Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[Sallstrom]

The public probably scratch their head when they saw alot of rocks than corals, then

Hehe, yes. But they are really not picky, not like aquarists. As long as they get to see Nemo and a lobster they are usually pretty happy

 

[Sallstrom]

Yesterday the Aquarium staff took a trip to see the largest tank in Scandinavia. It's located at Nordsøen Oceanarium in Hirtshals, Denmark. That would be North Sea Oceanarium in English. So they focus on the sea around Denmark and uses sea water when doing water changes. We had a great afternoon together with the Aquarium curator Martin.
Here are some pictures


The main tank, 4,5 million litres(if I remember correctly). Temperature 17,5 degrees. Lots of mackerel and a huge sunfish! Oh, and some really nice sharks too.

Sun light goes into the main tank.

And it's nice to be able to fit in 1500 people in front of the large tank

Quarantine tanks, in the size of a Olympic swimming pool

Not the greatest pictures, sorry for that. I hope you got an idea of the tank anyway. The also had small tanks with Sea horses and other smaller animals, and seals outdoor, so it's a pretty large public aquarium. Here's the homepage:
https://nordsoenoceanarium.dk/

I recommend a visit if you're in Denmark!

 

[Sallstrom]

This has been a good week for us
Finally the politicians approved the higher cost for the rebuilding. So now we are good to go. For now at least, I'm sure there will many more bumps on the road ahead

This means we no longer need to worry about anyone telling us to reopen as soon as possible. We've been waiting to take down our exhibition until we were certain we needed to.
So we've started removing rocks from our 2500L mixed reef, and moved them into the first new system in the temporary Aquarium. Today I moved in more corals as well. Mostly Euphyllia.

Here's the result. I've started removing rocks from the left side.

And here are the Euphyllia corner in the new tank. (Not so happy on the photo, they just moved in a minute before)

 

[d.fast]

Great! The Danish aquarium looks supercool. Seems a bit high with 17,5 degrees in the tank? Especially this part of the year, but they probably know better than me Very green water aswell! Were they happy with that or was it not feasible to make it... Not green? Must be green particles like zooplankton in the water, otherwise it should be a more blue/turquoise tone with that cool depth.

...Will your coldwater tank be green? ;-) We want crisply clear water please! You are allowed exceptions if you have a kelp forest, if you try really hard before you give up. Many of the kelp species seems prone to coloring the water.

 

[Sallstrom]

Great! The Danish aquarium looks supercool. Seems a bit high with 17,5 degrees in the tank? Especially this part of the year, but they probably know better than me Very green water aswell! Were they happy with that or was it not feasible to make it... Not green? Must be green particles like zooplankton in the water, otherwise it should be a more blue/turquoise tone with that cool depth.

...Will your coldwater tank be green? ;-) We want crisply clear water please! You are allowed exceptions if you have a kelp forest, if you try really hard before you give up. Many of the kelp species seems prone to coloring the water.

17,5 was some kind of sweet spot for their sunfish (or less favorable for their parasites). This aquarium have had good success with their sunfish compared to others. We will not try to keep one, I can tell you that much
They had cooler systems as well, around 12 degrees. And another that followed the sea temperature over the year.

I'm not sure the water was looking that green in real life. Maybe just my phone that increased the green. Could be the sunlight that came into the large tank as well. The visibility was fine I think. If you get crystal clear water and too much light in a tank like that, the back wall will look like a swimming pool wall So I think it was fine, you could just about see the back wall but you didn't pay attension to it.

They took in water through the sand bottom outside(lots of sand in Denmark), so I think their incoming water was pretty well filtered! Plus lots of large sand pressure filters.

I think we can avoid the coloration or our water, even in the kelp tank, with a little help of ozone. But I can't say for sure how it will turn out

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

17,5 was some kind of sweet spot for their sunfish (or less favorable for their parasites). This aquarium have had good success with their sunfish compared to others. We will not try to keep one, I can tell you that much
They had cooler systems as well, around 12 degrees. And another that followed the sea temperature over the year.

I'm not sure the water was looking that green in real life. Maybe just my phone that increased the green. Could be the sunlight that came into the large tank as well. The visibility was fine I think. If you get crystal clear water and too much light in a tank like that, the back wall will look like a swimming pool wall So I think it was fine, you could just about see the back wall but you didn't pay attension to it.

They took in water through the sand bottom outside(lots of sand in Denmark), so I think their incoming water was pretty well filtered! Plus lots of large sand pressure filters.

I think we can avoid the coloration or our water, even in the kelp tank, with a little help of ozone. But I can't say for sure how it will turn out

I'm adding ozone in 2 weeks or less. Do have orp controller, we'll see what happens. Start slow I wish

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

This has been a good week for us
Finally the politicians approved the higher cost for the rebuilding. So now we are good to go. For now at least, I'm sure there will many more bumps on the road ahead

This means we no longer need to worry about anyone telling us to reopen as soon as possible. We've been waiting to take down our exhibition until we were certain we needed to.
So we've started removing rocks from our 2500L mixed reef, and moved them into the first new system in the temporary Aquarium. Today I moved in more corals as well. Mostly Euphyllia.

Here's the result. I've started removing rocks from the left side.

And here are the Euphyllia corner in the new tank. (Not so happy on the photo, they just moved in a minute before)

The Euphyllia colony hugh , one day I'll start stony corals

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Yesterday the Aquarium staff took a trip to see the largest tank in Scandinavia. It's located at Nordsøen Oceanarium in Hirtshals, Denmark. That would be North Sea Oceanarium in English. So they focus on the sea around Denmark and uses sea water when doing water changes. We had a great afternoon together with the Aquarium curator Martin.
Here are some pictures


The main tank, 4,5 million litres(if I remember correctly). Temperature 17,5 degrees. Lots of mackerel and a huge sunfish! Oh, and some really nice sharks too.

Sun light goes into the main tank.

And it's nice to be able to fit in 1500 people in front of the large tank

Quarantine tanks, in the size of a Olympic swimming pool

Not the greatest pictures, sorry for that. I hope you got an idea of the tank anyway. The also had small tanks with Sea horses and other smaller animals, and seals outdoor, so it's a pretty large public aquarium. Here's the homepage:
https://nordsoenoceanarium.dk/

I recommend a visit if you're in Denmark!

Nice, different world

 

[Sallstrom]

Another 1000L saltwater in the temporary Aquarium today! Tomorrow system number two will be filled all the way.
Put up two LEDs to test(Heliospectra green house LEDs). Their optics, or lens, are really good. These two fixtures covers more than two meters, and it's even PAR 250-350 all the way. I just wish they had a coral spectrum. Now we only use around 40% of the diods, the rest is red.

And have a look at the articles on R2R! I wrote a bit about sea stars and sent in.
Our most popular talk at the museum is about sea stars, urchins and crabs etc. Creatures you can find in Swedish waters. It's a fun talk to give and I guess I miss doing it(since we're closed). So I wrote some about sea stars instead. Might be urchins next week

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Another 1000L saltwater in the temporary Aquarium today! Tomorrow system number two will be filled all the way.
Put up two LEDs to test(Heliospectra green house LEDs). Their optics, or lens, are really good. These two fixtures covers more than two meters, and it's even PAR 250-350 all the way. I just wish they had a coral spectrum. Now we only use around 40% of the diods, the rest is red.

And have a look at the articles on R2R! I wrote a bit about sea stars and sent in.
Our most popular talk at the museum is about sea stars, urchins and crabs etc. Creatures you can find in Swedish waters. It's a fun talk to give and I guess I miss doing it(since we're closed). So I wrote some about sea stars instead. Might be urchins next week

Sea urchins "they like the night life, they like to boogie"
Song before your time

 

[Sallstrom]

Sea urchins "they like the night life, they like to boogie"
Song before your time

I have to check that song out!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I have to check that song out!

"I Love The Night Life, it's dico

 

[Fudsey]

"I Love The Night Life, it's dico

GREAT...... Now that song is stuck in my head ! ! !

 

[Sallstrom]

Now we got two systems up and running in the temporary Aquarium! But I forgot to take any pictures today
Just this one, on all the bubbles created by the water falling from the upper tank to the lower. I think I will go for @Lasse 's idea on building a "high speed trickle filter", to get rid of bubbles.

So now we got almost 8000 litres in the temporary Aquarium(if my calculations are correct). Maybe we'll move in some more rocks this week, and some more test corals.

A bit low in nutrients in both systems, so I've added both nitrate and phosphate. My idea on adding nutrient, or phosphate, -rich live rocks doesn't seem to work too well

 

[Brew12]

Now we got two systems up and running in the temporary Aquarium! But I forgot to take any pictures today
Just this one, on all the bubbles created by the water falling from the upper tank to the lower. I think I will go for @Lasse 's idea on building a "high speed trickle filter", to get rid of bubbles.

So now we got almost 8000 litres in the temporary Aquarium(if my calculations are correct). Maybe we'll move in some more rocks this week, and some more test corals.

A bit low in nutrients in both systems, so I've added both nitrate and phosphate. My idea on adding nutrient, or phosphate, -rich live rocks doesn't seem to work too well

Making some serious progress!

Why get rid of the bubbles? Everyone loves bubbles. Just saying the word bubbles makes people smile.

 

[Stigigemla]

If You cut a plastic or akryl sheet so that it just fits in the tube and then warm it and bend it as a spiral before putting it in the tube (warm and soft) it will prevent the bubbles.

 

[Sallstrom]

If You cut a plastic or akryl sheet so that it just fits in the tube and then warm it and bend it as a spiral before putting it in the tube (warm and soft) it will prevent the bubbles.

Thanks Stig! I will look into that solution.

 

[Sallstrom]

Moving rocks.. Why did the former staff put in this massive wall of rocks?! The tanks is about 2500L and it feels like there's two tons of rocks ;Wacky

And the old clownfish is attacking me all the time. Taking bites and the roll like an alligator! My arm is full of bit marks.

The new tanks are doing well. The corals are looking fine and we have now added some fish and urchins to the first system. I would have preferred a Ctenochaetus tang, but these were easier to catch.

 

[Brew12]

Moving rocks.. Why did the former staff put in this massive wall of rocks?! The tanks is about 2500L and it feels like there's two tons of rocks ;Wacky

And the old clownfish is attacking me all the time. Taking bites and the roll like an alligator! My arm is full of bit marks.

The new tanks are doing well. The corals are looking fine and we have now added some fish and urchins to the first system. I would have preferred a Ctenochaetus tang, but these were easier to catch.

Moving 2 tons of rock and still having time/energy to write some excellent articles. I'm impressed!!!

 

[Sallstrom]

Moving 2 tons of rock and still having time/energy to write some excellent articles. I'm impressed!!!

Thanks! Some days are aquariums 24/7. Probably not healthy in the long run ;Wacky
But I like to write, specially on days off. A cup of coffee and R2R in the morning is the best