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

[Casket_Case]

what are these and are they legal to keep?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

what are these and are they legal to keep?

This is Montastrea cavernosa, the great star coral. It is a protected Caribbean species that can only be kept by scientific and educational institutions. Super cool coral though!

 

[Casket_Case]

This is Montastrea cavernosa, the great star coral. It is a protected Caribbean species that can only be kept by scientific and educational institutions. Super cool coral though!

Ugghhh mannn, it’s one of my favorites. I’ve seen it before but didn’t know the name... now I’m kinda bummed lol

 

[Henn]

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!

Hi there fellow reefer, your project is awesome. It would be even more so if some of the budget could improve the Marine Systems here to do Hard Coral. As the only true ocean like Marine Ponds in LA., There are some large filter innovations used here that seem far better suited to the preservation of coral reefs than the current equipment listed. Some of the elements of your system are completely larval decimating ( display tank / frag house ). The marine ponds here total 750 gallons. They have two Dwarf Seahorse Breeding populations, Gorgonians, Ricordea/mushrooms, and Macro Algae. These systems are for Natural Spawning Reproduction. There are continuous populations of Green Lip Mussels and Black Mussels. If a Large System ( of this type ) was used just for Coral it should do fine. Because of the Brittle Star population and Urchin population it is not feasible to keep Hard Coral ( high Phos. ). Green Duncan is about as hard as possible. Please read the Henn Posts ( pipefish/seahorse ) about the System Filter design. Using Knitted Ribbon HDPE Shade Cloth wrapped around a pump can filter huge amounts of water and has Open Surface ( aerobic ) and Twisted Ribbon Junctions of low oxygen ( anaerobic ). They run without any maintenance for the embedded pump life. Only the Output exits the Filter and so it does not kill larva. There is also a large larval safe Protein Scimmer. My frags are growing and with luck will reproduce and attach naturally. The water you see is opaque in UV. The plankton load is huge. Ground Dry Shrimp is the only food. Please consider going Big. From these studies, a single 50 gallon HDPE Drum and 100 feet of 85 % Knitted Ribbon Shade Cloth and a Pond Pump could easily do a 2000 gallon Marine Pond ( above ground pool ). Use the Tanks for display but do the coral work in a tiny ocean with natural food and larval friendly filters. Try and Spawn those coral that can't be gathered. Ask any arborist or grow house about endless clones. Fragging has already lowered genetic diversity. Using the Shade Cloth is far more efficient that argonite or dry coral. It also is far less expensive and predictable.

 

[Blutspitze]

Wow! Such beautiful pictures as always! Very glad to see that the tank is looking great.

 

[User1]

Very nice and well done. Mind if I ask what the yellow whips like coral is in the front and the purple one above and to the left? I see the thicker ones and they look like something I have in my tank now. I just can't figure out what the yellow one is

The yellow head, white body fish - I didn't know they burrowed like that but then again never owned one. He picked a great spot for humans to watch!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Wow! Such beautiful pictures as always! Very glad to see that the tank is looking great.

Thank you! This tank has definitely started to mature and look full!

Very nice and well done. Mind if I ask what the yellow whips like coral is in the front and the purple one above and to the left? I see the thicker ones and they look like something I have in my tank now. I just can't figure out what the yellow one is

The yellow head, white body fish - I didn't know they burrowed like that but then again never owned one. He picked a great spot for humans to watch!

They are both gorgonians, I just can’t remember their names off the top of my head. I’m sure I can find them if I look back at what I ordered. They both come from the Keys however. And yes the jawfish did pick a great spot for a burrow lol.

 

[User1]

Thank you! This tank has definitely started to mature and look full!


They are both gorgonians, I just can’t remember their names off the top of my head. I’m sure I can find them if I look back at what I ordered. They both come from the Keys however. And yes the jawfish did pick a great spot for a burrow lol.

Thanks for confirmation. That is close enough and what I figured. I can reach out to TBS and KP aquatics if I can't match it via visuals . Again, pretty. Really super awesome job!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Thanks for confirmation. That is close enough and what I figured. I can reach out to TBS and KP aquatics if I can't match it via visuals . Again, pretty. Really super awesome job!

Thank you so much! And yes I’m sure they will be able to help you pin down exactly which ones you want.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Hey everyone check out the walkthrough that I did for this tank!

 

[Island Reef 242]

Great video Brandon, nice, educational, and informative. But the parts where you are standing next to the tank talking (the first 90s and a few seconds towards the end) have no sound. I can hear everything else clearly except those two parts. You should do one describing what and how you feed the corals and fish, would love to know your recipe.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Great video Brandon, nice, educational, and informative. But the parts where you are standing next to the tank talking (the first 90s and a few seconds towards the end) have no sound. I can hear everything else clearly except those two parts. You should do one describing what and how you feed the corals and fish, would love to know your recipe.

Thank you! That’s very strange it works for me, haven’t heard any other issues. And yeah I can look into doing one for the secret recipe lol

 

[fishybizzness]

Thank you! That’s very strange it works for me, haven’t heard any other issues. And yeah I can look into doing one for the secret recipe lol

I double that!!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I double that!!

Doubt that it works or that I would reveal the secret recipe? Lol

 

[Island Reef 242]

Thank you! That’s very strange it works for me, haven’t heard any other issues. And yeah I can look into doing one for the secret recipe lol

Well I tried watching it on my phone and the sound was on through out the whole video, but on my comp it is out during those two parts, strange, oh well. looking forward to the secret recipe ;Woot

 

[Blutspitze]

Awesome video! Well done and informative. Hopefully it'll entice some visitors to come by just to see it in person

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Awesome video! Well done and informative. Hopefully it'll entice some visitors to come by just to see it in person

Thanks! Glad you liked it! I definitely think that it is our most popular tank and I’ve had several people come to visit it after we started sharing info on it last year.

 

[fishybizzness]

Hi Brandon,
I have an equipment question! How has your pentair aquatics uv been working so far? Are you happy with the unit? I'm asking because I am setting one up on my 120 shortly and was just interested in your opinion on it! Thanks

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Hi Brandon,
I have an equipment question! How has your pentair aquatics uv been working so far? Are you happy with the unit? I'm asking because I am setting one up on my 120 shortly and was just interested in your opinion on it! Thanks

All in all I’ve been happy. Water stays pretty clear despite not using filter socks and haven’t had any real issue with algae or parasites (knock on wood) but I dip all corals and QT all the fish. It’s a well built unit and I would recommend it. Hope that helps!

 

[fishybizzness]

Awesome stuff! Thanks for the response and keep that tank looking amazing until I get up to Florida to see it after all this stuff we are going through comes back to normal!