The Sealife Centre has submitted plans for a new water tank.

In the proposals submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council, aquarium owner Merlin Entertainments said the centre in Madeira Drive needs a new "quarantine tank" for poorly animals.

This will be kept in a staff-only area inside the grade II listed building.

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Other proposals include replacing the existing life support equipment in this area with newer versions, and replacing the pipework and walkways.

Plans are also in place for a new steel lifting beam that will safely transfer animals between tanks.

According to Merlin Entertainments, these changes will require new concrete floor slabs to replace old ones.

The Argus: The area where works are proposed

Merlin Entertainments said that the existing slabs, which date back to 1927, "would not be sufficient to support the weight of a new tank nor the proposed new equipment".

Osbornes Chartered Architects, on behalf of Merlin Entertainments, said: "The proposed work will be entirely to back of house areas of the building that are currently used for storage and as service areas.

"There will be alterations made to an existing concrete slab, and existing areas of concrete edging, however these have limited historic importance when compared to the other areas of the historic asset.

"These areas of concrete are likely to have been installed during 1927 works to the building and the concrete slab is ground bearing and is very thin. Because of this the proposed alterations will have negligible to no impact on the historic asset as a whole.

The Argus: New walkways are proposed for this area

"The removal of the existing timber scaffold type walkways will also not be detrimental to the building.

"The new walk ways would provide safer access and be more suitable to the environment in which they are located.

"The new walkways would require new supporting structure/ beams that will be fixed into or supported by existing wall plinths.

"This will replace existing modern beams that support the current walkways. 

"However as mentioned above, this would only constitute a negligeable change to the existing building. This is due to the concrete slab and edging walls in this area having limited heritage importance."

The council will decide whether to approve the plans by June 14.