Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[Lasse]

David with his frag tool

​

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Sallstrom]

Today we finally emptied the 2500L tank! Great fun cleaning out 14 years of sediment But it didn't smell and was like mud, so I guess this sediment bottom has worked well.
All fish were found and moved into the temporary tanks. So now I hope we'll get some help keeping the nutrients above zero and that the algaes will be eaten. I like self-cleaning tanks

Here's the tank this morning

And here's my colleague inside the tank shovelling up mud

So the first of the larger tanks done. Feels good! What concerns me though are all the live rock. I'm not sure we will be able to keep all of it alive during the rebuild. We might need to dry some and store for a year. But we will see what happens!

And here's a shark

 

[Brew12]

Today we finally emptied the 2500L tank! Great fun cleaning out 14 years of sediment But it didn't smell and was like mud, so I guess this sediment bottom has worked well.
All fish were found and moved into the temporary tanks. So now I hope we'll get some help keeping the nutrients above zero and that the algaes will be eaten. I like self-cleaning tanks

Here's the tank this morning
View attachment 1034967

And here's my colleague inside the tank shovelling up mud
View attachment 1034970

So the first of the larger tanks done. Feels good! What concerns me though are all the live rock. I'm not sure we will be able to keep all of it alive during the rebuild. We might need to dry some and store for a year. But we will see what happens!

And here's a shark
View attachment 1034979

I don't recall if you have said, but what is being done with all of the old tanks?

 

[Sallstrom]

I don't recall if you have said, but what is being done with all of the old tanks?

At first we talked about selling them(the movable ones) or giving them away. One public aquarium really wanted them.
But then we remembered at least two other aquariums that didn't have any budget left when the reopening came closer after rebuilding. One of them had to open up with less tanks than before, the other had to use a couple of old tanks. So with that in mind we will keep them until we know for sure we can buy new ones.

Two tanks I'm pretty sure we will reuse in any case, because they are only used less than a year(we had a temporary Cephalopod exhibit). The rest are 15 years old and those would be nice to replace.

The large tanks with concrete walls will be demolished. They were built in 1986. So they have done a great job

 

[Sallstrom]

Thank you all for the support!

Unfortunately my laziness and lack of patience made me use two old Aquael Neoheaters instead of ordering and wait for proper titan heaters. Things were fine for a couple of days, then the heaters started a meltdown.. Both of them, but one more then the other.
View attachment 1019860

So now the whole room stinks. The water in the new system stinks. And the test corals are not exactly happy.
We added Triton detox today, plus a skimmer, and will start with activated carbon later this week. I hope we don't need to throw all 4000L of saltwater away because of this.
Luckily we haven't added more then a couple of live rocks and three test corals so far. So it could have been much worse! I'm mostly angry with myself for providing myself with more work, and not the fun kind of work

We've had problems with these heaters before and have taken them out of our other tanks because they made the residual current breakers(?) go off a lot. So this was just a stupid mistake from me.

I'll take samples and send to Triton lab tomorrow.

This was waiting for me when I came to work today It happened during the weekend.
View attachment 1019873

The melted heater story ended well. Got the results from Triton lab today and there were no measurable levels of unwanted metals in the water. Took the water sample before running activated carbon, so now it's even cleaner
I'm sure Triton detox and the activated carbon did something good, the smell went away during the treatment.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

The melted heater story ended well. Got the results from Triton lab today and there were no measurable levels of unwanted metals in the water. Took the water sample before running activated carbon, so now it's even cleaner
I'm sure Triton detox and the activated carbon did something good, the smell went away during the treatment.

So none of Lasse's corals or fish will be used to test the water?

 

[Sallstrom]

So none of Lasse's corals or fish will be used to test the water?

We've tried animals from Lasse's tank before. Now we've got bubble tip anemones everywhere..
No, we started with a couple of corals, than a urchin and a chromis, to test the water. All of them are still fine.

 

[Sallstrom]

Lots of fish and corals in the temporary tanks now. Still three large reef tanks left to take down, plus a couple of small ones.

Put in some egg crates today for frags.

And we got lights for almost 6 meters in the other system.

And more Euphyllia!

 

[Brew12]

Put in some egg crates today for frags.

In the US, we call this mini-colonies!

 

[Sallstrom]

In the US, we call this mini-colonies!
View attachment 1037627

 

[Sallstrom]

More pictures from the Aquarium! Lots have happened this week, moved tons of rocks and corals, emptied 6 tanks, cleaned out storage spaces and started throwing old stuff out.

Two out of three cubic tanks done!

Trying to keep all these @kr&#% in one place.

This is a colony @Brew12

And this

More frags dipped and moved into a temporary tank. Won’t have time to do a proper dip protocol right now, but trying to keep the number of AEFWs down a bit.

More styloporas.

Not too much “finlir” as we say in Swedish(finesse might be the word). We will sort up, cut and clue corals later on when we get the time. Now we need to empty some areas to be able to move the lights from the old tanks to the new ones.

 

[Brew12]

Trying to keep all these @kr&#% in one place.

You should give them back to @Lasse !!!

 

[crusso1993]

More pictures from the Aquarium! Lots have happened this week, moved tons of rocks and corals, emptied 6 tanks, cleaned out storage spaces and started throwing old stuff out.

View attachment 1038298
Two out of three cubic tanks done!

View attachment 1038299
Trying to keep all these @kr&#% in one place.

View attachment 1038300
This is a colony @Brew12

View attachment 1038303
And this

View attachment 1038304
More frags dipped and moved into a temporary tank. Won’t have time to do a proper dip protocol right now, but trying to keep the number of AEFWs down a bit.

View attachment 1038308
More styloporas.

Not too much “finlir” as we say in Swedish(finesse might be the word). We will sort up, cut and clue corals later on when we get the time. Now we need to empty some areas to be able to move the lights from the old tanks to the new ones.

Wow, I think you've gotten more done this well than the previous two weeks combined!

 

[Hemmdog]

How do you deal with something like AEFW on an institutional scale? That seems like it could be devastating.

 

[Sallstrom]

Wow, I think you've gotten more done this well than the previous two weeks combined!

Yes!! I have the same feeling actually

But it's been a lot of less fun work leading up to this situation(to be able to move corals etc). So it's a relief to be in the next phase!

 

[Sallstrom]

How do you deal with something like AEFW on an institutional scale? That seems like it could be devastating.

Basically we try to get the corals to grow faster than they die off. But occasionally we try to dip the species most popular to AEFW. But with Acropora in most of our tropical tanks, erase them hasn't been possible. I will make an attempt when all corals are settled in the new tanks, to beat the flatworms. But I don't think I'll be 100% successful..
I'm too cautious to do a in tank treatment, so it'll be some kind of dips. Lots of dips..

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

All that typing making me tired

 

[Salty Lemon]

It seems I have eight months' worth of posts to work through -- but I'm definitely following along now. This seems fascinating.

 

[Sallstrom]

It seems I have eight months' worth of posts to work through -- but I'm definitely following along now. This seems fascinating.

Welcome! I know it might be hard to follow all things around our old tanks, the temporary Aquarium and the new Aquarium. So feel free to ask if its all a mess in this thread

 

[Sallstrom]

Finally spring here in Sweden!