AquaDom & Sea Life Berlin Berlin AquaDom destroyed

Terrible news. It would not surprise me if the freezing temperatures had a hand, cylinder tanks are already under tremendous pressure by design so any flaw with the glass or a joint is subject to breaking. There is a reason large standalone cylinder tanks are little seen.
 
Awful news, I saw the headlines while I was at school. It really is a shame to have lost such a nice aquarium. I must say that it bothers me to see PETA making comments on this.
 
TinoPup said:
They will always be asked for comments. The best thing to do is ignore them.
Click to expand...
This is the correct course of action. I regret alluding toward them in my last post. No point in giving them an ounce of attention.

According to this BBC article there are still an estimated 400 to 500 fish located underneath the now flooded lobby that are on the processed of being rescued, which is what the “lower level” is in reference to. Oxygen levels have fallen dangerously low, so it’s a race against the clock to move them elsewhere.

Giant hotel aquarium with 1,500 fish explodes - BBC News
 
Terrible news, and although this is an example of hindsight bias, the structure did always seem like one that would be possibly dangerous. All the more reason that it is surprising that such a failure did actually happen. It saddens me to think of all the fish lost, and I am grateful that at least no human lives were lost in what could have been an even bigger tragedy.
 
snowleopard said:
If any nation can rebuild and rejuvenate a facility, then it is zoo-mad Germany
Click to expand...
You're forgetting that this is Berlin. The German capital isn't representative of Germany in general, especially in regard to efficiency and rationality. And while there is an ever increasing amount of madness going on in Berlin on a daily basis, its "zoo-madness" is rather limited to the existing major two zoos. Furthermore, the world in general and the Berlin senate in particular isn't what it used to be in 2003, when the AquaDom was built. The last thing today's red/red/green city counsil with its ideological focus on environmental protection, energy saving etc. and a used to capacity treasury will support and invest in is a project that costs too much energy and money to rebuild and maintain. Maybe Radisson Collection (and Merlin Entertainments Group) thinks otherwise, but even they don't have a 2003 budget these days. Hence, I agree with @CGSwans
@DavidBrown Check out the ZTL AquaDom entry. There are also some YT videos filmed from within the inside elevator that show some of the species kept within the AquaDom. I've only been in it once, and that must have been more than ten years ago.
 
Last edited:
CGSwans said:
Of course it’s not going to be rebuilt. It just suffered a catastrophic failure that could easily have killed people, and the cause is probably unlikely to be traceable (since whatever fault existed in the structure is now lost in the wreckage). Even if the owners wanted to try it, the structure is uninsurable.
Click to expand...
I’m sorry but this statement is ludicrous. You can’t say this with any degree of certainty.
 
Cat-Man said:
I’m sorry but this statement is ludicrous. You can’t say this with any degree of certainty.
Click to expand...
How is it ludicrous? In addition to @CGSwans 's points, @Batto also brought up good reasons why building a ridiculously long aquarium in a post-covid economy and an energy crisis (which won't go away any time soon) as a hotel decoration is anything but a good idea.
 
The hotel already stated, it won't be rebuild. The official reason being they would need to remove the atrium ceiling and work through the then open ceiling from some dozen metres up. If you just consider the size and weight of the glass ring, this simly can't be feasible. Originally, both hotel and fish tank had grown together. There may be more reasons, however I don't want to speculate on this. But one thing is for sure. This is and always has been a completely private project. So the senate wouldn't get any say in this either way. Apparently, the tank was installed by an American company back in the day. They will come over to investigate the damage. Not sure, if this is about money/legal aspects or reputation. But for the public, it won't make much of a difference now anyways.

To put it short, the Aquadome is lost for good as are most of the 1,500 animals (a few dozens were found on the ground of the tank and saved in buckets. Apparently, there are underground tanks for breeding (including rare species) with some more 500 fish. Unfortunately, the power had to be shut down immediately, though. So they didn't have any heating, added oxygen, electrical filtration etc. from minute one. But I heard, they still managed to save some animals from down there, too.
 
Last edited:
markmeier said:
Unfortunately, the power had to be shut down immediately, though. So they didn't have any heating, added oxygen, electrical filtration etc. from minute one. But I heard, they still managed to save some animals from down there, too.
Click to expand...

If they were able to get down there in a reasonable time frame most of those fish should be quite rescuable. Even tanks of relatively modest size will hold temperature for quite some time. I've had snow knock out my power for three days straight and my tropicals pulled through okay despite temperature drops and lack of oxygenation/filtration. A lot of it does depend on how stocked the tank is, the more fish in it the quicker oxygen will drop.
 
Great Argus said:
If they were able to get down there in a reasonable time frame most of those fish should be quite rescuable. Even tanks of relatively modest size will hold temperature for quite some time. I've had snow knock out my power for three days straight and my tropicals pulled through okay despite temperature drops and lack of oxygenation/filtration. A lot of it does depend on how stocked the tank is, the more fish in it the quicker oxygen will drop.
Click to expand...
Many of those seems to have been rescued according to German press. About 600 fishes was saved from separate tanks located under the AquaDom - "behind the scenes" (these fishes are not any of the fishes that was located in the aquadom at the time of collapse).
 
I just read about it, too. Apparently, some 630 fish were rescued from these tanks and some dozens from the bottom zone of the large tank but even from puddles on the ground! According to media, the survivors were brought to Tierpark Berlin, Aquarium Berlin, Sealife (which also is closed for the time being, though) and a private network of fish breeders (not sure, if the order has any relevance, I'm actually a bit surprised to read about Berlin Tierpark in this context at all).
 
PossumRoach said:
How is it ludicrous? In addition to @CGSwans 's points, @Batto also brought up good reasons why building a ridiculously long aquarium in a post-covid economy and an energy crisis (which won't go away any time soon) as a hotel decoration is anything but a good idea.
Click to expand...
Because unless you have inside information you can only speculate, not say anything with certainty. Who knows if it will be rebuilt or not.
 
Cat-Man said:
Because unless you have inside information you can only speculate, not say anything with certainty. Who knows if it will be rebuilt or not.
Click to expand...

The chances of rebuilding a enormous custom aquarium after such an event are virtually nil. Many different parties involved have already stated it was massively fortunate that the incident happened when it did, very early in the morning. The potential risk and liability would certainly be enough to dissuade them from rebuilding anything close to what was there. Not only are the hotel owners faced with a massive clean up job and complete remodel of the main area but it is also reported that damage occurred to neighboring buildings that they could be liable for in some form. Saltwater leaves crusts and can do significant damage to electrical systems, increasing the amount of cleaning and potential amount of remodeling. It will take an enormous amount of money and time before the hotel can even operate as normal without the attraction - and now there's negative publicity that would arise should they attempt to recreate the tank. Concerns of safety and stability would become very prevalent. Besides as already stated they would have to disassemble a considerable part of the building to get such a large feature back into place - even more costs. I could see them potentially adding back a much smaller aquarium eventually, but I think there is no chance of a similar attraction returning.
 
Cat-Man said:
Because unless you have inside information you can only speculate, not say anything with certainty. Who knows if it will be rebuilt or not.
Click to expand...

Tell you what. If the Berlin Radisson one day has the world’s largest cylindrical fish tank in its lobby again, I’ll pay for us both to have a room each there on opening night. That’s how confident I am it will never be rebuilt.
 
Great Argus said:
I could see them potentially adding back a much smaller aquarium eventually, but I think there is no chance of a similar attraction returning.
Click to expand...

First and foremost, they already stated the tank won't be rebuild. So that's reality now. But like you said, with some more time they may feel like at least adding one or a number of smaller tank(s) as they are (or used to be?) called DomAquarée and the tank has always been part of their identity.
 
Cat-Man said:
Because unless you have inside information you can only speculate, not say anything with certainty. Who knows if it will be rebuilt or not.
Click to expand...
Fine, I will admit that the energy crises and post-covid economy factors may be speculations on my part (despite the fact that both factors have great effects on many projects around the world.) However, as brought up by @markmeier , when the hotel has already stated it won't build the tank again along with why it won't be built, your last sentence is already easily refutable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top