Aquatic Technologies does not pump simply water from place to place. Contained in the water is algae, single cell organisms, large organic compounds, and many other relatively fragile constituents. These cellular constituents cannot survive the enormous trauma (called sheer) developed by traditional pumping.

The Archimedes Screw that you see here is a "non-traumatic" pump. Slowly turning, internal fins in a screw-like pattern carry the water through the pump housing gently without disturbing the cells within the water.

A second type of non-traumatic pump that is used here in the warehouse is an air lift pump. Pressurized air is released at the bottom of a well containing a pipe. The air bubbles up the pipe, carrying with it the water. In both instances the water is pumped to holding tanks raised up in the warehouse. Gravity forces the water through the tanks in the system and ultimately back to the algae screens where it is once again filtered.

Non-traumatic pumps are those that move liquids with minimal sheer stress. The concept of sheer relates to two bodies coming into contact when they are traveling at different velocities. The force, or stress, that they inflict on one another is do to their contact and the friction that is caused by the contact. These bodies may be on the scale of molecules or cells, or could be objects that are introduced into the system.

Traditional pumps use relatively fast motors turning at high speeds to achieve desired flow rates. The differential in speed between the pumping mechanism and the water causes a great deal of sheer stress and in our case it is very traumatic to the system. That is why it is necessary to use the significantly larger and less efficient "non-traumatic" pumps.

Lighting the Systems

In order to recreate the natural environment, whether it be a freshwater stream bed, or the coastal reef of the Caribbean, light must be factored into the simulation. At Aquatic Technologies we go to great lengths to simulate, as accurately as possible the various lighting conditions. The large bell shaped housings that you see hold metal halide lights. These simulate the light given off by the sun, with reproduction of the spectrum and intensity.

One of the key elements of the spectrum that most man-made lighting does not have is ultra-violet. Sunlight is the only true full spectrum light, but the metal halides have 97% of the suns spectrum. Even though the sun is 93 million miles away from the earth, it casts an amazingly intense light on the earth. The reason that the lights are so close to the water is to achieve that extremely intense light. The small 100 watt incandescent light bulbs simulate moonlight. They are attached to a computer that automatically dims the lights when the moon is new and turns them on fully when the moon is full.

It has been well documented that many species' mating and spawning are greatly affected by the phase and lighting of the moon. Aquatic technologies goes as far to light the fluorescent lights in the warehouse before the main halide lights turn on to simulate dawn and then dusk conditions after they turn off. You may ask why we don't dim the halide lights similar to the incandescent lights. This is an unfortunate drawback to the metal halide lights, they are either on or off. Other solar simulating lights are similar in this respect so we would not be able to dim any other types of lights either.

Wave Motion of the Water

Research conducted by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. has found that a critical element that has long been over looked when trying to simulate a marine environment is wave action. It appears from the research that the periodic water motion is extremely important to the growth of most all organisms in the marine environment. To simulate the great energy of wave motion Aquatic Technologies uses large dump buckets that fill up with water and periodically release the stored water all at once. In doing so wave surges are created and allowed to propagate naturally throughout the aquarium.