Yet another ZooDiver build thread (Shark display)

Zoodiver

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Aug 22, 2005
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For you rookies around here, from time to time over the years I'm known for terrible teasers followed by huge detailed build threads usually of fairly large under takings. Most love them, some hate them because they love them and all seem to follow with baited breath (pun intended). This one isn't a true build... but more of a face lift type thread. I won't be posting the finished pics until our Oct 13th Grand Open date, but I promise exclusive behind the scenes shots, and the full process laid out.
Currently, this display holds more species of sharks than any public display in South Florida - and it's only going to get better with a few additions aside from the decor!

So without further adue.....







And just to be fair, I know some have seen this display already prior to staring the big redo. This is the progress over the last year which lead to the choice of a full tear down, and 100% renovation.
It looked like this Oct of last year.



After I got done with stocking and changing up some of the lighting as well as fixing a lot of the filtration / life support:





And it begins.....
 
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Mount_Prion

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Incredible! (I mean the previous itteration of the tank--I'm sure the refresh will be even better) This is at a florida LFS? Wish we had stuff that spectacular here.
 

COG Commando

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I'll be waiting for the updates!!
 

Red Devil

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wow very awesome............ more pics when you can..
 

benzjamin13

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This will be fun for us...to see, lol! I'm sure you'll have fun AND frustrating moments. Hope all goes well and can't wait to see the finish product:)
 

Zoodiver

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For today, let's jump back a few weeks. In order to have several new species of sharks/rays (one being white tip reef sharks), we had to get them in and quaratined with enough time to have them healthy and clean - ready to be introduced to the other sharks in an off display holding pool while the main pool is down. That being said, we obviously also had to set up an off display holding pool big enough to house all the animals we already have as well.


To start off with, we brought in 3 white tip reef sharks. They range in size from 28-35 inches and are all male. They all were passed through the "Matt's Official Shark Quaratine Process" of preventative meds to make sure that anything they had in the wild won't get passed on to the others. For this, the 3 were set up in a 1200 gallon pool for a few weeks. They were all measured, looked over, tube fed a slurry of high calorie food and meds to kill off any parasites on the inside.

After that was completed, we set up to get rid of the small pool, and replace it with a 3300 gallon pool. For a short period, we ran it about 1/3 full and kept the filtration on it from the 1200 gallon. The long term plan was to plumb the 3300 gallon into the existing shark display filtration. That way we could maintain all biological and mechanical filtration, chiller and not have to waste the water (use the water from the shark display to fill the holding pool the rest of the way - no accilimation for the display animals when they got pulled out). Due to the nature of the tasks - most of the major work is done at night. There have been several overnights, 24-26 hour days and lots of Mt Dew to get us through.









Tube feeding/medication and shots. Pink stuff is B12 - which helps spark the appetite in wild caught sharks. The grey goo is mashed food that the B12 and meds get mixed into. The IM shot is Baytril. They got three - every other day.





Tonic immobility: Just a side note, not all sharks will do this like the media will tell you. And yes, the pool is low. It's drained to make it easier to work with the sharks as well as providing a large water change that was done every day.



Checking inside the mouth for over all condition, parasites and injuries.





And the setting up of the 3300 gallon 12' pool.





This is set up to use the surface skimmer as the return to the sump, and there is a 2" line coming back to the pool from the filtration that feeds a verticle spray bar - allowing good turn over in the pool. Filtration includes several large scale canisters, massive chiller, twin RK2 fluidized media beds, a giant RK2 pt skimmer and 6 pumps to run it all. In the pool itself, I also added a 2400 gph mag drive with a spray bar along the bottom just to keep water moving in the pool.





Tomorrow I'll address some more of the behind the scenes work being done related to the life support systems (filtration) and related mechanical rooms.
 
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Zoodiver

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One of the things we struggled with over the past year was temp control. Our chiller was running wide open almost 100% of the time and barely keeping temp in check. The biggest downside was the filter room was located in a corner of the warehouse without A/C. To counter act this, we added a drop down ceiling and ducted a few vents in. We knocked down the temp almost 10 degrees (F) in the shark tank and we haven't been working the chiller nearly as hard (hopeing to squeeze a few more years of life out of it).

First step was lower the fire sprinkler heads. Then framed, ran wiring for room lights (amazing to have by the way) and dropped in some ceiling tiles. Sorry for the 1st 3 being cell phone pics. It was all I had at the time.







Finished product: Left side is the shark display sump, twin fluidized beds and RK2 pt skimmer. The black 4 canisters are all tied into the system. On the right side you see the main RO unit (7gpm). The two storage vats are SW (left) and FW (right).

 
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