Systems - The Structure
Building a Public Marine Aquarium
Written by Wednesday, 06 February 2002 01:00
Some months ago I was assigned a very interesting, challenging and unique job; building a Mediterranean Marine Public Aquarium in Syros island. I was (and still am) enthusiastic about this work and it was my intention to keep a log of all the progress in order to be able to write a long, detailed article on this. The article will be completed over several months, each month I will add the overall progress made. Let me start with a little geography.
Syros is the capital island of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, with three Municipalities: the Municipality of Hermoupolis (the capital town), the Municipality of Posidoneia and the historic Municipality of Ano Syros.
The Municipality of Ano Syros has proceeded in the construction of a Museum of traditional fishing vessels, traditional fishing equipment, shells and marine organisms, located at Kini Bay.
The project is financed from the enterprising program PESCA, the Ministry of Agriculture of Greece and the Municipality of Ano Syros itself. The whole investment runs into the amount of about 610.000€. Within the Museum there will be a Mediterranean Public Aquarium with a total water volume of about 60.000 liters.
I have designed the fifteen tanks (made of concrete) and the concrete pond that will exhibit local Mediterranean species (fishes, algae and invertebrates) and Lessepsian migrant species as well. I also have decided in the livestock that will inhabit the tanks and pond, the quarantine room and the filters, that will support the system. Needless to say, I have also made my plans concerning the aquascape and setup of the aquaria and the pond.
I have used the most modern equipment available by the aquarium technology today. I hope that this Public Aquarium will be a small scale prototype for bigger Public Aquaria all over our country, and that it will be soon open to the public.
Of course, the project needs at least a couple of years to be totally completed, but I think that part of it will be ready for the public during this summer. So, if you select Cyclades islands for your vacation this summer, please pay a visit to it.
I would like to expand this project with the description of a part of Kini Bay as an Underwater Park, because of a reef which is located about half a mile from the coast and has an important and very interesting marine environment.
I am also collaborating with the Nautical Association of Kini Bay (N.O.K.). We are planning to put a sculpture - made by a well known Greek sculptor - as a memorial for the Unknown Sea Harvester, on the top of this reef (in a depth of 8 to 10 meters). That will be visible, even from the water surface, as the water there is crystal clear to the depth of more than thirty meters. We are thinking to do so, as it is done with the "Christ of the Abyss" at Key Largo, Florida at the John Pennecamp Marine Park.
Since I have become a regular contributor of this site myself, I arranged to share the progress of building this marine Mediterranean public aquarium with all MCH visitors. Photos of all steps will be exhibited here along with comments and details which will not be visible to the visitor once the whole project is finished.
But I think we had enough of geography and history. Let us get to the real thing, the system itself. I have designed an "opened - closed" system to work with. A powerful water pump will fill a water container with seawater. The water from the container will supply the system without the help of mechanical media, but with gravity. A huge chiller will keep the temperature at 18 - 20 °C (optimum temperature for Mediterranean species) and it is going to be installed between the water container and the system.
I shall support the system with self - made filters, which I have designed for this purpose. The filters are wet - dry ones, one for each tank. Using trickle plates and high quality plastic perforated balls as a substrate, I will make nitrifying bacteria cultures, to remove ammonia and nitrire / nitrate loads from the water without using a lot of space (the substrate will be 4<% of the water volume, which I want to filter through them). With the help of Super Activated Carbon (500g per 100 liters of water), I will remove chemicals, odors and colors from the tanks. I shall be adding 20g of Super Activated Carbon for every 100 liters of water monthly till I reach the desired amount of the material. With motor driven skimming devices,with venturi pumps supplied with needle wheels, I shall remove the fats, the proteins and the aminoacids from the system before they are converted to Ammonia.
Every single tank will be lighted by one light hood which will carry a combination of three Metal Halide lamps of 150 Watts each and two Actinic blue ones of 12 Watts each, specially made for marine aquaria.
There are two tanks with a volume of about 2.000 liters each, one tank with a volume of about 3.000 liters, ten tanks with a volume of about 2.500 liters each and two tanks with a water volume of more than 4.000 liters each. The pond has the shape of number eight with a volume of about 10.000 liters.
The tanks are going to be decorated with natural rockwork and "live rock", that I shall have to collect from the local underwater area. This way, I shall achieve to enrich the tanks with underwater vegetation and invertebrates recorded in Aegean Sea water.
The animal and vegetable communities will be the typical ones encountered in the local water environment.
This is the most difficult part of the project, since the compatibility of Mediterranean species is not studied a lot and there is not enough literature concerning the topic "keeping Mediterranean marine species in captivity". So I am based on my observations and the experience of local fishermen and scuba divers for this issue.
I shall try to collect as much knowledge as possible about keeping species in the system, since I want to include some of the Lessepsian migrants too, because of the great interest of these species, that they invaded Mediterranean Sea, via the Suez Canal, from the Red Sea.
Some of the species I have decided to house in these Aquaria are: Thalassoma pavo, Centrolabrus trutta***, Symphodus rostratus, Chromis chromis, Diplodus vulgaris, Mullus surmuletus, Psetta maxima, Diplodus sargus sargus, Boops boops Serranus cabrilla, Diplodus puntazzo, Oblada melanura, Symphodus ocellatus**, Pargus auriga, Lithognathus mormyrus, Dicentrarchus labrax, Labrus bergylta, Sparisoma cretense, Anthias anthias, Sargocentron rubrum*, Symphodus melanocercus****, Siganus luridus*, Siganus rivulatus*, Gobius niger, Apogon imberbis, Spondyliosoma cantharus, Trachinus draco, Muraena helena, Zeus faber, Capros aper, Lophius piscatorius, Lophius budegassa, Callionymus pusillus, Callionymus lyra, Gobius bucchini, Scorpaena notata, Sygnathus abaster, Parablennius tentacularis, Apogonichthyoides nigripinnis*, Carcharinus melanopterus*, Scyliorhinus stellaris, Balistes carolinensis, Echeneis naucrates*, Sarpa salpa, Thalassoma pavo, Tripterygion melanurus, Tripterygion tripteronotus, Aidablennius sphynx, Umbrina cirrosa, Gobius paganelus, Parablennius sanguinolentus, Parablennius gattorugine, Parapristipoma octolineatum, Abudefduf saxatilis*, Gouania wildenowi**, Enchelycore anatina, etc.
(*Lessepsian migrants, **Endemic species, ***Very rare species, ****Mediterranean cleaner wrasse).
Of course, I have to do a lot of research to define accurately this very delicate issue and many things may be changed (from what I have now in mind) as I accumulate new data by the day.
I am trying to invent traps to collect these wild specimens, with the help of the scuba divers that are members of the Nautical Association of Kini Bay, local fishermen and other under water life enthusiasts. For some of the species I shall have to contact other Public Mediterranean Aquaria and researc Institutes to obtain them, because these species are not usually kept in aquaria, and is impossible to find them from ornamental fishes' distributors.
Another part of the Public Aquarium is the quarantine fish room, equipped with five (5) tanks, with a volume of 1.000 liters each.
I have also designed these tanks (referring to their shape and the self - made internal filters) in such a way which guarantee easy operation while fish can be kept there for some time before they are finally introduced in the display tanks.
I shall use natural foods (as far as this is possible) for feeding the captive organisms, with the addition of commercially available foods, suitable for marine animals. I shall also have to cultivate Artemia salina for feeding them live food and I shall try to breed Hippocampus ramulosus and H. Hippocampus, in captivity, because these species are extinct from the local waters as it has been recorded during the last few years.
Within the Museum there will be a projection room, an exhibition room and refreshment rooms as well. I hope that the Museum is going to be both educational and research-orientated, as well as an attraction for the average tourist.
For all the things already done and for those are yet to come, I'll keep you informed with lots of details on a regular basis through MCH pages.
I'll keep on adding photos and comments about the construction, maintenance and operation of this Mediterranean Public Aquarium, so stay tuned.
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