I guess this is a great reason for my first post here. I am the Head Aquarist at
The Living Planet Aquarium. This tank was completed in the spring of 2009 in our Journey to South America exhibit hall. We are a relatively small not-for-profit Aquarium, so we get to build it all as cheap as we can. The picture that won is a beautiful shot, congrats!! It looks like it was taken fairly early on after we opened.
Here is a quick breakdown of the exhibit.
Tank
-16' diameter half-round fiberglass tank, 7' depth.
-12' x 6' x 3" acrylic window.
-4400 gallons.
Lights
-1 x 1000 watt 10,000K halide
-4 x 96 watt actinics (looks like this shot was pre-actinics
)
LSS
-2 x 1.5 HP Reeflo pumps
-2 x 36" sand filters @ 70 GPM ea.
-160 watt Aqua UV
-11,500 watt in-line heater
-4' diameter, 6' tall wet/dry biotower w/biospheres, last filtration step, 100% of flow
Water
-Source water is RO water reclaimed to 40 mg/L alkalinity, 100 mg/L GH
-pH 5.8-6.5
-Temp 81
Food
-8 lbs cut fish/week
-3 lbs veggies/week
-NLS and Hikari pellet foods daily
Current Livestock
-28-36" Silver arowana x 3
-18-28" Red-bellied Pacu x 4
-54" Arapaima gigas x 2
-12", 15" Motoro rays x 2
-22" Cichla ocellaris
-32" RTC
-30" Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum
-20" Hypostomus plecostomus
Decor
-Locally collected driftwood
-Plastic fern and bromeliads etc. (a couple real ferns have grown out of one of the driftwood logs over the past couple years...)
-The large tree was made with a 1" plastic mesh frame-work zip-tied together on based off of a wooden form, then tinted batches of polygem 2-part molding epoxy tinted various organic shades were laid down. Not all that cheap, but very versatile stuff!
-Background mural was painted by a local muralist Billy Hensler in acrylic paints then sealed with clear epoxy.
My Freshwater team and I dive the tank about once a month with a hookah surface supply to hit the problem algae spots, gravel vac etc.
I am glad our hard work is appreciated by all you Monster Keepers out there, and that this wonderful shot of our tank has won TotM.
-Evan