The 200,000 gallon tank build thread.

[Anonymous]

I know all that! Thanks in part to you, Matt is the boss of me on Tuesdays.
Lets hijack this thread - what have you been up to? Let me know when you need some frags.

The new aquarium is going to be crazy cool!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Matt- great to see you the other day at CalAcademy. Just saw this thread after being away from this board for months and months. Can't wait for opening day! BTW, Diego the green sea turtle is awesome....

Keep up the good work man.

Best, Peter

PS: Did all the rays get in ok?

Hey Peter! Great to see you the other day too.

Did you get a chance to feed Diego? He is incredibly docile, really likes his back scratched. Great animal.

The rays did get in okay; all of them ate yesterday which is a great sign. Sorry I couldn't chat on Thursday! We received them at about 1 and didn't get out of there until 8pm or so. Looooong day. I'll post some photos next week when I get the chance. I'm swamped today, missing a volunteer and a certain sick temperate biologist (cough cough, Dave Chan).

Later!

 

[Anonymous]

Any further updates Matt? Perhaps some more photos :wink: :wink:

I promise I'll post some next week. In the meantime, check out our webpage! Lots of pictures of the new facility.

www.calacademy.org/newacademy

 

[Entacmaea]

Rich- you volunteering at the Academy- Cool. They love Matt there- he can reach all the high tanks ; ) Once I figure out whether I'll be living in Minnesota or here (something about a girl) I might take you up on that frag offer! BTW, your cuttle videos are just gems. As a musician, I think your song selections are perfect. Amazing vids.

Matt- no worries, you guys looked BUSY. Glad to hear everything arrived alright. Yeah, Diego looks friggin' adorable- beautiful shell. I heard the story from Barb Andrews (who went with Dave to get him) and apparently they forgot to rub lotion on his shell so it wouldn't dry out in transport- funny thing is, the "lotion" that they were supposed to use was KY Jelly. No joke. Apparently it is the best thing to use. There must be a story about what biologist discovered that :wink:

Anywho, totally jealous of you two getting to work at CAS during such an exciting time. I've been getting the itch again to set up the tank, but need to figure things out with the GF first, whether I'll be moving or not. Discovered a new LFS, Ocean Treasures on Duboce, within walking distance of my house- been taking weekly trips to salivate. It is about the cleanest and well run LFS I've ever been in. (Even if they were selling a PB tang to a guy who had a 40 gallon tank). Great corals.

I'll eagerly keep watching this thread- Pics of the rays would be great!

Best, Peter

 

[Anonymous]

Discovered a new LFS, Ocean Treasures on Duboce, within walking distance of my house- been taking weekly trips to salivate. It is about the cleanest and well run LFS I've ever been in.

Uh oh, you better leave for Minnesota! You'll go broke before you know it!

 

[Anonymous]

Discovered a new LFS, Ocean Treasures on Duboce, within walking distance of my house- been taking weekly trips to salivate. It is about the cleanest and well run LFS I've ever been in. (Even if they were selling a PB tang to a guy who had a 40 gallon tank). Great corals.

I'll eagerly keep watching this thread- Pics of the rays would be great!

Best, Peter

I had no idea you were that close. I live at 24th and Mission. Great LFS indeed.

Here's a picture of one of the honeycomb rays, Himantura uarnak. We have a male and a female. These bad boys get 2m across the disk, and the tails are very very long. There are also 12 Rhinoptera javanicus (Pacific cownose rays) and 2 Dasyatis kuhlii (Blue spotted rays).

 

[Anonymous]

...

 

[Entacmaea]

2 meters across! Wow. Glad they all came in ok.

Yeah, that LFS is sweet- complete with crown moldings ; )

Thanks for the pics Matt.

 

[Anonymous]

Lots of pics! Seth, Nick, April, Laurie and I went to the new site the last 2 days to clean off the rockwork in preparation for "the final fill". The concrete has been leached and the tank is ready to go. Just a spraydown of a few thousand square feet of dusty concrete, and then pump all the rinse water 25 feet straight up, should only take a few days...

While we were waiting for a trusty sump pump to do its job we took a tour of the life support. Below are pictures of 1) one of the RK2 skimmers for the main tank, 2) a shot of the top of the tank from the 3rd floor, 3) the 6 Schuran calcium reactors in the basement.

 

[Anonymous]

More pics...

1) One of the skimmers used on the cistern water. We'll use natural sea water from the ocean that we will skim, ozonize, sand filter, etc. to do water changes.
2) A small portion of the rockwork. This view represents about a fifth of the tank. There is a 20 foot long tunnel, 20 foot high pillars, a cave about the size of a small bedroom, etc.
3) The mangrove trees that will ring part of the reef lagoon. These were grown in Florida and shipped here last week.

 

[Anonymous]

1) The reef at noon, no water, no artificial light, cloudy day. Turns out we get quite a bit of light, even in SF.

2) Part of the closed loop circulation system with adjustable butterfly valves on controllers.

3) The pumps that power part of the closed loop circulation. 25 HP each.

 

[Anonymous]

That's right, the handsome chap in the smart sweater and stylish glasses is none other than world famous curator extraordinaire Bart Shepherd.

Fingers crossed, please see this before performance appraisals.

 

[Entacmaea]

Matt, I'm so jealous. Keep up the good work, and let me know when the behind-the-scenes tour is :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

So thats where you were today! Nice! Nice! Nice!

 

[pcardone]

Thanks Matt. What did they use to make the rock work? It looks like a project in its self.

 

[Anonymous]

A pic of cornellius maxiumus!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Matt. What did they use to make the rock work? It looks like a project in its self.

It's piles of cinder blocks and cinder block chunks, a plastic material similar to gutter guard is bolted on to give it shape and curves, and then sprayed with concrete. Then molds are attached, and more concrete is sprayed on. It took them about 6 months to build it.

 

[Anonymous]

Groovy, I have already reserved a spot in my wallet for my contributor pass, I don't want to deal with all the screaming kids every first wednesday!

 

[bleedingthought]

Very nice!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Matt. What did they use to make the rock work? It looks like a project in its self.

It's piles of cinder blocks and cinder block chunks, a plastic material similar to gutter guard is bolted on to give it shape and curves, and then sprayed with concrete. Then molds are attached, and more concrete is sprayed on. It took them about 6 months to build it.

Matt, can you be more specific on what material was used? Concrete evokes in the normal reader the though of Portland cement and I highly doubt that ws used. Most likely some form of gunite or shotcrete was used, or even mayby some kind of hydrolic cement.

FWIW Asphalt (AC) is a type of concrete (asphalt concrete)