Yet another ZooDiver build thread (Shark display)

[Zoodiver]

Let everyone settle in for a day, then dropped the curtain off (way before the store openned in the AM) to get a feel for what the display was starting to look like without having to peek under it all the time.

Living Color's acrylic crew came in at 4AM to buff and polish the outside.

 

[Zoodiver]

After that is when we spent an over night painting the stand.

Of course it's the little things that matter when doing large scale projects. After it was full and fish started to go in, we found an imperfection on the inside of the acrylic. Not really at a point we could drain and buff, so I did it by hand underwater. Took several hours spread over two days (my arm turned to jello). Masked off the area with tape on the outside so I could see exactly where I need to sand down and polish once I was on the inside.

 

[Zoodiver]

After that was wrapped up, time to move the second wave of fish in. Now it's starting to look like a good display.
The lobster trap was very specifically place in the front knowing that is where the grunts who end up schooling (so no matter what was happening with the bigger fish, you'd always see fish when you approach the tank from the front).

 

[Zoodiver]

After looking for months, I found a perfect size Southern Stingray pup locally - but from right here on MFK!

 

[Zoodiver]

And this is what it looked like before we openned it to the public.

I love this black grouper... he's always with the nurse shark.

Not sure if I posted this yet or not... but this is the night time LED set up.

 

[Zoodiver]

Then came yesterday.... the big event.

We gave away several thousand dollars worth of tanks... ranging from free betta set ups all the way up to a full on reef set up.

We also had a half dozen major vendor reps there to showcase products.

A special sneak peek for my girls. This was the 1st time they had come up to see the tank since the project was started (we live about an hour and a half way).

And then the masses flooded in to a round of applause.

And of course you gotta have celebrity guests... Mat (right) and Jose (left) rom Fish Tank Kings on National Geographic. Jose and I worked together a lot to pull this whole thing together. (His crew was the team in charge of taking my drawing and making the reef sections a reality.)

 

[HULON]

Spectacular Build!!!!

 

[Zoodiver]

Almost forgot the video from Aquapparel TV.

www.aquapparel.com

If you want cool fish tank related shirts, check it out. They do a LOT for preservation and education for aquatic animals of all types with the profit.

This is the openning and at the end, it's got a bit of me hand feeding the sharks.


[video=youtube;0IvwSesbYNM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IvwSesbYNM[/video]

 

[benzjamin13]

That's awesome! I wish you guys were in Cali so I could go visit.

 

[Inglorious]

Wow, the display turned out absolutely beautiful-great job!