CoralVue's Tank Display, Episode 2

In this episode, Join Sam as he showcases CoralVue’s majestic aquatic display and the story behind the design process.

Episode 2: Tank Display

Dec 1, 2023

Today at Coral Vue's main facility, the display and its development are being highlighted. The equipment room will also be shown. The tank's placement in the pre-framed equipment room would have made it cramped, so it was extended into the lobby using a structure to support it. Narrow windows create the illusion of the tank being mostly unsupported, though it is anchored securely.

The display tank appears to be unsupported, hanging over open air, supported by five cables at the top header. However, the structure extends into the fish room and is secured with 28 six-inch half-inch stainless steel anchors into the concrete. The 1200-gallon display, visible upon entering the building, has about 950 gallons for the display itself, with the total system volume reaching 1200 gallons. A large refugium supports this setup. Approximately 90 to 95 fish are housed in the system, including various species such as chromis, anthias, and tangs.

Coral preferences in the tank include Acropora, known for their need for high flow and light. Two Abyss AFC150 pumps provide up to 18,000 gallons per hour. The tank is cantilevered on structural fiberglass, secured with stainless steel and titanium fittings, anchored with 28 six-inch diameter anchors into the concrete floor. Development goals include adding more varieties of corals, anemones, and mushrooms.

The tank gives the appearance of having sand, but it is actually pond armor color-matched to Carib Sea Fiji pink sand, applied after sanding the acrylic tank bottom and spreading dry sand over wet epoxy. This maintains the sand look without movement from the pumps' flow.

Illumination comes from a dozen coral care LEDs suspended by a truss with electric winches. The system runs on fauna marine products, maintaining harmony among the fish despite territorial behaviors of adult comparators and angels.

To accommodate a substantial fish population while providing hiding places, Titan Aquatic Exhibits designed platforms supporting rocks. These platforms, drawn freehand and converted to elevations, ensure no two shelves are on the same level. Rocks are placed on top, some secured with mortar, creating ample hiding spots and facilitating removal and replacement without altering the structure.

Constant flow from the pumps prevents detritus accumulation, with several daily storms pushing debris into the coast-to-coast overflow spanning the entire 13 feet of the tank.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

"We're here today at CoralVue's main facility, and, we want to show you the display and what it's become. And, then maybe we'll take you around back and show you the equipment room as well. But, one of the fun things about this design was that with the tank completely in the space that was already framed out for the equipment room, it would have made it incredibly cramped for the equipment.

So the obvious solution was to push the tank out into the lobby, but to cantilever it on a structure that would accommodate that. And what you'll see when we go into the lobby is the way it's designed. With the narrow windows on the end, it gives you the impression that the majority of the tank is actually unsupported, which is actually not the case.

So it looks like most of the tank is unsupported, just hanging over open air, supported by five cables at the top header. But, the structure extends all the way into the fish room, is secured with 28 six inch half inch stainless steel anchors into the concrete. Here we are in front of the 1200 gallon display, coral view.

This is right inside the front doors. So it's the first thing you see when you walk into the building. And, the display itself is about 950 gallons. The total system volume is about 1200. That includes a very large refugio, massive. Some, which you'll see when we go into the back. At this moment, we probably have about many of them hiding in the rocks, but, about 90 to 95 fish.

Ideally, we'd like to see probably a couple hundred chrome es and, another 100 or so. Antaeus. I think we're pretty well rounded out on the Tang gang, including, a dozen biota yellow tangs. Started out at about quarter size and diameter. The wrought iron is a new addition. And, as far as the coral goes, David is very much a stick head.

Those of you in the hobby know what that means? Those of you that don't, that means an affinity for, Acropora, which is a reef building species. They come in a variety of different colors and shapes and sizes. There are hundreds of different species. They require extremely high flow, high light. In this system, we have two Abis AFC, one 50s, which are one of their actually, it is their smallest flow cannon, but there's still 18,000 gallons an hour at maximum output.

And, as you can see, there is no support under the front of the tank. This is cantilevered on to, structural fiberglass, which is secured with both stainless steel and titanium fittings and anchored into the concrete floor, with 28 six inch half inch diameter anchors. As far as ongoing development for the system, the objective is to just continue adding a greater variety of ESPs, LPs, you feel species across the front along with mushrooms, and so Anson's and then just build it out.

The tank appears to have sand in it, but it isn't actually sand, because with these two AFC pumps, there is no way that it would stay in place. So we used a combination of pond armor, which was color matched to Wet Carib Sea, Fiji pink, and then the sand itself was dried completely. The epoxy was applied to the bottom of the acrylic tank after sanding it with 60 grit sandpaper, and then the sand was just poured on top of it till you saw no more wet spots.

So you give the appearance of a sand bed without having to worry about it blowing all over the place and just exposing the acrylic bottom. The system is illuminated with a dozen coral care LEDs. These are suspended by a truss that, of course, has a couple of electric winches. And, we're really happy with its development.

It's running completely on fauna marine products right now. And, you know, amphora is being. And for she is definitely the queen of the tank and, and makes everyone else's life a little bit more difficult than it actually should be. Generally the fish get along really well there. There's very little aggression or infighting. Adult comparators are and angels are just normally territorial.

One of the issues that I wanted to overcome with this system was the tendency recently has been for a real minimalist look in a reef tank, but because David wanted to a significant fish population, we had to make sure that there were plenty of hiding places for the fish. So in order to achieve that, Titan Aquatic Exhibits, which built the tank itself also built these platforms of my design that support the rock.

These were just simply, organically drawn by freehand on paper and then converted to an elevation to ensure that no two of the shelves are on the same plane. So every single shelf in here is at a different level. Once the stands were added to the system, then the rocks were placed on top of them. In some cases, they're secured with mortar, in some cases not just depending what made most sense in that particular location, but it provides plenty of hiding places underneath the tank.

Swim through the middle, down through the reef, and the best thing is, is that it enables you to remove individual rocks, glue corals to them, and then replace them without it. And because you have a pattern underneath it, it makes it really easy to find where to put it. Because if anybody has built a reef outside of a tank and then taken it apart, put it in the tank, you know that you're not going to get it back in the same way.

So this facilitates that removal and replacement. So it doesn't look like there's been a major, change to the rock structure. We were really happy with the way this came out just because it you have constant flow. There's no detritus accumulation inside the system as well at all. There is no place for it to block or get stopped.

The flow from the two pumps is intense. There are several storms a day that create an incredible amount of downward flow that just pushes all of the detritus up into the coast to coast overflow, which extends the entire 13ft across that track."