Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[CCauthers]

Hi

I thought I might start a new thread writing about our journey building a new public aquarium. I work as a marine biologist and aquarist at The Maritime Museum & Aquarium in Gothenburg, Sweden. I think I've been here about a decade now. Time flies


The Aquarium was founded in 1923, and moved into the museum 1933 when the museum building was completed. Over the years the Aquarium has housed lots of different animals, from Galapagos turtles to monkeys. But since 2001 there's only aquariums. And since 2009 only marine tanks and animals.

We are a non profit museum, funded mostly by the the city of Gothenburg and a foundation. But we also need to get some sponsors, so if you....

Here a picture just to lighten up amongst all this text..

Here comes some info on the Aquarium today. We got about 20 tanks running in the exhibition, from 50L to 25 000L. The total water volume now is around 50 000L. We've focused on tropical reef habitats and Swedish temperate coastal waters.

We are five people working full time in the Aquarium, but mostly three of us are responsible for the aquariums.

And another picture to get people to read the rest of this long post..

I've written some about our 10 000L reef tank in my build thread in my profile, so there you can find a lot of pictures of that tank and some of the others.

In this thread I will try to share our work from today until we open the new Aquarium in the fall of 2021.

We closed the museum this Sunday, and our first step is the build a temporary Aquarium in the room where the museum restaurant used to be. Unfortunately we need to clear the old Aquarium facilities before we can move into the new Aquarium, therefor this temporary solution. Our aim is to start up the new tanks with as much "homegrown " corals as possible. And since we're planning on a reef tank with 400 000L water, we will need a lot of corals


Corals corals..

I hope you would like to follow our journey from a small public aquarium to a medium size. Please feel free to ask any questions you want(or tell me I'm stupid if you think I'm stupid ).


So, here's some pictures from this week, the week after closing.

This is where the temporary Aquarium will be located

Okey, that was the startup of a new thread. More will come!

Best regards
David

You guys don't even have any real colonies! Really cool setup tho, best of luck!

 

[Sallstrom]

Time to restart the work planning the scape for the future 400 000L (105 000 US gallons) live reef tank!
We reworked the styrofoam and moved it around inside the model tank. Far from done, but we have an idea what we want(and what we don’t want). Here from the large window (will be 8 meters long)

Here’s from the small window on the side. This window will be 4,45m

Now you must imagine that these styrofoam pieces are coral rocks and that they are covered with corals!

Now I’ve got blisters.. Time to feed the fish and look at some corals.

Edit - The protective plastic cover is still on the windows. That's why they look all messed up.

 

[Brew12]

Time to restart the work planning the scape for the future 400 000L (105 000 US gallons) live reef tank!
We reworked the styrofoam and moved it around inside the model tank. Far from done, but we have an idea what we want(and what we don’t want). Here from the large window (will be 8 meters long)

Here’s from the small window on the side. This window will be 4,45m

Now you must imagine that these styrofoam pieces are coral rocks and that they are covered with corals!

Now I’ve got blisters.. Time to feed the fish and look at some corals.

Edit - The protective plastic cover is still on the windows. That's why they look all messed up.

All I can do is imagine the styrofoam floating with you add water. ;Sorry

I absolutely love the concept. I think I would go with a little more slope on the rocks to support more corals. I think they are a little too verticle.
Still can't wait to see this in person in 2022!

 

[Sallstrom]

All I can do is imagine the styrofoam floating with you add water. ;Sorry

I absolutely love the concept. I think I would go with a little more slope on the rocks to support more corals. I think they are a little too verticle.
Still can't wait to see this in person in 2022!

Yes, looking at the pictures some of the walls are much too steep. That's is something we try to avoid, having seen some bad examples of that (and done those mistakes ourselfs ). We're struggling for as much water space as possible, and sand area, and at the same time the tank will be 4 meters deep and we want to cover a lot of the back walls. And have lots of space for corals. So those rock walls will be high however we move around those rock boulders
Anyway, that was a good point. And I'm sure we will even out the steep walls to the next version.

 

[Tristren]

Having some overhangs, where the peninsulas rise up instead of sloping down, could be a good way of having some extra surface area for corals (above) as well as sand (below). Also a nice place for fish to hang out. The sand underneath will be shaded so a bit easier to keep clean.

Also just visually interesting.

An actual "cave" visible from one the back corner of one of the short sides (aka a deeper overhang but on the side, like a cross section) would also be appealing for viewers. It would feel like they had a special view into a "secret" part of the reef and so would be a more immersive experience for them. If you manage to get a couple of NPS and a couple of interesting cave dwellers I could see that being a particularly popular "secret spot" for kids/regulars who would go back around and watch whats going on back in there.....

Can't wait to get there, someday.

Tony

 

[GAIA]

[QUOTE = "Sallstrom, publicación: 8115546, miembro: 80166"]
Sí, mirando las fotos algunas de las paredes son demasiado empinadas. Eso es algo que tratamos de evitar, habiendo visto algunos malos ejemplos de eso (y cometido esos errores nosotros mismos :RE). Estamos luchando por la mayor cantidad de espacio de agua posible y área de arena, y al mismo tiempo el tanque tendrá 4 metros de profundidad y queremos cubrir muchas de las paredes traseras. Y tenga mucho espacio para los corales. Entonces esas paredes de roca serán altas sin embargo nos movemos alrededor de esas rocas
De todos modos, ese era un buen punto. Y estoy seguro de que nivelaremos las paredes empinadas para la próxima versión.
[/CITAR]

Yes, looking at the pictures some of the walls are much too steep. That's is something we try to avoid, having seen some bad examples of that (and done those mistakes ourselfs ). We're struggling for as much water space as possible, and sand area, and at the same time the tank will be 4 meters deep and we want to cover a lot of the back walls. And have lots of space for corals. So those rock walls will be high however we move around those rock boulders
Anyway, that was a good point. And I'm sure we will even out the steep walls to the next version.

Hello;
I am following you with great interest from Southern Europe (Sant Llorenç Savall, Barcelona, Spain).,
I am a biologist by training, retired and with some gray hair.
I am learning a lot from all the participants in this thread.
I started aquariums when I was a kid and have been a hobby for my entire life.
I have to congratulate you all for your contributions, and the criteria you apply in your statements.
Greetings to all, and when I return to Sweden I will visit you without fail.
Ivan

 

[Sallstrom]

[QUOTE = "Sallstrom, publicación: 8115546, miembro: 80166"]
Sí, mirando las fotos algunas de las paredes son demasiado empinadas. Eso es algo que tratamos de evitar, habiendo visto algunos malos ejemplos de eso (y cometido esos errores nosotros mismos :RE). Estamos luchando por la mayor cantidad de espacio de agua posible y área de arena, y al mismo tiempo el tanque tendrá 4 metros de profundidad y queremos cubrir muchas de las paredes traseras. Y tenga mucho espacio para los corales. Entonces esas paredes de roca serán altas sin embargo nos movemos alrededor de esas rocas
De todos modos, ese era un buen punto. Y estoy seguro de que nivelaremos las paredes empinadas para la próxima versión.
[/CITAR]

Hello;
I am following you with great interest from Southern Europe (Sant Llorenç Savall, Barcelona, Spain).,
I am a biologist by training, retired and with some gray hair.
I am learning a lot from all the participants in this thread.
I started aquariums when I was a kid and have been a hobby for my entire life.
I have to congratulate you all for your contributions, and the criteria you apply in your statements.
Greetings to all, and when I return to Sweden I will visit you without fail.
Ivan

Hola Ivan! Thank you for the kind words!
You are so welcome if you visit Sweden. Just send me an message and I can show you the Aquarium
Stay safe!

 

[Sallstrom]

Having some overhangs, where the peninsulas rise up instead of sloping down, could be a good way of having some extra surface area for corals (above) as well as sand (below). Also a nice place for fish to hang out. The sand underneath will be shaded so a bit easier to keep clean.

Also just visually interesting.

An actual "cave" visible from one the back corner of one of the short sides (aka a deeper overhang but on the side, like a cross section) would also be appealing for viewers. It would feel like they had a special view into a "secret" part of the reef and so would be a more immersive experience for them. If you manage to get a couple of NPS and a couple of interesting cave dwellers I could see that being a particularly popular "secret spot" for kids/regulars who would go back around and watch whats going on back in there.....

Can't wait to get there, someday.

Tony

Absolutely! Just have to figure out how to build it with dry rocks. It'll be a challenge!
But just like you say, a not so steep overside, and an almost horizontal "roof" of the cave.

I've done one cave so far in styrofoam. I wanted to test if we can get a cave reaching from the right corner of the large window, to below the small window. I was thinking that while we need a cover between the two windows, we don't need it under the small window. So it might be cool looking through a cave and you can see light and corals on the other side of it. I'll take a picture so you get what I mean

Great idea in the "cross section cave"!

 

[Sallstrom]

Here's the cave! But I think I need to make it larger.

And I looked at the left side, from the large window, for making some kind of cross section cave. That will be quite far from the window, so I'm not sure on how to do it without making a really long boulder sticking out from that short side. And that corner, the one you don't see from the window, needs to be free and open for cirkulation pumps. But I did a compromise just for now

Edit. It's hard trying to keep as much space open as possible to not get the tank to look small and at the same time get lots of space for coral. The good things is if we like to add more substrate for corals we can just throw in a another ton of rocks and build some more

 

[GBRsouth]

You need to make a number of styro-phora to complete your model!

All jokes aside, it might help to create a sense of scale.

 

[Sallstrom]

When @Lasse though he dropped something in the sump and I had to remove 25 kg live rock to look for it.

Turned out he dropped it somewhere else..;Bucktooth

 

[Sallstrom]

At the moment there’s a bloom of flatworms in one of our refugiums. Really cool looking things! I think it is Convolutriloba longifissura, but if anyone has a better guess let me know I think they are herbivores so I do not see them as a problem.

 

[Lasse]

I thought that he need a real workout

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Sallstrom]

Yes, I know there’re more styrofoam at the moment in this thread then corals. But I promise you corals, big pumps and skimmers later on. But for now it’s styrofoam reef!

The top down picture might explain more. Still more work to do, not finished yet!

 

[Sallstrom]

I know this doesn't look very professional, but you'll have to start somewhere!
Here's what we want to figure out. Where you can see from the two windows and where we can put the circulations pumps and pipes from the sump so they won't be visible from the windows.
Yellow lines are "seeing lines" and blue lines are flow from the pumps. Far from finished

 

[dragon99]

Any thought about NOT covering the walls in rock? It feels very closed in and narrow. Having a (black) open wall space would give the impression of depth. Not necessarily all open walls, but in a few places

 

[Sallstrom]

Any thought about NOT covering the walls in rock? It feels very closed in and narrow. Having a (black) open wall space would give the impression of depth. Not necessarily all open walls, but in a few places

I’m with you about some more open wall space. There will probably be some visible wall at the top of the walls(the rockwork will not go all the way to the surface). Or perhaps all the way along the back walls. The walls are a bit high now on the model.

And there will be large “crevices” in the back coral rockwork. You can see some on the model, but they will probably need some more cutting.

Our plan is to find a blue colour which hopefully will give the impression that the tank continues on.

A black background can look cool, but you won’t see that on a reef when looking across the reef. We’re trying to create the feeling that the visitors look out into the ocean, not into an aquarium. Not possible to a 100%, but that’s what we aim for

Another reason why the rockwork is against the back walls is that we probably need the support from the back wall when building the rockwork almost 4 meters high

 

[Sallstrom]

Some more cutting away styrofoam today! And a blue background(with moon jellyfish on it ).

 

[Brew12]

Some more cutting away styrofoam today! And a blue background(with moon jellyfish on it ).

I'm liking this better. I'd still like a little more slope at the expense of water volume. I do have one concern. I love the idea of the blue background for depth, but to make that work you would need to keep it very clean. Can you use anti fouling paint in a reef aquarium? Or are you looking for an excuse to dive in the tank regularly?

 

[Sallstrom]

I'm liking this better. I'd still like a little more slope at the expense of water volume. I do have one concern. I love the idea of the blue background for depth, but to make that work you would need to keep it very clean. Can you use anti fouling paint in a reef aquarium? Or are you looking for an excuse to dive in the tank regularly?

Yes, I know. It's still quite steep walls along the back side. The reason I'm having trouble getting away from that is that I would like to be able to see the sand from the side/small window. From there you can now see sand bottom slingering almost all the way to the other side, along the back wall(and you see a swim through!). So making rock work that's sticking out too much from the back side blocks the view from the small window

No, no boat antifouling paint goes into "my" tanks But we have an idea of having a like a walkway behind the top of the rock work at the back. A bit lower, so there will be corals and behind the corals you see the blue wall. But between the corals and the wall, we might be able to have a walkway. And lay out like a ladder in between the the rock works when we need to go out. Perfect, right? Easy to just walk out and clean the blue walls. Or we have to dive.. We'll see

My first idea was to have blue plastic sheets placed there. Don't remember what they are called, but you see them in small tanks at public aquarias like Steinhart or Monterey. Easy to take out and clean. Except that they would have to be really large in this tank. So I don't think that's possible in this case.

Here another one from the top.

I don't want corals or visible rocks agaist the back wall, so I've tried to carve out extra around the areas where the wall is visible. Both at the top of the rock work and in the crevices. I think that's important if you want it look like the blue is water and not a blue wall. So no visible "joints" between rocks/corals and the walls.