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We’ve seen more than our fair share of ghetto-fabulous and not-so-great display aquariums at marine aquarium trade shows but the Mother of all Trade Show Aquariums [MATSA] is not one of them. Built with a vision by Aquarium Specialty and the the know-how of My Reef Creation, the MATSA is packing more bells and whistles than a gypsy circus car. 

For the MATSA, Aquarium Specialty pulled out all the stops with double fluidized media reactors, Reeflo/MRC Orca Pro I protein skimmer, and a nice MRC Bio-sump all neatly encased and displayed behind a large engraved viewing window. The tank itself ain’t too shabby with black ABS plastic coral/frag tray, rimless construction and a one of our favorite touches, a barely-there mounting option for three Radion XR30w LED fixtures that is partially hidden by the overflow drain.

 The filtration on [the MATSA] is totally overkill but the purpose of it was to showcase the MRC & Ecotech product line and sell coral at the same time.  The tank is built out of 1 1/4″ Acrylic.  The stand is steel, powder coated white with custom caster that can hold up to the weight requrements.  The viewing pane in the front features an inset clear acrylic viewing window in the front with a black acrylic frame around it.  The sides of the tank are black acrylic with vents and the back is black PVC with inset magnets that make it easy for removing the back panel.  The whole thing can transport without removing any of the equipment.  It’s plug and play once the water is added.  Everything is hard plumbed with unions so that the sump, pump, skimmer and canister filters can be removed for cleaning.  The Frag racks are made out of black ABS and the bottom of the tank is black.

The filtration includes:

MRC Reef Sump
MRC Filter Socks (3 x 4″ socks)
Orca Pro 1 skimmer
2 x MRC reactors (one is for PO4x4 and the other is for NP Biopellets).

Tank is 72″ x 36″ x 12″

The black acrylic custom light fixture easily comes off and lays down inside the tank for easy storage and transport.

The tank, sump, reactors and skimmer are ported for easy draining after the trade show is over.  Once it’s empty, you can roll it out the door.  We plan to offer a less expensive version of this (can be customized for the client) and Aquarium Specialty will be the distributor for these tanks.  We already have an order in the works for Fishy Business in Columbia, South Carolina.

We’re digging nearly all of the features of the Mother of all Trade Show Aquariums but are concerned about the amount of heat that will produced by the Orca Pro I on such a small volume, and how cloudy the water could become if biopellets are used in one of the media reactors as was indicated to us. In this incarnation the MATSA easily costs over five figures at full retail price but surely this will make an impressive display for Aquarium Specialty, My Reef Creation and any other aquarium business that chooses to bite the acrylic bullet to have a MATSA of their own.