180 Gallon Florida Coral Reef Aquarium Build at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

[Blutspitze]

Beautiful pics! What are you using for them? A DSLR, I'd imagine.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Beautiful pics! What are you using for them? A DSLR, I'd imagine.

Thanks! It is actually a Canon Powershot point and shoot camera that we have for work. Not my favorite but we are hoping to get a nicer one (hopefully DSLR) in the near future.

 

[Blutspitze]

Thanks! It is actually a Canon Powershot point and shoot camera that we have for work. Not my favorite but we are hoping to get a nicer one (hopefully DSLR) in the near future.

Great pics for a point and shoot especially. I use my DSLR and they're not nearly as nice . Working to get better shots now.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Great pics for a point and shoot especially. I use my DSLR and they're not nearly as nice . Working to get better shots now.

Thanks! I’ve not had much experience with cameras in general but I would like to learn especially if we get a nicer camera. I think good quality pictures are really important in getting a point across lol

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just everybody's favorite fish saying good morning!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Extra bushy gorgonian this afternoon

and a rare glimpse of our serpent starfish

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Took a few more pics this morning that I wanted to share!

Our "snorkeling" view of the tank ;Wideyed

Fl rock anemone

Our challenging to photograph Christmas Tree worms

Enjoy!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Acropora cervicornis

Porites asteroides

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Two more close-ups of our FL zoanthids. Happy Saturday!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Great build, work and placement. No Skimping on equipment by any means.
Very nice work !!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Great build, work and placement. No Skimping on equipment by any means.
Very nice work !!

Thank you so much! We definitely wanted to create a good environment for these coral to make sure they were happy. I have to give a shout out to all of the companies who contributed to this build to make it possible for us.

 

[fishybizzness]

Two more close-ups of our FL zoanthids. Happy Saturday!

Love those! This is a pic of some I saw on the rocks along local ferry port! They're very common but beautiful nonetheless!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Love those! This is a pic of some I saw on the rocks along local ferry port! They're very common but beautiful nonetheless!

Very nice! Nice clear water! I love being able to show people the natural beauty of the local environments here in Florida that sometimes get overlooked.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Shared these in another thread of my but felt I should post them here too ;Snaphappy

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Was at work late tonight watching a live coral spawning event being streamed from the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first time a mesophotic reef spawning has ever been documented which was super cool! I attached the link for anybody who wants to watch the dive or tune in tomorrow. Anyways I snapped a nice picture of our staghorn nice and open tonight, enjoy!

Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration

www.engineeringfordiscovery.org

 

[Brandon McHenry]

So it seems as though we had some spawning in our aquarium this summer. Our porites looks as though it has sent out some new recruits around the tank. We have found around a dozen baby colonies so far and I am always on the lookout for more! I will post as they get bigger but they are still just a few polyps wide.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Well we got a new camera for work and I was finally able to catch some of the fish in action! Turned out pretty good but Im still learning how to use the camera. For now...enjoy!

Atlantic Blue Chromis

Juvenile Atlantic Blue Tang

Probably my favorite fish at work (Atlantic Surgeonfish)

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi guys!

I work as a graduate student assistant and aquarist at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center. We are a small educational facility designed to showcase all of the research being conducted by the marine scientists and engineers at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, which is located in Fort Pierce, Florida. We have recently renovated the visitors center to include several aquariums that highlight some of our research areas. As a long time hobbyist and member of Reef2Reef I wanted to show everyone here some of the aquariums we have built.

The aquarium I would like to highlight is a new build that will be part of our Marine Ecosystem Health Exhibit. We have decided to include a 180 gallon Florida Coral Reef Tank in this renovation and I wanted to start this build thread to show off the whole process and its progression. This tank will showcase the research being conducted by our Coral Reef Health and Ecology Lab lead by Dr. Joshua Voss.

Coral reefs are both economically and ecologically valuable ecosystems. They provide protection to our shorelines from coastal erosion, essential habitat to a diverse array of life and are vital in cycling global ocean nutrients. They also support a multi-billion dollar diving and tourism industry worldwide. Unfortunately, reefs around the world are being threatened by emerging coral diseases, climate change, fisheries exploitation and land-based sources of pollution. Our Coral Reef Health and Ecology Lab studies reefs around the Caribbean, both in the state of Florida as well as the Gulf of Mexico. Our team is currently exploring the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, assessing the effects of freshwater discharges and sedimentation on the St. Lucie Reef (Florida's northern-most shallow reef tract), as well as determining the disease susceptibility, resistance and resilience of Caribbean corals.

As some of you may know, Florida hard coral species are protected and cannot be harvested. So in order for us to showcase corals such as Acropora cervicornis, Acropora palmata and Montastrea cavernosa, we will have to work with individuals from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Mote Marine Laboratory, the Smithsonian Marine Station and our Coral Reef Health and Ecology Lab in order to obtain colonies.

We hope that with this setup we will be able to accurately demonstrate the beauty and diversity that can be found on a Florida coral reef as well as illustrate why this type of research is crucial to the health of our planet.

This is an ongoing build that we have been working towards for several months now. We have received lots of support from various vendors and collaborators to make this aquarium become a reality. Below are the supplies that we have gotten so far as we move towards installing this tank.

Current System Supplies:

Marineland 180 gallon wide aquarium (72x24x24)
Eshopps PF-1800 Overflow Box
3 Ecotech Radion G4 XR30 Pros
2 Ecotech Vortech MP40QD
Ecotech ReefLink
Trigger Systems Triton 44 Refugium
Reef Octopus Classic 152-S Protein Skimmer
Ecotech Vectra M1 Return Pump
Bubble Magus 3 Channel Dosing Pump
Tunze Osmolater 3155 Auto Top Off
Pentair 48 inch UV Sterilizer
Apex Controller with pH, temperature, salinity and ORP probes
Eheim Jager 300watt Heater

Aquascape:

320 lbs CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand
160 lbs CaribSea Shapes LifeRock
1 CaribSea 36 inch Archway

Refugium Setup:

2 lbs CaribSea Mineral Mud
Cheatomorpha

I would like to thank Marineland, Ecotech Marine, Trigger System Sumps and CaribSea for their contributions to this build. Without them, we would not have been able to take on such an extraordinary undertaking.

Stand:

Custom Built Sanded Plywood with Trim
Golden Oak Stain
Base (72 L x 36 H x 24 W) Doors (28x28 – 4 total)
Canopy (72 L x 24 H x 24W) Doors (28x18 – 4 total)

Additives:

BRS Pharma Calcium Chloride
BRS Pharma Soda Ash
BRS Pharma Magnesium Chloride
BRS Pharma Magnesium Sulfate

I will be finishing the stand construction this weekend and I am hoping to begin the tank installation this coming Tuesday. I will be posting updates with pictures as this build progresses so I hope everyone enjoys this process as much as I am going to! I am looking forward to creating this very unique aquarium so stay tuned!

Thanks for sharing, comrade

 

[Blutspitze]

Well we got a new camera for work and I was finally able to catch some of the fish in action! Turned out pretty good but Im still learning how to use the camera. For now...enjoy!

Atlantic Blue Chromis

Juvenile Atlantic Blue Tang

Probably my favorite fish at work (Atlantic Surgeonfish)

Awesome pics! Loving the look of the Surgeonfish. Technically aren't the last two fish the same species? Just one is a juvenile and the other an adult? I thought Atlantic Blue Tang was a common name for the Surgeonfish, but I'm not a marine bio guy

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Awesome pics! Loving the look of the Surgeonfish. Technically aren't the last two fish the same species? Just one is a juvenile and the other an adult? I thought Atlantic Blue Tang was a common name for the Surgeonfish, but I'm not a marine bio guy

Thanks! I love that fish too! They are actually different species. The Atlantic Blue Tang is Acanthurus coeruleus amd the Atlantic Surgeonfish is Acanthurus chirurgus. I can’t wait for the blue tang to mature and become that beautiful blue color!