“What is it like to repair an aquarium with the fish and a million liters of water inside"? Read about us here.
What is it like to repair an aquarium with the fish and a million liters of water inside
The Oceanic Aquarium of Temaikèn has 1200 m2 and one million liters of salt water where its 100 fish of eight different species walk comfortably: sharks, rays, chuchos, blonde sea bass, black crooks, sea breams, groupers and jellyfish.
It was inaugurated in 2002 and since then recreates the quality of life of the Argentine sea: alkaline pH, salinity, water temperature and the lighting of the environment as it has the real habitat of the fish. And as in all aquariums in the world, it was time to put it back on.
The Temaikèn aquarium is one of the few in the country with these characteristics, in addition to Mar del Plata. The one in Mundo Marino has marine animals of great size and weight, and the one in Rosario, recently opened, is freshwater.
"When we started the animals were small. Over time they were growing and moving them would have required us to build an auxiliary parallel pool with all the comfort conditions they have here: water temperature, filtering equipment and plant equipment that you cannot use 200 meters away "explains Federico Argemi, head of the Aquarium of the Temaikèn Foundation.
Although the theme park has other aquariums in the park, its problem was the aggressiveness of salt water, which produces more deterioration than fresh water: "Here we have the fauna of the Argentine Atlantic, but we are 400 kilometers from the sea", indicates Guillermo Musante, architect of the Temaikèn biopark; and it is a circular area, built with eight large acrylic panels that house more than one million liters of salt water: "The average of all aquariums in the world is the same; after 15 or 16 years it is necessary to repair the part of the acrylics and the windows ".
The options were not many: either they moved to fix it, or they hired the aquarium repair SWAT, the Aquatic Solutions company, unique in the world in this specialty.
Without closing the theme park - or the aquarium - the work team of this company in California will be responsible for leaving the premises again in a period of five weeks: "We are going to repair some concrete and make the silicone sealing of the different sectors that correspond to the structure of those windows "says Drew Anderson, president and creator of Aquatic Solutions.
During the repair process, an operations center was set up on the top floor of the aquarium, from where all the mechanisms are controlled. There, Anderson is the commander of the situation. As in an operation with an open heart and in real time, it monitors and assists all the movements of its equipment on monitors created for this purpose.
For this, 15 people traveled, among them marine biologists, divers and experienced construction professionals. Divers work three-hour shifts in constant monitoring and communication with the operations center: they have oxygen, HD cameras, microphones to communicate and the essential supervision to avoid any type of problem in the water. The physical wear of the operators is noticeable after three hours. That is why it was necessary to transfer a large work team and 4000 kilos of luggage that had to process permits and authorizations to enter the country.
The director of Aquatic Solutions touches wood when asked if they ever had an accident: "I only cut my arm when I was lifting a boat in San Francisco," he says, and constantly interrupts the interview to check that everything is fine with the divers. The breathing of each of them is heard, with a sound between aquatic and space. "We work with a scuba to keep our heads dry because after four hours it's better that way. It's a long time for so much effort and concentration." The attention and tension that is perceived in the air has its correlation in reality: "It is the exact performance of each of the divers. It depends on the temperature of the water, how much he slept last night," he says as he continues talking to the intercom with they.
The work is delicate by the fish and by the divers. That is why they work with special equipment: "where we go, we carry electric compressors that run on diesel fuel; the larger tank goes to the control box, which tells us how much air each of the divers has. Then we have two other emergency tanks , but if I get to have a problem with the outside compressor, I can open the second one, and if that doesn't go either, I have a third level of emergency on the backs of the divers "Anderson shows while checking, minute by minute, that everything is well down the water.
The repair scene is similar to Guillermo del Toro's movie tank The shape of the water , where the amphibious man comes from: the sounds of inspiration amplified underwater, the pool that gives life to the aquarium with its pipes, ducts and the backroom aspect of the place that looks like science fiction.
The secret life of the fish
Outside the aquarium are the tanks where the hundreds of liters of water are filtered and processed. So many, that it was almost impossible to repair its interior in another way. That is the peculiarity of Aquatic Solutions, a company that was not created by chance, but because its CEO was a marine biologist, worked in the famous aquarium of the Bay of Monterrey in the United States, and was also a diver. "I know the sensitivity of biologists, animals and the requirements and materials that are necessary to work in water," he explains. The company was born in 1991 and over the years made all kinds of repairs in different parts of the world. "It's not like fixing a house. The work we do is unique. Throughout the world we use different techniques, for different aquariums.
The process will last until the end of May. Those who visit the aquarium at that time will be able to see the divers working for twelve consecutive hours to leave the walls again. With a scuba, a cable through which oxygen passes, a camera in the head, a polisher and a hose that sweeps all the trash to filter and reuse water. And also to fish and sharks, who have been walking there for more than a decade.