Tank officials clean aquarium from top to bottom

Our community aquarium was completely emptied of fish, water, decor, hardware and rocks and thoroughly cleaned before being reconstituted with new water and clean materials. Work on the restoration began at 6:30 p.m. and concluded at 10:30 p.m.

All fish appeared to be doing well in the clean aquarium. One neon tetra was tragically lost during the cleaning process, having become stuck in a net and left out to dry unnoticed. The dead tetra was discovered hours after all fish had been captured and released into temporary quarters.

The design firm of Jannsen was retained for the restoration of the aquarium's decor. The renowned French designer Stephane Boufin created the restored design, banishing some decorations that had added to the aquarium over time.

"The green frog, it was all wrong," said Boufin. "It looked like a fat Spanish dancer. I had it removed immediately."

Boufin was inspired by the aquarium's original Greco-Roman roots, and used that as his inspiration for the design.

"The aquarium design is dictated by the Parthenon centerpiece, which is Greco-Roman. Now the aquarium is really quite unified architecturally."

The aquarium had become increasingly dirty, its water tinted a dull green, since the last tank-wide restoration took place in August.