TOTM April 2011 Winner
- Thread starter Ash
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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
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
This is really disappointing. I just have to say as far as there being no rules is that the only reason rules or laws are ever made is because there are people in the world that have no moral guide of what is ok or not. I think any that has ever seen this competition would've assumed it was for people to show off their own tank they're proud of. That would make me believe the intention of the person entering pictures such as this intended to deceive everyone unless they disclosed when they entered it was a public tank. There was a member named Guzman that got banned, because in a different part of this website he posted a photo of a public aquarium and claimed it as his own. Omitting the fact an aquarium isn't yours is no better. Maybe anyone posting pictures of public aquariums here should be banned or guzman should be able to come back and appologized to.
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