; at LBA there is a sign that says most of their corals are confiscated from illegal coral traffickers/sellers. But if you look at their corals it is just normal corals that you can get anywhere. So it is confusing, because if the general public would see our tanks they would assume we have illegal corals. Another thing at LBA in there Babies display they have a bunch of (I assume) tank bred blue tangs, about an inch long. What happens in a month when they are not babies anymore?

 

[Lycosa]

I'm always inspired by the scapes. Not just reef tanks either. Some of the biotope tanks I've seen really made me want to go in that direction. I've tried to mimic some freshwater tanks like that in the past. In reef tanks, I saw a tank that made perfect use of horizontal space and had mostly rock and very little sand and I really loved the way it looked. It gave the tank so much more depth.

 

[Jeffery Hammer]

I don't get out as much anymore but My reef journey started a long time ago at public aquarium, https://www.belleisleconservancy.org/. My father took me there when I was a kid, that was it.

 

[Mackey]

I'm such a good reefer that public aquariums are inspired by me!

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Think this is from the Denver aquarium...man I want these bad boys so bad.

 

[ScubaShane]

I have never been to a public aquarium because I dive so I'd rather be in a reef than paying for a ticket and looking at a reef inside a glass box. Plus, I have my own cool aquarium! However, I am totally inspired by a natural reef and totally gain ideas for my aquarium.

 

[RavenSharpe]

One of the zoos/aquariums near where I live has location-themed tanks. I didn't know what they were at the time, but I saw the sunlight hitting a school of pink-red-orange fish and fell in love. I did a little research and figured out that they are anthias and have a reputation for being pretty hard to keep, and they need a larger tank, so they aren't in my plans for the near future, but someday I'll build a tank centered around them. For now I'll just have to go visit them.

 

[KrisReef]

Think this is from the Denver aquarium...man I want these bad boys so bad.

Strawberry anemones. Easy to find in the cold water reefs in CA. Lots of critters that are similar but not found in the trade.

 

[Eienna]

A public aquarium is where I first saw Bartlett's anthias. I was transfixed. Got a few for myself. Sadly, they didn't make it, but I'll do better this time.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

When we visited the aquarium in Long Beach, I was thinking this guy could live at my house.

 

[Sailaway]

I am not inspired because I can't even afford a tank that size and second of all they never have any nice corals in their tanks its the mostly the cheap affordable corals you can get. They are also mostly fish dominate type of tanks.

See that’s all I notice now; I used to be fascinated by the corals but now I just look at the Zoas and remember I can get those at petco if I really wanted to.