300000 Gallon Aquarium

[scottr403]

I am sorry to see so many skeptics here.


I offer Living Color Enterprises fabrication work to my clients and they do an outstanding job. My most recent client was so impressed that he said that we delivered beyond expectations.

If money were not an object, many of you would spend it to create the room or environment of your dreams. For everybody this is different. Whether it be a bar/ rec room filled with sports memorabillia or a beautiful built in aquarium.

LCE has made me aware of the project and yes, I will be following its development.

As the former Marine Biologist for Rainforest Cafe, I can tell you that the founder literally created and built the first concept in his own home, tanks, birds, waterfalls... long before the first commercial unit...many people thought that he was crazy. He was even investigated for possible cultivation of #$#@ because of suspiscious utility bills, untill the secret of RFC was disclosed upon investigation.

So give this guy a break. Be thankful that he is willing to share a bit of his dream with you and all of us. Can you imagine living in and among this wonderful environment on a daily basis.

I had clients ask us to build tanks large enough to snorkel in and play with their underwater photography equipment in between dive trips...so yes this is possible. Its only money.

Best Regards on the project,
Scott Robins, President and Marine Biologist
Aquatic Interiors, Inc.
Grayslake, IL.

[eljefe3]

I was looking through Robb Report and they had an article and photos of a guy in CA who had built an acrylic shark tank that was visiable through his living room and the shark tank was between his living room and his swimming pool. Must have cost 5-7 million dollars, but anything is possible. That shark tank was pretty darn cool.

[DgenR8]

Very interested to see what direction this thread goes, and watching it closely......

[scottr403]

Again, it's only money. The Founder of Landry's restaurants turns to his kids for inspiration.... his kids love to ride on trains. They also loved aquariums. They wound up openining "The Aquarium"
restaurant in Houston. You can take a ride on a train with a different spin. The train takes you through a tunnel and through what we call an immersion experience. The train runs through an Acrylic cylander with Sharks all around you.......

Landry's now runs Ocean Journey in Denver and purchased RFC as well. Its only money and all for the kids!

....

Or how about the Cruise line CEO that has a shark lagoon on his estate in Miami. In this location, the sharks are temporary guests. At 6' in length, they are rereleased in the Florida Keys where they are collected from....

Regards,

Scott Robins
Aquatic Interiors, Inc.

[hubris007]

Didn't we already pretty much lay this one to rest? Maybe he's for real. Maybe he isn't...who cares. Let the dreamers dream and let the liars lie. Who GAS?

[Soltaker]

In.....just to be in. :D

[hubris007]

heh, soultaker. Good movie. hehe

[downdeep]

I've been to 4 different rainforest cafe's around the country. The tanks are good looking tanks and the craftsmanship of them are wonderful. But I have YET to see one that has healthy fish and decent husbandry practices. 12" Orangespot filefish don't belong in tanks, and yet I saw 2 of them in tanks there on my last trip to Chicago. IMO, Places like this give our hobby a bad name, and I'll be happy when they go out of business.

[scottr403]

I left RFC years ago. Management practices change as do managers.

There were some really good staff members when I was at the helm... but I chose to leave RFC over some ethics issues....and so did 2 other Marine Biologists after me.

I can not comment on current ownership and management because I did not work under them.

As for fish choices, you may be suprised. In large volumes of water, combined with good diet, we often have success with difficult species...

As for the file fish.... cyclopeeze, which is basically frozen copepods, is readilly eaten by the files! and they do great on it, especially if presoaked in a vitamin type supplement.

Regards,

Scott Robins
Aquatic Interiors, Inc.

[JnS]

ahh the movie goes on...lol

[Ken Sellick]

I was really sad to see how the other thread ended up. I have worked on several 30 to 40 million dollar homes and one 150 million dollar home so a very large system was not out of the question as far as i was concerned. To many people that just can't dream big had to rip it to shredds.

[ReeferMonkey]

Hey Ken,

Where do you practice LA? I just finished an internship with EDAW in Alexandria, VA and am about to start my final semester at LSU. It's always interesting to bump into design professionals and see how design permeates into the hobby.

Nathan