INTERVIEW: Jose Blanco from ‘Fish Tank Kings’ smells something fishy

Nat Geo WILD’s hit reality series Fish Tank Kings, which premieres new episodes Mondays at 9 p.m., is a design-heavy feast for the eyes. These kings build customized aquariums for wealthy clientele, and the results are sometimes mind-boggling in their uniqueness, complexity and size.

Jose Blanco, aquarium production manager for Living Color, handles the reef inserts, which are the trappings throughout the tanks that hide the plumbing and offer an “environment” to the livestock.

“Living Color has been around for about 25 years,” Blanco said recently during a phone interview. “It started off as basically two guys that were maintaining aquariums. … Slowly the company grew; they saw a need for maybe replacing what we call inserts, which is the actual decoration of the aquarium.”

Eventually Blanco joined the Living Color team. He was the right fit because of his background in art, mold-making and fiber glass. The designer holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, plus he studied sculpture and ceramics at the graduate level.

“I joined the Living Color specifically because of my mold-making skills and my knowledge of different fiber glass materials,” he added.

A day at Living Color is like no other day. That’s mostly because each project is customized for the client. Each new aquarium brings a new set of obstacles; overcoming these hurdles is what makes Fish Tank Kings a gripping reality series.

“Everything we do is custom, so although the systems are similar, you’re using basically the same systems, each one is unique to the aquarium because of the shape of it, the volume, the gallons of it,” he said. “What I do with my department is we work on what is the insert/decorative elements of the reefs, which are inside the aquarium. So basically what we do is hide the plumbing that’s inside the reef, and that’s a big part of what we do, is to try to integrate all of the plumbing into the reef so that it really looks like a beautiful aquarium but is functional.”

This fine balance between functionality and decoration is likely what makes Blanco’s job so interesting to viewers. His days are filled with drawings and conversations about water flow. Even though his job is complex, each aquarium needs to be easy to maintain.

“We don’t want to lose the form, but our mind is always on the function,” he added. “We’re actually building a habitat that has to keep livestock, and also somebody has to maintain these things in keeping them clean because … it can cause disease. It can cause problems with the fish, so it’s important to design something that is not only beautiful but it is what we call maintenance-friendly. So there’s a lot of tweaking throughout the process.”

One of the more adventurous aspects of his job is client relations. Some customers are trusting of Living Color’s expertise, while others are more hands on. At the end of the day, Blanco needs to cater to both types. “They may have specific demands about color and placement. Sometimes they let us go free and do what we like. There’s some approval process there. It’s a constant shifting [of] gears. We’re jumping from one project to the next. We’re waiting for approvals on one project. One client can take a couple of days; another client can take a week. We’re constantly juggling stuff, so it’s pretty busy. I think the show really does capture that aspect of it.”

On a couple of occasions, Living Color needed to get back in touch with the client to scale back the project. Sometimes a lofty dream is unattainable because of filtration issues. But Blanco seems to pride himself on the fact that the end result usually covers most of the parameters of the client’s wishes.

What often is missing from a proposal is a place for the fish to hide.

“They need a place where they can feel covered. So we’ve had clients where they want something very open or they want some sort of modern-looking design, and that’s not always practical.”

The company lives and breathes (or uses their gills) based on teamwork. Without a strong team, projects can easily fall behind schedule. “Everybody that is part of this company is instrumental to making these reefs,” Blanco said. “Just keeping the facility clean is important. So it definitely is a team effort. I think the show does show that. … The employees we have here most of them have been with us for years. They know what we do. They love what we do. So definitely a team effort. We’re all getting input. And like I said, each one is custom. So as much as you think it can be cookie-cutter, it’s not. So always people bring their heads together to resolve a problem, and I think that shows up in the show, too.”

On the new season of Fish Tank Kings, the team builds the company’s largest private aquarium. Blanco said he believes it’s the largest in Florida. The monster holds 6,000 gallons of water and is set up like an oval racetrack for sharks.

“If you can imagine 6,000 gallons, you could swim in the aquarium. It’s that big. It’s essentially a small pool. The average in-ground pool is about anywhere from 10,000 to 16,000 gallons on average, so 6,000 gallons is pretty much an … in-ground pool. That was a real challenge. The other thing was that he wanted it on the second floor, which definitely becomes a challenge. We literally had inches to get it through the window of the second floor, and then the whole structure underneath had to be reinforced with posts of steel to handle the weight of the aquarium itself and plus 6,000 gallons at an average of about 8 pounds per gallon, just water. You’re looking at 48,000 pounds. That’s a heavy aquarium.”

The aquarium is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase for the client. For Blanco, it’s another day at this unusual office.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Fish Tank Kings airs 9 p.m. Mondays on Nat Geo WILD. Click here for more information.