Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[danielsalt]

Have you discovered an acrylic tankbuilder in Sweden or are they from further south?

 

[Sallstrom]

Have you discovered an acrylic tankbuilder in Sweden or are they from further south?

They are made in Gothenburg We did a public procurement, asked three companies who build stuff in acrylic and Plastmästar'n was the company giving us the best offer. They don't usually do aquariums, so they are no experts.

 

[danielsalt]

They are made in Gothenburg We did a public procurement, asked three companies who build stuff in acrylic and Plastmästar'n was the company giving us the best offer. They don't usually do aquariums, so they are no experts.

Aha, I should have guessed something like that

 

[Sallstrom]

@Lasse is really testing all parts of our new LED bars from Orphek. Here he tests if the cable connection is water proof..

Sorry Lasse, I couldn't resist. I moved the cable to a dry spot instead

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

@Lasse is really testing all parts of our new LED bars from Orphek. Here he tests if the cable connection is water proof..

Sorry Lasse, I couldn't resist. I moved the cable to a dry spot instead

Leave it to Lasse to test it that way. I would've used my tongue and check for voltage . Heehee

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

It will be around 4 meters deep and I really want to be able to grow corals all the way down to the bottom. So we gonna need a lot of lights
Our goal is to use only LEDs in the new Aquarium. We have some ideas for the large tank, but there's still some stuff we haven't decided. There are not many "coral LEDs" for deep tanks. But we know what light spectrum we want, so we might try to order a custom made version of an exciting lamp. That's all I know for now, nothing is decided yet.

That's a good question. Actually we will build many thing like we run it today, connect many tanks to one sump for example. One thing we've gotten into the drawings is pipes under the floor. So it'll be possible to connect water systems in different rooms.
Then there's a lot of practical things like drains at the lowest points, better electricity/safety of course. And an easier way to get large shippings of salt into the building. No need to carry salt anymore!

Yes, and avoid stand alone tanks out in the exhibition. We want to be able to reach all tanks from behind the scenes. Now many tank and sumps are in the exhibition, which means we need to fix most stuff before and after opening hours.

We also want to work harder on backgrounds in the tanks. Or ways to avoid the feeling that you look into an aquarium. We dream of creating tanks which gives the feeling that you look out into the ocean. So of course no visible pipes or pumps. That's our goal, even if we don't get all the way there

That's some things I can think of now that we will change. As for aquarium husbandry we want to go on much like we do today, run our version of the Triton method.

I’m sure we’ve already discussed this, but anything you can do to keep direct light off the background surface, a) the cleaner it will stay (obviously), and b) the more you can create the look of infinite depth. Light directly hitting a surface shows an actual surface.

Medium (royal) blue surface w/o light hitting it will look a couple of shades darker.

And of course there’s the old trick of shading lighter to darker top-to-bottom.

 

[Sallstrom]

I’m sure we’ve already discussed this, but anything you can do to keep direct light off the background surface, a) the cleaner it will stay (obviously), and b) the more you can create the look of infinite depth. Light directly hitting a surface shows an actual surface.

Medium (royal) blue surface w/o light hitting it will look a couple of shades darker.

And of course there’s the old trick of shading lighter to darker top-to-bottom.

Good points! I do like to be able to have corals at the top of the reef at the back as well, but at the same time don't want the "pool wall" look on the back wall. It'll be a challenge.


I will get back to this, but right now I need to sleep!

 

[Sallstrom]

Morning view

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Good points! I do like to be able to have corals at the top of the reef at the back as well, but at the same time don't want the "pool wall" look on the back wall. It'll be a challenge.


I will get back to this, but right now I need to sleep!

Without seeing exactly how it’s laid out...

Maybe a rounded rock structure in front of the back wall that curves back and leaves some space (0.5-1m?) between the back part of the rock and the wall. This would allow coral placement up to the top and allow it to grow out into ‘open’ water. Use more consolidated lighting on back corals and angle the light away from the wall to keep direct light off.

That little bit of space might be enough to give you a strong 3-dimensional effect and keep the direct light off the back wall. Just a thought.

 

[Sallstrom]

Without seeing exactly how it’s laid out...

Maybe a rounded rock structure in front of the back wall that curves back and leaves some space (0.5-1m?) between the back part of the rock and the wall. This would allow coral placement up to the top and allow it to grow out into ‘open’ water. Use more consolidated lighting on back corals and angle the light away from the wall to keep direct light off.

That little bit of space might be enough to give you a strong 3-dimensional effect and keep the direct light off the back wall. Just a thought.

Yes. That's pretty much my thoughts too. Specially when it comes to hide the overflow (it'll probably be 7 meter long).
And from most angles the visitors will look up against the surface, just seeing corals and then the surface.

The plan is to leave some blue areas, maybe 2 or 3, on the back wall, say 1,5 x 1,5 m. To imitate crevices/valleys in the reef that goes on into the ocean. Those part is harder to make sure they look natural in colour and structure I think.

Long day today, been in a meeting room six hours. We've looking over walls, doors, windows, exhibition details and more with the architects. We've also flown around(on the computer) in a 3D model of the new Aquarium. That was great

We've also talked about how to get X tons of rocks first up 2 meters, then down 4 meters into a tank. I had to check on how many tons Burger Zoo used for their reef tank. They used in total 90 tons in a 750000L tank. Our tank is 400000L, so it'll be a lot of rocks..

 

[Sallstrom]

Here's some mixed pics from this morning.

One more stand for the temporary Aquarium almost ready

This is what it looks like in the rest of the museum. Lots of ship models and museum objects are moving out now. Here they took down a ship model that was hanging above the stairs.

This is where we used to have lectures for school classes, our aquarium studio. Now full of aquariums and other stuff

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Here's some mixed pics from this morning.

One more stand for the temporary Aquarium almost ready

This is what it looks like in the rest of the museum. Lots of ship models and museum objects are moving out now. Here they took down a ship model that was hanging above the stairs.

This is where we used to have lectures for school classes, our aquarium studio. Now full of aquariums and other stuff

How much do ships weight

Nice carpentry too

 

[Sallstrom]

How much do ships weight

This ship up in the roof wasn't larger then 1,5 meter, so I guess the weight is not that much. But its like 6 meter up to the roof, so in this case we hired people to move it

Our largest model is about five meters long sailing ship, 3-4 meters high with the masts. So we can't get it out to the room it's in. It stays where it is during the rebuild

 

[Sallstrom]

Let's try some more greenhouse LEDs!

We are lucky to be able to borrow some old LEDs from Heliospectra. Now we can use the whole "shark tank" as a reef tank. Good to have some extra space for corals while we take down the other smaller tanks this winter and need to move around corals. This tank will be the last one we empty.
Now we just have to build something in the tank to put the corals on, the bottom is almost 2 meters down so we need to get a shelf a meter up. To be continued..

 

[Sallstrom]

And a hello from one of the cuttlefishes
Sepia bandensis.

Sorry about the colours. My camera can't handle a dimmed down metal halide, everything just turn blue..

 

[Sallstrom]

Having a really nice Saturday morning in the sofa with a cup of coffee

Now its a month since we closed the Museum & Aquarium. Things move forward, maybe not as fast as I expected, but everything is still going in the right direction. We got a lot of projects going on, and in some we need to decide details as soon as possible, while other projects hasn't really started yet. But since we are just three people (+Lasse as a extra 50%) planning everything aquarium related, and the three of us are in all the projects, they are closely connected anyways.
This fall we need to decide on all the things that will be built, and how the new building that will be the Aquarium will work. Everything thats moveable, like lamps, skimmers, pumps, small tanks, decoration/aquascapes etc, we can decide later. Power, drains, larger pipes, walls, stairs, large sumps and tanks in concrete, large acrylic windows, etc we need to decide this year. The engineers drawing the plans wants more and more details from us, so it's both really fun and scary. Now it really feels real.

So thats why I can't say that much about lamps or material in the reef structure right now. We won't start build the structures until 2020-2021 for example. I do know the volume of the sumps and how the water will flow from the sumps to all the tanks
It's a big puzzle and it won't be until 2021 we can start to fill the tanks with water. So I guess some periods this thread will be a bit asleep.

Our side project - The temporary Aquarium - is ongoing as well. Right now we are waitning for information on how to fix a couple of holes in the floor to avoid damage if we spill some water. But we got until next summer to move all fish and corals and empty the old tanks, so there's no rush. We are hoping most of the new propagation tanks will be up and running, ready for corals, in January.

 

[Sallstrom]

Live - Jens is drillning a hole in an old tank. No cracks so far!!

 

[Sallstrom]

First one done! Just eleven more to go.. ;Wideyed

 

[NY_Caveman]

I can hear the “whirring!” I have a feeling some of the best photos in this thread will come when the large aquariums are being constructed.

 

[Sallstrom]

Four more tanks drilled and cleaned. We decided today to not use the old four level stands, instead build a large bench to these small tanks. I hope we can fit eight tanks on the bench. And to place it in the middle of the exhibition, in the middle of the picture below. It'll be our work station gluing and dipping Acropora corals.
Not decided yet what method we will use against AEFW, but at least we have lots of corals, tanks and time to test what works best for us.
Here's a parts of the old tropical exhibition

Yes, and this room have to be cleared out by the summer next year. The new entrance will be to the left in the picture, and the whole room will be the new entrance hall. So after treating the corals they will move into another room where the temporary Aquarium will be. It's a lot of logistics..