Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[Sallstrom]

Realised yesterday that the reef tank at Georgia Aquarium is just a little bit bigger then out future reef tank
I think we got the book - Advances in Coral Husbandry in Public Aquariums - back in 2011 or something like that, and I've read the chapter on that reef tank several times.
So their display is about 450 000L and ours will be 400 000L. They have according to the book 620 000L in their system, and we will only have about 420 000L.

Here's a nice behind the scenes tour from Georgia Aquarium reef tank:

 

[Pny]

It will be fantastic if you get it anywhere near the standard of their system! Looking forward to visit your future exhibition in person, (if I get out of this pandemic alive)...

 

[Brew12]

Realised yesterday that the reef tank at Georgia Aquarium is just a little bit bigger then out future reef tank
I think we got the book - Advances in Coral Husbandry in Public Aquariums - back in 2011 or something like that, and I've read the chapter on that reef tank several times.
So their display is about 450 000L and ours will be 400 000L. They have according to the book 620 000L in their system, and we will only have about 420 000L.

Here's a nice behind the scenes tour from Georgia Aquarium reef tank:

I got sidetracked and forgot to watch the video last night.... ooops.

I think your system will appear much larger than theirs. Their system is very tall but doesn't have much depth of view. The fish are clearly swimming between you and the reef wall, and I'm not a fan of the home aquariums set up like a big rock walls.
You will have the opportunity for it to appear as if the fish are swimming within a 3 dimensional reef. In my opinion, that has the opportunity to be much more visually appealing and impressive.

 

[Brew12]

For the most part, everything I've circled in red is wasted water volume from a guest experience perspective. The only reason you can see the top coral at all in this picture is because I am standing on an elevated area back from the tank.

The plexiglass barriers temporarily installed for guest separation that you can make out in the picture are 8 feet tall. For anything circled in red, you are only seeing the bottom side of the coral if you are next to the plexiglass.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Work goes on. Still not finished with the structures in the future reef tank. But we had a great workshop with a landscape architect/light expert two weeks ago and got a lot of good ideas. Did a couple of changes today but will do more changes later. And I added a bunch of "frags"

You get paid to do that, incredible.......
I wish I got paid to do that..... hahaha

Pulling your chain , as we say here in the states.....heeeee

 

[Sallstrom]

It will be fantastic if you get it anywhere near the standard of their system! Looking forward to visit your future exhibition in person, (if I get out of this pandemic alive)...

Thanks for the support! Yes, I hope so.

Keep safe over the holidays and soon things will start looking brighter!

See you in a while then!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Thanks for the support! Yes, I hope so.

Keep safe over the holidays and soon things will start looking brighter!

See you in a while then!

Don't forget to donate toward one of the building bricks. We're going to.....

 

[Sallstrom]

For the most part, everything I've circled in red is wasted water volume from a guest experience perspective. The only reason you can see the top coral at all in this picture is because I am standing on an elevated area back from the tank.

The plexiglass barriers temporarily installed for guest separation that you can make out in the picture are 8 feet tall. For anything circled in red, you are only seeing the bottom side of the coral if you are next to the plexiglass.

Those are great points! It will be hard I think to see the corals along the back wall in our tank, but I hope the structure will be natural with table growing corals like Acropora efflorescens etc. And we also have the "amphitheater form" in from of the large window so you can get a view from different levels.
And comparing to your picture I hope our blue background will help giving the impression that the tank is larger then it is. Was it coral rocks all the way to the surface at Gerogia?

 

[Sallstrom]

You get paid to do that, incredible.......
I wish I got paid to do that..... hahaha

Pulling your chain , as we say here in the states.....heeeee

And this too!!

 

[Brew12]

Those are great points! It will be hard I think to see the corals along the back wall in our tank, but I hope the structure will be natural with table growing corals like Acropora efflorescens etc. And we also have the "amphitheater form" in from of the large window so you can get a view from different levels.
And comparing to your picture I hope our blue background will help giving the impression that the tank is larger then it is. Was it coral rocks all the way to the surface at Gerogia?

I'm guessing the rockwork stopped about a foot or two shy of the water level, but it was so far up I couldn't say for sure. My guess is that the rockwork at the top isn't very wide so staff can walk up to it for feeding and maintenance.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

And this too!!

At least you don't need to go to the gym or play soccer, you get your workout at work..... hahaha

 

[Sallstrom]

Next step for the frags I did about a year ago. On to pieces of rocks, preferably with a flat underside and not to high.
I got tired of dipping 100+ frags and then replace them on racks, so on some rocks there are a couple of frags.
So now it’s easier to dip and put back, just throw them back in

Here are three Acropora species. Hopefully clean and happy.

And here are some more, with many dips to come.

So I hope when we get the new tank ready we will have many colonies at 10-15 cm to place in it. Quarantined and clean

 

[Steve H]

Realised yesterday that the reef tank at Georgia Aquarium is just a little bit bigger then out future reef tank
I think we got the book - Advances in Coral Husbandry in Public Aquariums - back in 2011 or something like that, and I've read the chapter on that reef tank several times.
So their display is about 450 000L and ours will be 400 000L. They have according to the book 620 000L in their system, and we will only have about 420 000L.

Here's a nice behind the scenes tour from Georgia Aquarium reef tank:

Hi Sallstrom, message me if you need any additional information on our little reef in Atlanta. Charles and the team at Cal Academy, along with Max and his team at Burgers Zoo have us all beat on size.

 

[Sallstrom]

Hi Sallstrom, message me if you need any additional information on our little reef in Atlanta. Charles and the team at Cal Academy, along with Max and his team at Burgers Zoo have us all beat on size.

Hi Steve!
Appreciate it. Thanks!
Yes, those are a bit bigger. But right now I’m almost happy we couldn’t fit in a larger tank. It’s gonna a lot of work getting it up and running next year

 

[Lasse]

Merry Christmas from the one that work during the morning of Christmas eve. The aquarium gets the first visit!

Sincerely Lasse

 

[tripdad]

Merry Christmas to all of you at the aquarium! Thanks for sharing your journey!

 

[Sallstrom]

Merry Christmas!! Thanks to everyone following for all the support!

And thank you @Lasse for working these holidays. Don’t forget to eat the chocolate the boss bought for you, and to measure phosphate in the experiment tank.

 

[Pascal89]

Merry Christmas from the one that work during the morning of Christmas eve. The aquarium gets the first visit!

Sincerely Lasse

Looking great Lasse! Thanks again for all the updates you and David do on this topic.

Great to see you are glueing "frags" to rocks David, will be much easier when scaping the large tank.

Wish you all a happy new year and looking forward to updates

 

[Laith]

I stopped receiving notifications for this excellent thread and thought things were just on pause! Glad to see the project moving along well!

 

[revhtree]

Nice work!!