Building a public aquarium

[Aucina]

Hello, I have to build a public (saltwater) aquarium in Split, Croatia for the "Arhitektonski fakultet Zagreb" as my graduation work (architecture).
I ll post my progress and have many questions about public aquariums and aquariums in general.

I have a great location, a general layout plan, but i m hoping to find references, sections, plans, find out about the techology of other public aquariums before posting the final layout so that there are no crucial mistakes. If someone has such info, please share.

Hope that this subject will interest people,
and that someone will have a little time to help me.

[Aucina]

These crossections are an example for the needs and functioning of a big tank of a public aquarium. This is the information that I need to find out to plan the building...

New York Aquarium Plans

http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_03_Aquar%20Model%201.jpg

http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_03_Aquar%20Model2.jpg

[Aucina]

Managed to find a book that could answer my questions
- "The public aquarium"
Amazon.com: The Public Aquarium: Its Construction, Equipment, And Management: Charles Haskins Townsend: Books

[GhostKnife]

Wow I dont understand this. I think from what I can get of the intricate drawings is that this will be a major undertaking and take a year at least to build. Good luck!!! Really a build thread would be awesome!

[MichaelsLilGray]

you have defenantly intreauged me sir.. please continue posting on this!

[Aucina]

Location: Split, Croatia
Split (city) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A city orientated to the many islands of Dalmatia and the sea. Population 200.000 people, metro area 400.000. The building will present only domestic species of fish (mediteranean) in a diving inspired architecture (very popular here).

http://www.adrialin.hr/pics/split/split_02.jpg

http://www.fesb.hr/SoftCOM/2005/images/regata-split.jpg

(The aquarium is in the lower left part of the secon picture)

Red triangle marks the exact location of the aquarium

http://i44.tinypic.com/2vsohhu.jpg

Water input and location

http://i40.tinypic.com/25subdu.jpg

The building is to hold max 2250m3 (8550 gallons) of salt water in 7-10 big tanks. Hope there wont be any problems with water intake-output with these distances.
The golden question is how much space do I need for water treatment before it enters the tanks. I was thinking 300m2 (3200sq foot)?

[JamesRobson]

Hi,

I work for Issham Aquatics, we design, construct and maintain aquariums in the middleast

Feel free to drop me an email - jgarobs@gmail.com and i should be able to help you out on most of your questions

[Ruadh]

How exciting for you, and for us!
Have you looked at the huge setup in Japan?
Aquarium KAIYUKAN
Also the one in Georgia?
www.georgiaaquarium.org
They both claim to be the world's biggest.
I saw a show on the one in Japan, it is really something!
It has a huge free standing "one piece" wall.

Keep us posted

[gzeiger]

Take a look at monsterfishkeepers.com too. There are several people on there who have built and/or work to maintain public aquaria, and a number of others who maintain private tanks larger than 10,000 gallons.

[Innovator]

I would contact actual public aquariums and specifically ask for Life Support Systems Operators since they are the main filtration experts when it comes to anything mechanical.