City Aquarium builds another tank for Zurich NA in Union Square, New York. This reef aquarium measures 72" x 26" x 36" High. We will be showing the progress of this tank through out its first few months of installation.

Labels: My Reefs

My dear friend Stephen Olivier lives in Brooklyn and has been painting all his life. I have several of his pieces now, one of which hangs over my fireplace.

Labels: Justin's World

Crescent shaped tanks will be completed in Dallas in June 2008. The system is composed of three tanks forming a semi-circle around a large tub in the master bathroom. The center tank will feature a living reef. We will need to send a diver in the tank in order to epoxy the corals into place. Final pictures will be taken sometime in August of this year of the completed installation.

J-Mu

Labels: Residential

These sumps are going to Dallas this week. These guys measure 60"x30"x30", I added twin baffles and four micron sock rings. Each sump will handle a 1,000 gallon marine tank in a residence in Texas. Great job on the sumps Mike!

Labels: Residential

Ilan Glasser writes from Israel to ask us how we keep our tanks so clean. I have to say that before we photograph our tanks, they are styled and meticulously cleaned. A lot goes into our photography, and at about $3,000 per shot we ensure that the tanks look their best.

Labels: insight and opinion

Starbuck is back and says she has been to earth. I have a feeling she is not a Cylon, and I hope she is just CRAZY! Did she die in the last episode? Was she reborn? Is she a Cylon? Will she lead the rest of the human race to uncertain death? Battlestar Galactica Premiere party tonight at City Aquarium Home Base.

Labels: Justin's World

I recently met Adam here in NYC and started to spend some time with him.  His work is wild, and no one paints like Razak. Adam has many influences, and I think it is apparent that he is a huge comic book fan. My next mission is for Adam is to meet one of my clients Joe Quesada, head of Marvel Comics.....  I have been trying to get Joe to draw me a piece for years. 

Labels: Justin's World

What the Frac! I can not believe this is the last season. Anyone else fans?

Labels: Justin's World

Lookdowns (Selene vomer), are members of the Carangidae family. The word Selene, being derived from a lunar deity in Greek mythology, gives these fish their common name "Moonfish". Like most members of this family, they are found in large schools. This particular fish is found throughout the tropical Atlantic.

This animal is not my first fish of choice for my clients. These Silver Surfers come with a multitude of issues and I do not recommend keeping this fish if you are not an advanced aquarist. I have about 20 years experience with this species, and as a general rule I stay away from purchasing these animals. I have tried them in some large tanks with better success. We did a large school of Lookdowns at the Ship Wreck Tavern here in New York, and they needed constant attention.

Most hobbyists or people do not understand how to collect or handle scaleless fish. You must not touch a net to these animals. Net collection or mishandling of these fishes often leads to death. I have many dealers and collectors for this Jack, most of them are out of the Florida Keys. These Jacks are line caught most often and given special care when transported. Lookdowns do not ship well and a long acclimation period is suggested. When we receive these fish they have to go into quarantine. Scaleless fish are sensitive to most medications. Quinine, one of the best medications used to treat copper resistant saltwater ick, will kill these animals. Like most scaleless fish, Lookdowns tend to be ick magnets so keep a close eye out for this parasite. Another disease this fish seems to attract is Brookynella. The skin turns white and comes right off their bodies. A nasty looking disease, but treatable.

Labels: insight and opinion

My canary Fives died while I was in Brazil. I came home only to find his cage empty and him frozen in the freezer. Why my assistant placed him in the freezer on top of my Acai Sorbet I will never know. I guess it was so I could say my goodbye's. The canary never did sing in the 5 years I had it, which means that he was a she or he was not a happy bird.

Labels: Justin's World

Al has been a long term client here in New York City. Once a very successful Hedgefunder, Al has now embraced his real passion.... Wildlife Photography. Ever since I have known him he has always had the fancy cameras and now he has put them into use. Vinjamur has been fascinated with sharks, so much so that he wanted to move to the burbs so he could build a million dollar shark tank. We came pretty close to that at one point. He has been diving and photographing these amazing creatures for the past 10 years now. 

Labels: Justin's World

Zurich North America engaged City Aquarium to design and fabricate multiple installations for their East 17th Street location. The first tank to be completed was the 3rd floor or executive floor aquarium. The aquarium is museum acrylic construction, marine grade life support, and the sculptural motif is live rock. I usually never design FOWLR (fish only with live rock) systems for service clients. The reason being is inevitably one or some of the fish will get sick. Power outages, chiller failures, mechanical failures, and other problems arise that can destabilize the system. Disease is very difficult to treat in reef tanks and FOWLR systems. I have added fish very slowly to this now stable tank. The life support is basically a reef system design which helps us maintain the tanks stability. We are also using almost 200 watts of ultraviolet sterilization and some serious ozone. The tank is now home to a very active French Angel, a Maculosus Angel, a fat Mappa Puffer, and a Japanese Kidako Moray.

Labels: Commercial

The white reef insert is one of my signature designs. White inserts are both minimal and modern and are often requested by my clients in New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles . Often we do cream, tan, or dark brown tones on the tips and fringes of the corals. The base reef has been done in off white washes.  When my clients aesthetic is modern, and their color pallet is earthy tones of browns and whites, I often create these inserts. I have done variations of this insert in dark brown, and black satin. The insert pictured here is nearly completed and is going to a residence on Central Park West, New York City. We developed this insert as a habitat for seahorses. We booted several SPS and LPS corals into the base reef which will be used as hitching posts for the Pot Bellied Seahorse (native to Australia, a cold water species).

Labels: Residential

By Arianne Cohen

Even magicians need their marine biologists. In early March, Justin Muir, the city’s preeminent luxury-aquarium designer, got a call from David Blaine’s people. It was about Blaine’s next televised municipal stunt: two weeks in a shark tank on the plaza in front of the Lincoln Center! “It was kind of cool,” says Muir. “How often does a marine biologist get to put David Blaine in a tank?”

This isn’t Muir’s first man-tank. His company, City Aquarium, designed the 10,000-gallon, 30-foot fish-filled tank in the now-shut Coral Room (go-go “mermaids” cavorted within). He also built the 30-foot-tall cylindrical shark tank in Vikram Chatwal’s Dream Hotel. But none of those required logging this many hours of conference-calling among Blaine’s mask people, tank people, scuba people, medical people, Lincoln Center people, and ABC people. Plans changed quickly. The medical people realized that Blaine’s skin might not survive two weeks in water and dropped the time period to one week. The shark idea sank, too. “There are fish that are better suited,” says Muir. “And no one wanted to sacrifice any animals.” Two weeks ago, a compromise floated: Lower the temperature for several hours daily and insert fish. Then remove fish. The fish would be flown in daily from Miami and quarantined for a few days to relax them after the shock of travel, before the shock of Blaine. “It’s something we really wanted to do, because it would be really beautiful,” says Muir. But fish have their own agenda. “They know what a net is. It would be a battle getting fish in the tank and out every day. So we decided to scratch the idea”

What’s left is a ten-foot tank with 1.5-inch-thick insulating acrylic walls, filled with 2,000 gallons of spring water, to be trucked in from upstate. They’re adding salt, to help Blaine’s skin. Blaine will spend his week attached to a custom mask supplied with compressed air. He has trained by meditation and extended time underwater. “He is human, and he does need to survive,” says Muir. “The core body temperature is the most important issue we’re dealing with.” Muir will have a staffer on call around the clock, managing power heaters that can raise the temperature one degree per minute. The other issues are more minor. Will Blaine get knocked around? “Well, the bigger the tank, the stronger the return water pump,” says Muir, who often enters larger tanks to clean them. “It’s like a Jacuzzi jet stream. You can get blown to the other side of the tank.” Muir is also charged with maintaining the “pristine clarity of the water…No algae blooms, no bacterial blooms.” What about urine blooms? “It’s the same thing for fish,” says Muir. “The filtration system removes urea, ammonia, and hormones.”

Labels: press

By Matthew Boyle

The latest must-have hedge fund accessory weighs a ton (literally), contains up to ten living creatures, and costs $600 a month – just for upkeep. Aquariums, which were popular in the 1970s, are back. But forget the fish tanks in your dentist’s office - these "installations," as they’re called, take six months to complete and cost as much as $600,000. The tanks feature specialized glass for better viewing, custom-made furniture crafted to accentuate the colors of the fish, live coral, and rare creatures like angelfish from new Caledonia, which sell for $3,000 each. Angelfish "grunt and have very distinct personalities," said Justin Muir, co-owner and principal designer of New York—based City Aquarium. "They’re more like pets."

Aqua-entrepreneur Muir has made a specialty of catering to the hedge of fund crowd, who he says continually try to outdo one another. A native of the Massachusetts coastal town of Cohasset, Muir was a licensed lobsterman at age 8, studied marine biology in Hawaii, and previously raised eels in South Carolina. City Aquarium, which he founded in 1999, now has a client roster that includes sultan, supermodels, Russian heiresses, Broadway producers, and an increasing number of hedge funds like SAC Capital Advisors and Sandell Asset Management (both declined to comment on their expensive toys). "Aquariums are status symbols," says Muir, who has also designed aquariums for hedge fund managers’ homes. "These guys say, 'Okay, if we are going to do [an aquarium], it has to be hot.'" So what’s the hottest thing right now in hedgie tanks? Sharks, natch. The price: around $2,000 each.

Labels: press