my fantasy aquarium

[Moontanman]

This is the wildest reef aquarium I have ever seen, it must take many tens of thousands of dollars to operate it a year.

 

[CharonY]

Ooooh sweet!

[Moontanman]

It's almost unbelievable, as along time reef addict the mind is boggled by just how difficult it would be to maintain such a large tank. I am awed by this...

[CharonY]

If I had unlimited resources and a lot of time I would be really tempted to try my hands on this. Building up the analytics and homeostasis controls alone could be extremely challenging and fun. Although my dream would be to have a mimic octopus. But the requirements would probably be just insane. At least if you want to provide them with a halfway decent habitat.

Edited March 10, 2013 by CharonY

[Moontanman]

just looking at the video and the coral growth suggests everything from sun light to tidal flow is replicated in that tank. i built a 3000 gallon aquarium years ago, it was freshwater but I managed to replicate tidal flow in it much the same way as the video but the video represents a tank in the 10s of thousands of gallons. Just the tidal flow would be very energy consuming... It's more or less circular shape would make it a little easier to do tidal flow but the lighting represents a significant energy debt as well. The water filtration probably takes place in a remote location. I would love to see the filter, i wonder if it's biological or chemical or natural. I like natural as much as possible but it takes up a tremendous amount of space.

 

If the SPS corals are real, and they do appear to be real, then the planning behind this tank is ingenious... It would have to be set up for several years and be in near perfect balance for those several years..

Octopus used to be my main focus, they are not hard to keep with the proper equipment but they do represent a significantly higher bio load than a fish of similar mass...

[Amaton]

Wow! I know nothing about building or maintaining aquariums, but that was beautiful. I just love the idea of being able to observe an (imitation) ecosystem.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Amaton

[michel123456]

Google translation from the Tierpark Bochum site.

 

Coral reef community

Without the cohabitation between the coral polyps and algae, it would not be possible to create such impressive undersea structures, as are the coral reefs. The claims of stony corals to their environment are high: they need very clean, nutrient-poor water, enough light for photosynthesis, good flow, optimum pH adjusted, adequate amounts of carbon dioxide, calcium ions, bicarbonate, trace elements in small amounts and more. When keeping stony corals together with coral fish must also be noted that many fish eat cnidarians and some have even set up this special species as a staple diet. Large species can damage the delicate polyps of stony corals or mechanically prevent the permanent failure, open that the polyps. Meanwhile, it is not only possible to multiply by hard coral fragments of corals, but in very many ways now manages the artificial rearing of coral larvae to sexual reproduction.

The latter is particularly important for the supply of the international aquarium market of importance, for the breeding of endangered corals relieves the coral reef ecosystem. In this context it should also be noted that all the corals are subject to the CITES Convention and thus there strict regulations regarding the sale and purchase. Associated with disc and anemones, corals, different coral species (eg, damselfish, surgeonfish, coral guards) and invertebrates such as snails, clams, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and crabs in 19,000 let liter seawater Achteckbecken the zoo + Fossilium Bochum many different species of stony corals, the beauty of a coral reefs guess.

Note: I have no idea about underwater landscaping, especially for animals. All i know is about terrestrial landscaping for humans

Edited March 11, 2013 by michel123456

[Moontanman]

Underwater "landscaping depends quite a bit on what you are keeping, for reefs lighting and water flow are two biggies, great water quality is wasted with out the lighting and flow being right. Coral cannot shed it's self of waste products without a good water flow and if the flow is always in one direction only it will cause the coral to grow misshapen and tend to die off down current. Coral requires very intense light of a color close to sun light at depth.

[Moontanman]

This is areal aquarium as well. Coral has gone from being impossible to keep and supposedly slow growing to being grown and farmed by a huge number of people...

 

 

[Moontanman]

If I had unlimited resources and a lot of time I would be really tempted to try my hands on this. Building up the analytics and homeostasis controls alone could be extremely challenging and fun. Although my dream would be to have a mimic octopus. But the requirements would probably be just insane. At least if you want to provide them with a halfway decent habitat.

 

 

Check this one out...

 

[CharonY]

Awwww. It is patently unfair that they have so low life expectancy.

[John Cuthber]

This is areal aquarium as well. Coral has gone from being impossible to keep and supposedly slow growing to being grown and farmed by a huge number of people...

 

 

Is that Nemo hiding in the bottom left corner?

Do I win a prize for finding him?

[Phi for All]

This is areal aquarium as well. Coral has gone from being impossible to keep and supposedly slow growing to being grown and farmed by a huge number of people...

 

I'm promoting LED lighting solutions at the moment, and besides the obvious superiority over incandescent and fluorescent lighting, two areas where LEDs are really gaining a foothold are aquariums and hydroponics. LEDs have no problems with being dimmer-controlled to simulate natural conditions, and you can use only the spectra you need.

 

Does anyone have any specialty aquarium LEDs that highlight the blue and red spectra only? I know they're working great for hydroponics but I wondered if anyone has tried them with their corals.

 

I heard about an amazing hyrdo setup for tomatoes where the blue/red LED tube (180 degree illumination) was fixed in the center, and the plants rotated slowly in a cylinder around the light. This not only simulated day/night, but the gravity changes helped the plants develop stronger stalks like being blown about by the wind would. I wonder if someone isn't doing something amazing for growing corals.

 

Is that Nemo hiding in the bottom left corner?

Do I win a prize for finding him?

 

No. The prize is for finding Waldo. Quit clowning around.

[Moontanman]

a bit spammy but it is exactly what you are talking about...

 

 

yes it is nemo, get with the program...

[Moontanman]

Awwww. It is patently unfair that they have so low life expectancy.

 

That was a major disappointment to me when I was keeping them, there is one recorded species that lives past it's reproductive cycle but it's is thought to be extinct now. It's so sad to see an animal that is so easy to become attached to (lol) live for only a year or so...

[CharonY]

And how friggen smart they can become in such a short time. It is probably for the better. If they had many more years to live and learn, they would probably be our tentaculated overlords by now.

 

Somewhat unrelated but quite interesting:

Winkelmann et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 22 May 2013 vol. 280 no. 1759.

 

Despite its charismatic appeal to both scientists and the general public, remarkably little is known about the giant squid Architeuthis, one of the largest of the invertebrates. Although specimens of Architeuthis are becoming more readily available owing to the advancement of deep-sea fishing techniques, considerable controversy exists with regard to topics as varied as their taxonomy, biology and even behaviour. In this study, we have characterized the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) diversity of 43 Architeuthis samples collected from across the range of the species, in order to use genetic information to provide new and otherwise difficult to obtain insights into the life of this animal. The results show no detectable phylogenetic structure at the mitochondrial level and, furthermore, that the level of nucleotide diversity is exceptionally low. These observations are consistent with the hypotheses that there is only one global species of giant squid, Architeuthis dux (Steenstrup, 1857), and that it is highly vagile, possibly dispersing through both a drifting paralarval stage and migration of larger individuals. Demographic history analyses of the genetic data suggest that there has been a recent population expansion or selective sweep, which may explain the low level of genetic diversity.

Edited March 20, 2013 by CharonY