What I did on my summer vacation: a photo essay

pwhitby · #1 09/23/2006, 12:01 PM

When I first met Gary Walker, several years ago, he mentioned to me his desire to have a venue with some spectacular tanks in it. The kind of tanks one sees at public aquaria around the world. For over a year we have talked about what is involved in the setting up, maintenance and running of such tanks. I know Gary has also kept an eye open for a possible venue for such.

Well.....a few weeks ago an opportunity came up. The opportunity was that the Monterey Bay Aquarium decided it was time to swap out some its tanks and asked a "select" list of people if they would like the old ones. "Old" in this context is somewhat misleading since they were under 3 years old.

At that time Gary asked me if I thought it would be feasible and between us we began to draw up some plans. We obtained the construction plans of the tanks and blue prints of the building and devised a way to get these out and to OKC. The main issue was that we couldnt move anything during the day, so it all had to be done overnight.
We pulled together a team of people with knowledge that would be useful. Tim VanWagoner used to be in construction/demolition and had the requisite skills to split the tanks down, Steve Hand (of Wet Pets) knows a great deal about tanks and is a whizz with a forklifts and power tools. Jon Snow (of ART) also is very well versed in tanks, joined myself and Gary and we flew to Monterey last friday (15th). Previously Gary had gone out there and looked the tanks over.

We arrived around noon on the friday and immediately went to the Aquarium:

The tanks were part of the Shark and Ray display, we were getting 3 and another group from Moody gardens (Houston) were getting 2. All of them would have to be bought out down a long narrow open corridor. The one on the bottom level. The tanks were in the room to the left

considering that the walkway was only a few inches wider than the tanks, and not wide enough at all to turn them in any way, this was going to be the main task.

When we entered the room with the tanks in the walls had been removed but the size of the tanks was truly daunting. At this poit we had no real plan of how we were going to split them down....just a few ideas.

Here is the larger of the three: Tim is in front of it for perspective.

The dimensions of this tank are approximately 31 feet long, 22 feet wide and 5 feet tall on a stand weighing several tons. The acrylic panel is 17 feet by 5 feet and weighs in around 600lbs. This tank holds over 30, 000 gallons.

The second tank holds 17, 000 gallons and is approx 20 by 16 oval with a large acrylic viewing panel.

The third tank is much smaller and is a zig-zag touch pool.

pwhitby · #2 09/23/2006, 12:08 PM

Both of the tanks had held sharks. The back wall of both tanks was a large artificial reef like structure that was really well done.

Each tank had a reverse flow UGF. The main pipes were 2 inch PVC that sat between plastic cubes, the cubes held up a fibergrate matrix over which was a layer of perforated nylon and on top of that was gravel.

You can see the green fibergrate in this shot, as well as the fiber-I beams holding the tanks together.

You can see under the green layer in the last shot of the previous post.

pwhitby · #3 09/23/2006, 12:15 PM

The MBA had already removed water and the substrate down to the green fibergrate.

So: First task. Remove the green stuff. That was a nice easy one, even though each panel weighed around 30lbs.

Then, remove the pipeworking, pretty easy with a sawzall. Then the nasty job......get the last of the water out. This was a nasty job since there was a really lovely layer of shark crap in the bottom.

While Steve and jon worked on one tank, we began stripping bolts from the other. The large tank had 3 sections. Each was bolted to the other at 8 inch intervals down the sides and underneath.

the sides were relatively easy compared to lying in waste water under the tanks in a confined space removing bolts

pwhitby · #4 09/23/2006, 12:29 PM

And all that on the first day. By the time we had finished unbolting one seam it was approaching 10 at night and we were tired, wet and smelling delightfully of essence of shark. I swear as we walked to the car dogs ran from us yelping.

Saturday was coming up fast and sleep was needed.

Next morning we started out bright and early, a trip to Home depot to pick up some tools and also to Target to get the ESSENTIAL tools.....and we were back on the job.

First task was to finish the unbolting and cleaning of the insides. Jon and I went underneath the tanks and finished that off (though I am ashamed to say I did miss one bolt that caused no end of confusion later on).

With bolts removed we began to work on the insides. The way the tanks are put together is really neat. At the junction/seam there is a trough about 1/8 inch deep on both sides. Between each tank piece is a layer of silicon (795 ? Gary---want to add details of this silicon ?)

The flange where the tanks meet and bolt together is about 6 inches wide. In the trough is a layer of fiberglass and gel coat. This seals the tanks together, makes them water proof and also extremely strong.

The approach we took was to chisel the fiberglass layer up and remove it. A slow process since we didnt want to damage the tanks. The stuff was nasty, there were fiber flakes everywhere and in a really short time we were covered in fiberglass and very itchy. Here is Tim working a seam we had just stripped:

The top blue layer released easily enough but we had to succesively chisel the lower layers till be found the actual seam.

To split the seam we needed the essential tools purchased at target. This tool was the biggest bread knife we could find. This was inserted into the seam at the top and hammered down between each piece slowly separating them. As we went we inserted wooden shims to hold the two pieces apart. This was a really slow process due to locating pins spaced along the seems that we had to work around.

pwhitby · #5 09/23/2006, 12:30 PM

To be continued------------ (zoo trip today! see you there)

dugg · #6 09/23/2006, 12:48 PM

WOW, where are these monsters going?

Any idea how much just buying the salt alone for these tanks will effect the national debt?

Looks like you guys had a fun vacation, although i don't envy anyone going to Monterey lol. I went there on vacation in 2001. We had everything booked for 4 days there, and left by noon the first day due to the rude people there. The lady at the front desk of the hotel said people check out ealy for the same reason almost every day, so we finished or vacation at Yosemite instead of there.

papagimp · #7 09/23/2006, 01:13 PM

Whenever you guys are ready, just drop by and set em up in my garage. I'll have a spot cleared out.

kpk · #8 09/24/2006, 01:51 AM

Very cool Paul. Gary was telling me a little about the plans today at ART. Hope everything goes well with the tanks and plans get to happen soon!

Kyle

pwhitby · #9 09/24/2006, 01:16 PM

Once we had stripped away a length of the blue gel coat and the fiberglass underneath it was time to begin the actual splitting. As I said above, we used a bread knife and hammered it along the seam. As we went, shims were hammered in to keep it apart. The hope was that the skims would eventually split it in two, but that never happened, the silicone was just too strong (well that and a bolt that was left in).

In the end, even without a bolt in, and shims inserted we had to resort to brute force:

The proces was then repeated on the other seams.

pwhitby · #10 09/24/2006, 01:23 PM

Once all the seams were split it was late sunday evening and time to take a break:

The area we were working is in the same wing as the big 1.3 million gallon tank containing the biggest tuna and sunfish I have ever seen. We were priviledged enough to have a private viewing panel that was approx 20 by 10 looking into this tank. The panel is 13 inches thick and slopes up over the heads of the onlookers. I couldnt really use a flash (due to MBA rulings) but I think these pictures give you an idea:

and looking upwards through the panel:

There was also this odd looking tuna in there as well ......really odd:

Looked kinda scarey.

pwhitby · #11 09/24/2006, 01:35 PM

Sunday was over with.....Monday was going to be the killer.

On monday we had to get the tanks out and onto trucks. This had to be done overnight, and not just our tanks but two others as well. The other two were 8 feet wide and maybe 15 long, they had no seams and were being moved by the team from Moody Gardens. We all agreed that the best way to get this done was to work as a team, which we did. We began at 9.00am.

The obstacles remaining included a wall that had to be removed:

The tank set in the wall was one of the two for MGs. This wall was absolutely solid. It took a sepearte crew to remove it and it took most of the day.

eventually it was down and cleared, while that was ongoing we finished off cutting rockwork ready for shipping and general stuff that needed doing before the tanks were ready to roll. That basically ammounted to getting all the iundividual pieces lined up and ready and also some paper work to figure out load configurations on the trucks.
The final task, as the aquarium closed (around 6pm) was the removal of the steel retaining fence around the outside walkway.

That task alone took almost 2 hours since the fence was heavily bolted down, painted over and extremely heavy.

As that task was completed a mist rolled in off the sea, a slight rain began to fall and it got dark. Just in time for the fun part....moving.

pwhitby · #12 09/24/2006, 03:48 PM

The first piece out of the door was one of the smaller sections of one of the ART tanks. This piece had the acrylic panel still in it as well as a bunch of the rockwork.

Initially we lifted the front end and slid some pallet jacks under, then at the back we added some heavy duty dollys.

Once loaded we slowly took the panel down the walkway. By now it was dark, cold and wet.

The following photos are not very clear due to the rain we had, but they show the kind of fun we had.

moving out:

Whle you cant really see it, every piece we bought out was balanced precariously over the surf below us. As the pieces came out they were loaded onto trucks waiting in the street. Our first truck took till after midnight to load. We had the back of the 30,000g inside the middle panel at the front of the truck and one piece of the smaller tank on the back.

Youngsilver · #13 09/24/2006, 07:29 PM

yeah, those fake coral/rock walls are pretty neat, I see alot of them down here in the sevice acounts in dallas. Let me tell you those things are not cheap.

man, the biggest tank that I have got to take part in setting up down here is a 2800g, the size factor there must be incredible!

Also, Paul you got a PM

captbunzo · #14 09/24/2006, 08:50 PM

All I can say is...... WOW!

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing the pics and story...

papagimp · #15 09/25/2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by captbunzo
WOW!

You said it!

Travis L. Stevens · #16 09/25/2006, 10:59 AM

You know, Paul. I'm kicking myself in the rear for not callin' in sick on Friday. I would have loved to have been down there to help out.

pwhitby · #17 09/25/2006, 11:20 AM

Im guessing its time to add afew more pictures:

This is one of my favorites, Gary surfing out on one of his tank sections

one of the dollies we used:

the empty room:

It was a lot of work getting this far, but the surroundings made up for it. there were otters in the bay beneath us, seals on the rocks next to the aquarium and humpbacks breaching in the ocean about a mile out from us

Inside we had a great time looking at the kelp tank:

this tank had the most beautiful leopard sharks:

scott0615 · #18 09/25/2006, 01:43 PM

Soooo....are you guys opening a public aquarium? I would think it would be huge in OKC.

pwhitby · #19 09/25/2006, 01:55 PM

Im just part of the moving team. Maybe Gary can answer that. Im sure he will do so once I have posted all the pics.

JasonF · #20 09/25/2006, 04:28 PM

That makes my arthritis hurt just looking at it. I'm looking forward to seeing these monsters set up eventually.

pwhitby · #21 09/25/2006, 05:57 PM

OK...so besides the really impressive kelp tank (and you have to see it to believe it....the wave motion is awesome)...there are many other facets to the aquarium

I really liked the Jellyfish display:

there is also a sea otter tank and various reeftanks....way too many to mention.

Ok....back to the tank moving.

We loaded the middle of the big tank first, the back of the bigt one inside it and then one of the pieces of the smaller tank at the back of the truck. We closed the opening of the smaller tank off with some of the green fibergrate and filled it with the rock and other stuff we had to move.

Once loaded this truck began its 1,700 mile trip back to OKC.

The two remaining tank sections were moved, using forklifts out of the aquarium and stored till the next evening in a dide car park area. By that time we had done 24 hours straight so it was time to drive back to the hotel and sleep.

The next day we stripped the thirs tank down. This is a much smaller affair. It is a zig-zag touchpool with a large (probably 500g) sump. The touch pool is approx 20 feet long and about 2 feet wide. Tim cut the sump from the touch pool and we moved this out side ready for the next truck. Since we didnt have a great deal to load that night it went much easier. Also having more room we were able to just lift each section and have the truck reverse under them. The touch pool and sump went inside the large piece of tank and all was strapped in and seen off on its journey to OKC. By then it was after midnight and we were done. Speaking for myself it was great to see the last truck leave with all of our hard won work sat perched on top.

Wednesday was a day to chill out and we celebrated with some great seafood:

as you can see, the surroundings were spectacular, as was the food.

then it was back to the hotel, pack up and get ready to leave the next day.

pwhitby · #22 09/25/2006, 06:06 PM

After an uneventful flight home it was back at it again for the offloading in Moore. The trucks were both there by 9.00 and armed with a set of forklifts we started all over again:

off loading was done by picking tanks up and having the truck pull forward.

and that was it done!

I have to be honest, I thought Gary was crazy when he first suggested this trip, but with careful planning, good ideas and a lot of luck and a great team we pulled off what i thought would be near impossible. These tanks are amazing. Photos do not do it justice at all. We could hold a meeting inside the large one, with space to spare.

I truly enjoyed myself. I had a great Time with John, Steve, Tim and Gary.....but im not sure I want to do it again in the near future.

Im sure the other guys have some photos they can add to this as well.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this little photo essay.

P.

camaro_6523 · #23 09/25/2006, 07:00 PM

So are they for scub lessions? or is that just a bonus..lol

pwhitby · #24 09/25/2006, 07:30 PM

Hey Camaro, welcome to the COMAS forum.

Im not sure they are really deep enough for scuba.

Gwalker · #25 09/25/2006, 09:19 PM

WOW, Paul that was a great thread! Put together nicely!

First off, yes I do plan on starting a public aquarium in the near future. There are still a lot of things to accomplish and to get together for this to happen. This generous donation by the Monterey Bay Aquarium grants us a huge head start for reaching this goal.

I would first like to thank the Monterey Bay Aquarium for this incredible opportunity. The staff and facility were incredible, inspiring and a privilege to work with. I can't stress this enough! Also this job could not have been done without the team of people that were involved. Paul, Tim, Steve and John did an amazing job! They all went above and beyond on this monstrous task to get the job done. The logistics on a job like this can be overwhelming, especially with narrow time frames to work with and 1800 miles to cover. I had been working on all the details for the past month and half with the guys. Still all the details could not have been prepared for. The only thing that got this job done so well was the ingenuity, dedication, adaptability and skills of the team that was on site. Even when the built up stress got to me a little on that last night of loading, the team outshined and overcame all obstacles in spite of me. My hats off to the entire team! You guys made this happen and I hope you are all as proud of this accomplishment as I am. I owe you all BIG TIME!!

Hopefully this will lead to a public aquarium in the next few years that OKC can be proud of. It may not be a large facility at first but I can tell you it will be unique and top notch. If everything goes as I would like, I can see the facility growing in size every few years or so until it can stand shoulder to shoulder with other world renowned aquariums.

I hope you all enjoyed sharing in our little adventure and this is only the beginning of much more to come!!!!!

Gary