For fifteen seasons, fans watched in awe as the crew at Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM) turned impossible dreams into underwater realities. From phone booth aquariums to massive tanks shaped like cars, the Las Vegas-based business was the undisputed king of custom aquatics. But after the cameras stopped rolling on Tanked in 2019, the trail went cold.
Fans who followed the on-screen partnership between Wayde King and Brett Raymer began asking a bigger question: did the business itself survive the fallout? Was the massive Vegas workshop still churning out million-dollar tanks?
That’s where things get complicated.
The Quick Answer: Is Acrylic Tank Manufacturing Still in Business?
If you’re looking for a concise TL;DR: No, Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM) as it was known on Tanked is no longer in operation.
The company’s famous Las Vegas headquarters has closed its doors, and the original team has moved on to entirely different industries. While the brand name occasionally surfaces in different contexts, the “fish and famous” era of the King and Raymer family business has officially come to an end.
For fans searching for a definitive Tanked acrylic tank manufacturing update, the answer is clear: the original shop is no more.
The Rise and Fall of a Reality TV Empire
At its peak, ATM was more than just a local shop. It was a global brand. Founded by brothers-in-law Wayde King and Brett Raymer, the business became a household name when Tanked premiered in 2011.
The show didn’t just showcase aquariums; it turned their builds into spectacle. Over the years, ATM created some of the most memorable installations on reality TV, including novelty builds like musical-instrument aquariums and over-the-top themed tanks that later sparked questions about how much the fish tanks on Tanked actually cost.
The exposure brought in celebrity clients such as Shaquille O’Neal, Tracy Morgan, and Ludacris, but it also created a dependency. Tanked wasn’t just entertainment; it was ATM’s primary marketing engine.
When that engine stopped, the business was suddenly exposed.
The Turning Point: 2019
The mystery of what happened to ATM from Tanked began in early 2019.
In March of that year, news broke that Heather King, the company’s bookkeeper and Wayde’s wife, had been arrested following a domestic violence incident involving Wayde. The situation quickly escalated when Heather filed for divorce just days later.
For fans who had watched Heather on the show and later searched for what happened to Brett’s wife on Tanked or wondered how much of the series was real versus staged, this moment marked a sharp break between the TV narrative and reality.
On March 17, 2019, Animal Planet officially announced that Tanked would not return. While the network cited a “natural end” after 15 seasons, the timing, combined with growing scrutiny around the show’s behind-the-scenes issues, made renewal virtually impossible.
Where Are They Now?
With ATM shuttered, the core cast members moved on, a transition that fueled years of “where are they now?” searches among longtime fans.
Wayde King
After leaving the aquarium world, Wayde pivoted into water treatment. He is now the president of King Water Filtration, a Las Vegas-based company specializing in whole-home purification systems, a career shift explored further in coverage of what Wayde King is doing now.
Brett Raymer
Brett traded acrylic and reef tanks for marinara sauce. He is now the owner of Stallone’s Italian Eatery, a growing Las Vegas restaurant brand. Despite leaving the aquarium business, Brett remains a recognizable Vegas personality, often prompting curiosity about whether he ever went into business with Sylvester Stallone after Tanked.
Heather King
Following the divorce and the end of the show, Heather has largely stayed out of the public eye. Her departure from ATM effectively marked the end of the company’s internal operations as viewers had known them.
The Rest of the Crew
Other familiar faces from the show have also moved on to new ventures. Fans curious about what happened to Agnes from Tanked, what Redneck is doing now, or what happened to The General will find that the entire ATM family has scattered to different corners of the entertainment and business world.
The Legal and Financial Aftermath
The closure of ATM wasn’t a clean break.
Between 2019 and 2021, the company was named in several lawsuits involving breach of contract and financial disputes. Clark County court records show that “Acrylic Tank Manufacturing of Nevada” faced mounting legal pressure as the business wound down, issues that became part of the broader controversy surrounding the show’s final years.
By late 2019, ATM’s official social media channels went silent. The final Facebook posts hinted at a possible “new location,” but fans visiting the original Martin Avenue facility in Las Vegas reported that the building was vacant or occupied by new tenants.
Why Reality TV Businesses Often Fail
ATM’s story fits a familiar pattern. Reality TV businesses often scale aggressively to meet the demands of production: bigger crews, larger facilities, tighter timelines, all supported by the visibility of national television.
Once the cameras leave, that artificially inflated demand disappears. In industries like custom aquariums, where builds can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, losing a weekly hour-long commercial on cable television can be devastating.
It’s why so many fans later asked whether the show had masked deeper structural problems that only surfaced after it ended.
The Legacy Lives On
While reruns of Tanked still circulate on streaming platforms, the real-life Acrylic Tank Manufacturing no longer exists in its original form.
Wayde King is still working with water, but now he’s filtering it for homes rather than filling massive tanks with sharks. Brett Raymer remains a Las Vegas entrepreneur, though today he’s far more likely to serve you a meatball sub than unveil a custom reef installation.
For fans who spent nearly a decade watching the ATM crew build the impossible, the legacy of Tanked lives on in the iconic aquariums still standing in casinos, hotels, and celebrity homes, even if the shop that built them is gone for good. And for those wondering whether Wayde King and Brett Raymer are still friends, that story continues to evolve beyond the cameras.
The era of phone booth fish tanks and cleverly repurposed aquariums may be over, but the memories, and the spectacle, remain.
