Orlando company invents colorful artificial reef

SeaWorld contract gets small company nationwide notice.

ORLANDO, FLA. — Swimming with the fish at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove, you might notice vivid yellow and purple hues, and real-looking coral standing out among muted brown and gray backgrounds.

Even the tropical fish and rays seem to accept the coral as authentic, nibbling on it and hiding among the branches.

SeaWorld is hailing the new reef sections as a leap forward in appearance, durability and functionality — such as making cleaning simpler.

“Every new aquarium that’s been built in the last 10 years has come through to look at these. So there’s lots of interest,” said Stewart Clark, vice president and general manager of Discovery Cove. “Our divers are ecstatic with the new corals because they’re easier to clean. And our visitors are, too.”

The new artificial reef sections were developed and built by an Orlando-based company, Bottled Ocean, which is preparing to ramp up production to meet the national interest from other aquariums and tourist attractions.

The company just completed its first delivery of the coral sections, about 30 of them, and is preparing to start building another round. Discovery Cove is the only place you can see the corals now.

The reef coating or paint, which allows the brighter colors, is much different from previous generations of concrete and plastic. Instead, it’s the kind of material used to decorate expensive speedboats and other watercraft: fiberglass-resin structure and fiberglass gel coating.

“We built them as if they were small boats,” said Greg Lund, a co-owner of Bottled Ocean, which started out as an aquarium-maintenance service. “SeaWorld wanted them to float and be maneuverable, so they could pull them out for cleaning. But each one weighs up to 1,000 pounds, so that’s not easy.”

Lund is calling it the Modular Reef System. The fiberglass-resin base is shaped to blend in with the surroundings at Discovery Cove’s Grand Reef area, where visitors swim among the fish. The whole park has about 100 of the huge coral sections, about 70 of which are in the water at any given time. A team of 35 divers is involved in cleaning the reef areas constantly — often in the wee hours of the night when the park is closed.

Lund and his co-owner at Bottled Ocean, company founder Bear Kozy, have landed bigger and bigger contracts.

Lund, 56, of Orlando, is a former banker for Regions Bank in downtown Orlando. He met Kozy, 52, because Bottled Ocean was maintaining an aquarium in his offices. He started helping Kozy run his business.

“At one point Bottled Ocean won a big contract to maintain tanks at Red Lobster, and I decided that business would be more fun than banking,” Lund said. He then helped Kozy expand the business even more. Lund is now the CEO.

They believe their new reef system is moving them into a whole new business arena. Bottled Ocean just returned from the Regional Aquatics Workshop conference in New Orleans, where Lund said the reef system drew a lot of attention.

Lund declined to talk about the cost of the reef sections, because he said the company is still developing the process of making them. But he said they are cheaper to maintain in the long run and don’t have to be replaced as often as previous units.

Besides looking good, the reef sections also hold up longer in saltwater than previous attempts Discovery Cove tried, and are easier to move. The newer fiberglass resin doesn’t break down or give off harmful chemicals in the water once it’s molded and dried, Lund said.

Kozy said the company can do custom coral colors for different ocean environments.

Each reef section has a ballast tank in the middle that can be filled with air to raise it up or water to lower it back down. When it’s partially filled, the reef sections are buoyant enough to move around easily. The air tanks themselves aren’t new to the industry, but Bottled Ocean added some counterweights and balance to make them more maneuverable.

This solves a huge problem with large aquariums because they don’t have to clean the reefs underwater, which puts stress on their filtration systems.

“They look better, and they are easier to lift, said diver Austin Brown.

Visitors, such as Ian Rogers, notice the bright colors almost immediately. Rogers and his family were visiting from the Oxford area of England.

“The bright colors are certainly what you want to see when you’re snorkeling,” Rogers said.

JACOB LANGSTON / ORLANDO SENTINEL Divers float up one of the coral heads at Discovery Cove recently in Orlando, Fla. The corals are made by a company called Bottled Ocean Inc., and floating them to the surface allows them to be removed for easier cleaning.