WHAT'S NEW?

WHAT'S NEW

AT AQUARIUM WORLD?

Greetings From Aquarium World

New at Aquarium World:

On November 24th we started a restoration project on the large "Abyss" aquarium. Over the next couple months we will be restructuring the display into something new and interesting. After 12+ years it was time for a change, and to address structure maintenance that requires draining of the display. So after almost a year of planning, saving, and brainstorming we have started the project, with a new direction for the aquarium.

The project entails first draining the aquarium,, clamping the windows in place, removing the inhabitants (for those that are wondering, all of the inhabitants of the display have either found new homes in the "Tide Pool" or will be relocated to public aquarium displays), resealing the windows, partial restructuring of portions of the rockwork, major restructuring of other display areas, lots of plumbing work. Then we will rebuild the display area with new decor and cover structures..... yes a lot of work. The display area of this aquarium is 45' X (12'-28'). That's larger than many home swimming pools... Its a big job and will take some time while we are waiting on the new window seals to cure properly. Like any aquarium project, it just takes patience!

The "New Direction" will be to a very large freshwater display featuring only small size fish. We have always wanted to show the true nature and beauty of schooling fish, and after serious contemplation, discussion, and surveying customers have decided to build a large display featuring schooling fish.... imagine a school of over 1000 neon tetras, huge schools of giant danios at the surface, and 1000's of other schooling fish. In all the new display will feature over 20,000 fish! Some have asked why we are making the change, others have claimed we are doing it from a cost basis. The honest answer is that after 12 years, we wanted something different, something that was not common, something that as far as we can determine has either not been done, or is very rare. As for the cost factor, the new display theme will be more expensive to set up than keeping with the old (new animals, decor, etc). Maintenance cost will be almost identical. Sure we wont have the cost of the salt, but have you ever fed 20,000+ animals, or expended the labor to maintain an aquarium with those stocking densities? Our calculations show that the overall expense will be about the same whether we go to the new format, or stay with the old... some we decided to do something new!

UPDATES:

Have you ever started a project that was really big, planned for the "big scenario" and what might happen, all the while hoping that the better faster plan will work? Well, We had initially planned to reseal the windows of the abyss tank, maintaining the original grout and inner seal system that upon visual inspection appeared to be in excellent shape. Once we started the physical reseal process we found a couple inclusions in the original tank waterproofing (epoxy coating system) that were very close to the window seal system. Rather than proceed with our original plan, the "big scenario" kicked in. On January 19th we started the removal of the windows (not an easy task.... they are dang heavy and require some "special" equipment) to completely re-surface and re-finish all the window areas and start with what is effectively a new install of the windows. We had hoped we would not need to do this, but it was the right thing to do (otherwise we might have had to do it in as few as a couple years)... If its worth fixing, fix it right! Unfortunately this set our entire timeline back quite a bit (and made a really big mess for a few days). The window areas have now been ground down to bear concrete, new waterproofing and epoxy systems re-installed... And the windows are back in! The new window seals and grout system has been installed, the surface seals have skinned over enough that we can start working on the walls again so we are now back at it. The up side is that the windows are now effectively new as they were almost 13 years ago. The down side is that the complete re0seal takes a bit more time to cure. Our new hydrostat test (testing pressure seals) will come around the beginning of March (have to wait for hundreds of pounds of silicone to fully cure). More as it comes (we have added some more pictures)

Things to be done:

	Re-plumb the system to isolate the "Tang Sea" into is own ~5000 gallon display system (new capacity now that we finished the rebuild and enlargement on that display, as well as increasing the water depth). DONE
	Drain the main tank to approximately 30" of water to allow capture on the fish and start of work on the restoration. DONE
	Start work on the window re-seal (takes week for the seal to completely dry and become ready for the new seal system to be installed). DONE
	Arrange for "Butch" the green moray, the two large puffers, the large batfish ("Orby" and "Willy"), and a few other large fish to be transported to their new homes at public aquariums. DONE
	Finish draining the tank and capture of remaining inhabitants DONE
	Removal of the over 400 pieces of "Coral Decor" from the display, as well as the "S.S. Minnow" (the sunken boat). DONE
	Moving over 25,000 lbs of rockwork away from the walls in preparation for re-surfacing the walls (much like a swimming pool, water slowly degrades the epoxy coatings and periodically the wall coatings must be re-finished to maintain the concrete tank structural integrity). In Progress
	Re-finish the walls. In Progress
	Modifications to display plumbing. Almost Done
	New window sealing system installation STARTED New Sealing System Install will be complete ~~January 16~~ Well, the new seals took longer than expected due to removing the windows to completely re-finish the window system. Seals were finished January 28. Now we wait for them to cure
	Installation of the new decor Sew Start Date set for February 17
	Hydrostatic testing of the display Set tentatively for March 3-4
	Re-Filling Set tentatively for March 5
	Stocking in new tank inhabitants Stocking to start tentatively March 10

Here as some photos of the work as it is progressing. We will try to post a timeline that we have posted in the store as soon as we can figure out how to present it on the website (its pretty big!).


"Pisser" the Passer Angel in his new Tang Sea Home		Most of the water is gone, We are waiting for a few of the larger animals to be picked up prior to draining the reaming 30" of water.


Removing Coral Decor.		Most of the decor gone from the right side of the display


The boat is gone and we are working on the left side		Just a bit of silliness!


Back left corner during drain		Same back left corner after rock wall removal


Last bit of rock to be stacked		This is what 26,000+ lbs of rock looks like ..lot of work!


Butch in the tub being transferred to the hauling trailer on his way to Sea Center Texas.. He measured in at 60" 25lbs		Some fun "on the beach in the Abyss"


This is hard to see, but that white patch is the first scraping on the tank walls as we prep the walls for blasting and re-coating		More on the walls as bubbles in the old coating system are ruptured to allow the concrete to fully dry before blasting and re-coating.

Windows clamped in place for seal work		What we Found - waterproofing failure to close to the window seal area. Yes that is moisture in the concrete 1/2" away. Time to refinish the entire window area!

First Window in the slings and ready to remove. These windows are almost 2000 lbs each, so removal by hand is not an option.		All Three windows are out. Yes that is the third window still hanging in the lift system.

The window rebates (rebate is the lip the windows fit into). after complete grinding. Grinding is very messy!		New waterproofing and epoxy sealing system in place.

Windows back in place and the seal system installed. Now we wait for the silicone to fully skim over before we start grinding and prepping the interior walls for recoat.