Turn Key Tanks Concrete Built Acrylic Panels Artificial Rock

The original Truk Lagoon concept, designed by Reefscape.

An acrylic window on "the big toast rack" — the 8-metre steel cradle forklifted up over the garage stair landing and in through the 800mm doorway, built by Structural Challenge Pty Ltd.

Artificial coral placed into the rock walls.

One of the twin 2.4-metre re-circulating protein skimmers, custom-built by Reefscape.

The completed tank, before its final clean and first fill. See the full build album on Facebook.

A SHIPWRECK BETWEEN TWO ROOMS

A Private Residence, Toorak, Australia — 2011

Role in Project: Concept design, structural design, life-support design, acrylic supply, commissioning and initial maintenance

Year of Build: 2011

Size: 30,000 litres +

Construction: Concrete, steel, acrylic and glass

Time in Construction: 6 months

Dual-aspect: viewed from two rooms at once — billiard room and gymnasium

The Brief

Halfway through construction of a private Toorak residence, Reefscape was asked to solve something most builders would decline: fit a 30,000-litre marine aquarium into a finished home — between the billiard room and the gymnasium — and make it a shipwreck.

No Hidden Side

The catch was that the tank would be seen from both rooms at once. A dual-aspect aquarium has no hidden side — every face is a viewing pane. There is no back wall to run plumbing behind, no dark side to conceal the life support. The whole system had to be braced and optically clean on every face, and entirely self-contained within its own envelope.

Built Like a Ship in a Bottle

There was no craning this one in. A hole was cut into the newly built floor, and every element reached the room the hard way — down through the garage and in through a single 800mm doorway. The reef rockwork, the 4-metre battleship and the two 2.1-tonne acrylic windows came in on an 8-metre steel cradle the team called “the big toast rack,” built with fabrication partner Structural Challenge Pty Ltd — forklifts hoisting the loaded rack up over the garage stair landing and through the door. And the tank couldn’t lean on the house to hold itself up: it was cantilevered out over the building’s existing footings, carrying its own load clear of the foundations supporting the storeys above.

Then the build ran in reverse of the obvious order. The first window was set in place; the second was stood aside while the entire interior — reef, wreck, aircraft and life support — was assembled through the open face; and only then was that second window fitted, sealing the tank shut. A 30,000-litre shipwreck, raised in place like a ship in a bottle.

An Indoor Truk Lagoon

For the shipwreck, Reefscape proposed Truk Lagoon — the WWII Pacific battle site now dived for its coral-encrusted Japanese and American wrecks. Reefscape designed, manufactured, supplied and installed a 4-metre replica battleship and a 2-metre plane within an artificial coral garden, with components drawn from across the world and the acrylic windows engineered and supplied by Reefscape.

The Life Support

Beneath the display, twin 2.4-metre re-circulating protein skimmers — custom-built by Reefscape, with dwell times over six minutes — drove the water quality, and Reefscape Rock formed the biological backbone of the filtration. The tank was commissioned and initially maintained by Reefscape before being handed to a local aquarium supplier.

The Result

Finished, a shipwreck rests where a back wall should be — a tank that is a window in two rooms at once.

Features of Note:

• Dual-aspect viewing — a window in two rooms at once, all structure and life support concealed within the tank’s own envelope
• Cantilevered over the building’s existing footings, without touching the foundations
• Reef rockwork, the 4-metre battleship and both 2.1-tonne windows brought in through a single 800mm doorway — the loaded toast rack forklifted up over the garage stair landing
• Built in place like a ship in a bottle — one window set, the interior assembled inside, the second window fitted last to seal it
• 4-metre replica battleship and 2-metre plane in an artificial coral garden
• Twin 2.4-metre floor-to-ceiling acrylic viewing panels
• Reefscape Rock filtration backbone
• Twin 2.4-metre re-circulating protein skimmers; refugium-based, fully automated life support
• UV sterilisation