Chili's Center

Chili's Care Center at St. Jude

Thanks for checking out the aquarium in the Chili's Care Center thread here on Reef Central. This is a project that has been in the works for about a year and a half here at St Jude. It all started with a phone call from Design and Construction head John Curran. We at the West Tennessee Marine and Reef Aquarium Club have been maintaining two 225G aquariums in the B clinic waiting room with much success and lots of praise from the staff, parents and most importantly, the patients. These little windows into another world help to aleve their minds of the treatments and pains of hospitalization. So when John asked me how I would like to take on a 1,000G reef I was ecstatic!

We met and worked out some of the rough ideas and off I went to do some research. Of course the first stop was Reef Central. All the help and guidance I have received from this site and its members has been worth its weight in gold. Through Reef Central via Energy, I met Scott (Spazz) Ledin founder of Aquatic Acrylics. His tireless efforts and expertise are two things that have kept this project running as effectively as it has been. Scott came in and designed the tank, the tank’s room and all of the equipment, electrical, plumbing and more than I can think of.

With the addition of project leader Doug Tran from Design and Construction, the three of us (Doug, Scott, and I ) have brought this project into being.

The aquarium for the Chili's Care Center was delivered June 27, 2007 after Scott drove it two days from his home in Minnesota to us here in Memphis, TN. With the help of WTMRAC members Willem and Jennifer Burmel, Lary Casey, BJ Yancey and myself we unloaded the first round of equipment and took a tour of the construction site.

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Scott and I unstrapping the hospital and frag tanks. The display is all wrapped up in the blue plastic. With a little help from Starbucks coffee, the job went well.

Scott making a final inspection of the tanks before moving them.

Willem and Jennifer making easy work of moving the hospital tank.

Scott and Willem moving the frag tank.

Cell phone capture of Willem striking a pose for the little woman. (See how enamored she isJ )

Afterward, we took a quick tour of the two 225’s at the Medicine room (B Clinic)

Fabulous slimer colony I bought from a local hobbyist.

A quick pic of the kids favorite fish, Reggie the goby! I’m fighting red slime as you can see. And the ever present finger smudges. Love seeing those!

Out of focus but basically the same as the first picture.

Nice neon green sarco donated by WTMRAC member Cathy Peck.

This is a shot of the construction site and the new cafeteria that their building.

Here we see the Chili’s Center in all of its raw construction glory. (Right to left) Scott, Doug and Bart Conner

Scott, Doug and Bart working out the details.

The stand for the tank.

Stand needs some more primer and the floor needs waterproofing so they moved the stand.

Due to the changes the tank had to be stored off site until the space was ready. Enter the boom fork!

Driving the fork is Jose Gonzalez, and he makes it look so easy.

Sudden realization: the tank won’t go in through the habger door without hitting the roof so we had to sling the tank with straps.

Slung and lifted into place the tank is making this spot home for the next week or two.

Due to construction delays St Jude gave me an empty lab (a rare find in this place) to hold equipment, fish and coral in until the tank is ready. Here we are unpacking and cleaning all the rad grime out of the tanks.

The aquarium for the Chili's Center was moved into its new home on July 6, 2007. The following pictures document this occasion. In attendance were BJ Yancey and myself from the WTMRAC, Scott and Doug.