Imaginarium appears on Animal Planet TV show 'Tanked' - News-Press

The guys from "Tanked" didn't have it easy installing an aquarium at the Imaginarium Science Center.

The 3,200-gallon aquarium got scratched and gouged during its cross-country trip from Las Vegas to Fort Myers in an 18-wheeler truck. The 20 species of saltwater fish had to be flown to Miami instead of Southwest Florida International Airport, thanks to weight and size restrictions. And a forklift ended up damaging a pillar inside the science center.

"It was really tight quarters," says Wayde King, who stars with fellow aquarium builder Brett Raymer on the popular Animal Planet reality show. "There were a lot of hiccups."

But, somehow, King and Raymer managed to pull it off.

"We got it in," King says. "We got it done. It was a great feeling."

The resulting aquarium makes its national debut Friday night on the TV show. "Tanked" airs at 10 p.m.

Shelby Baucom, interim director for the Imaginarium, can't wait to see the science center and its new aquarium on national television — although she admits she's not particularly thrilled to be on camera. "I'm more of a behind-the-scenes person," she says and smiles.

Still, it's great for the Imaginarium and Fort Myers to get that kind of exposure, she says. It could attract more people to visit the museum and the area.

"It's incredibly exciting," Baucom says.

The project started at the Imaginarium more than three years ago as a way to highlight artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. That eventually turned into an aquarium recreating the Mohawk Veterans Memorial Reef, an artificial reef created when the World War II warship USS Mohawk was sunk 30 miles off the coast of Sanibel Island in 2012.

The Imaginarium planned to build the aquarium by itself. But then they realized a board member's cousin worked with a producer of "Tanked," Baucom says. So they sent off a letter pitching the idea.

The "Tanked" team loved it. And three years and several production delays later, they finally arrived in mid-April to build the aquarium.

King says he loved meeting the museum staff and sharing their excitement for the project.

"We've done 10,000 tanks worldwide," he says. "And the gratitude you get from people and from the kids all seeing it is probably the best feeling in the world.

"Some jobs are headaches. But this was fun. It was fun working with everybody."

The 12,000 pound, 15-foot long aquarium features a replica of the Mohawk constructed from Styrofoam and coated with an epoxy to recreate the warship's metal exterior. Real metal would rust in the saltwater, Baucom says.

"They really wanted to keep it as accurate as possible," she says. "It's pretty amazing."

The tank boasts about 80 fish, including spiny lobsters, bamboo sharks, angelfish, tang, scat, purple-spined urchins and a particularly playful and colorful fellow called a clown triggerfish.

Those fish aren't from the Gulf of Mexico, though, and Baucom says the museum will eventually replace them with native fish. That will amplify the educational nature of the exhibit, which includes two 65-inch computer touchscreens allowing visitors to take a "virtual dive" to the real USS Mohawk.

Gallagher smash! The melon-murdering comic plays Fort Myers

King says they chose Pacific Ocean fish mostly because of their size and availability. Besides, it adds more interest for locals. These are fish they likely haven't experienced before, he says. "Sometimes when you do your local ones, people are like, 'Oh, I already saw that before.'"

To celebrate the science center's TV appearance, The Imaginarium plans to host several kids events between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. That includes an interactive undersea mural and crafts such as making fish prints and stickers.

The aquarium project started as a simple idea: Maybe you can't scuba dive and see the Mohawk, yourself. But what if you could stay on land and see the next best thing?

Now that idea is going nationwide, thanks to "Tanked."

"We loved the idea of the project," Baucom says. "And now a lot of other people will get to know about it and love the idea, too."

If You Go

Imaginarium: 2000 Cranford Ave, Fort Myers

To learn more about the Imaginarium, call 321-7420 or visit i-sci.org

If You Watch

"Tanked" 10 p.m. Friday, Animal Planet channel

Gulf Coast Symphony plays music of Star Wars in Fort Myers

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (News-Press) (Facebook) or @charlesrunnells (Twitter)