What Is Wayde King's Net Worth?
Wayde King is an American businessman, aquarium designer, and reality television personality who has a net worth of $5 million. Wayde King is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing and the co-star of the Animal Planet reality series "Tanked." Alongside his longtime business partner and brother-in-law Brett Raymer, King turned a Las Vegas custom-aquarium business into an internationally known operation capable of constructing everything from elaborate residential fish tanks to enormous commercial exhibits.
"Tanked" debuted in 2011 and followed King, Raymer, and their extended family as Acrylic Tank Manufacturing designed and installed extravagant aquariums for private homes, casinos, restaurants, businesses, and celebrities. King was generally portrayed as the technical perfectionist of the partnership, while the more outgoing Raymer concentrated heavily on sales and client relationships. Over the course of the series, they built tanks for customers including Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy Morgan, Howie Mandel, Gene Simmons, Dwight Howard, and numerous other entertainers and athletes.
The success of "Tanked" transformed King from a behind-the-scenes aquarium specialist into a television personality. The series ran for 15 seasons before ending in 2018, by which point Acrylic Tank Manufacturing had completed thousands of aquarium systems around the world.
Early Life
Wayde King was born on September 19, 1969, on Long Island, New York. His fascination with aquariums began during childhood. His biological father was involved in the fish business, and King grew up surrounded by aquariums in the family's basement.
After his mother remarried, King continued learning the trade from his stepfather. By the time he was 14 years old, he was already cleaning and servicing aquariums. What started as a childhood interest gradually developed into practical expertise in fish care, plumbing, filtration, tank construction, and aquarium maintenance.
King later trained in the technical side of aquarium manufacturing and eventually left New York for the West Coast. He worked for an acrylic aquarium manufacturer before relocating to Las Vegas, where his combination of hands-on experience and entrepreneurial ambition would lead to the creation of his own company.
Acrylic Tank Manufacturing
King's move to Las Vegas proved important both professionally and personally. While working in the aquarium industry, he met Heather Raymer. Heather's father, businessman Irwin Raymer, recognized King's knowledge of aquariums and helped support his plans to build a company of his own.
In 1997, King and Heather's brother Brett Raymer established Acrylic Tank Manufacturing, better known as ATM. The company started from a roughly 1,000-square-foot space and developed into a large-scale operation specializing in custom acrylic aquariums and aquatic exhibits.
The partnership worked in part because King and Raymer brought very different skills to the company. King concentrated heavily on engineering, fabrication, installation, fish care, and the technical feasibility of each project. Raymer became the more sales-oriented half of the team, bringing clients into the business and dreaming up increasingly elaborate concepts.
The company eventually expanded into a 37,000-square-foot Las Vegas facility. ATM has said it has delivered thousands of systems to clients around the world, with projects ranging from relatively modest residential tanks to massive commercial installations. Its work has included hotels, casinos, restaurants, retail centers, zoos, museums, corporate facilities, and private residences.
Some of the company's largest projects required extensive acrylic fabrication, structural engineering, custom filtration systems, plumbing, artificial coral, themed interiors, and the transportation and care of live animals. ATM promoted its ability to work on systems ranging from ordinary home aquariums to exhibits containing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.
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"Tanked"
The unusual personalities inside ATM eventually became almost as valuable as the tanks themselves.
King and Raymer have said that visitors to their business frequently commented that their arguments, jokes, family dynamics, and unusual projects would make good television. After years of trying to turn the idea into a show, they landed a series with Animal Planet.
"Tanked" premiered in 2011. Rather than simply documenting how aquariums were manufactured, the series combined construction, travel, celebrity encounters, workplace comedy, and family arguments. King and Raymer traveled around the country meeting clients, developing concepts, overseeing fabrication, selecting fish, and installing the finished aquariums.
The supporting cast came largely from their own family and workforce. King's wife Heather handled accounting for ATM. Brett and Heather's father, Irwin "The General" Raymer, worked in the office, while employees including Robert "Robbie Redneck" Christlieb and Agnes Wilczynski became familiar figures to viewers.
King developed an on-screen reputation as the more detail-oriented and technically demanding partner. Much of the show's conflict came from Brett proposing an elaborate idea or promising something to a customer, followed by Wayde having to determine how to actually engineer and build it.
Celebrity Aquariums
Celebrity projects became one of the defining features of "Tanked." The show gave viewers access to the homes and businesses of famous clients while giving ATM increasingly unusual challenges.
For Shaquille O'Neal, King and Raymer built multiple aquariums, including an Egyptian-themed installation. Comedian Tracy Morgan became such an enthusiastic client that he returned to the company repeatedly, including for an enormous shark aquarium.
Other clients featured during the show's run included David Hasselhoff, Neil Patrick Harris, Dwight Howard, 2 Chainz, Tyga, Johnny Damon, Prince Fielder, Gabriel Iglesias, Penn & Teller, Jeff Dunham, Clay Matthews, DeMarcus Cousins, and Dr. Mehmet Oz.
ATM also created commercial installations connected to brands and entertainment properties. One especially unusual project involved converting the rear of a Toyota Highlander into a functioning 800-gallon "SpongeBob SquarePants"-themed aquarium for display at automotive events.
The celebrity angle became popular enough that Animal Planet produced programs revisiting famous builds, including "Tanked: Celebrity Scoop" and "Tanked: Sea-Lebrity Edition."
How Big Was the ATM Business?
At its television-era peak, Acrylic Tank Manufacturing was far more than a small aquarium shop created for a reality show. The business existed for more than a decade before "Tanked" premiered and already had significant experience building commercial aquatic installations.
During the run of the series, ATM reported handling more than 200 projects per year. King described the company as capable of building tanks essentially anywhere in the world, with projects varying enormously in size and cost.
One of the reasons the company worked so well as the subject of a reality series was that almost every job was custom. Clients might ask King and Raymer to turn a telephone booth, vehicle, piece of furniture, musical theme, sports memorabilia display, or architectural space into an aquarium. That meant the ATM crew routinely had to solve problems that had little precedent in conventional aquarium construction.
The business also benefited enormously from the show. A company that previously depended on traditional commercial relationships suddenly had its work demonstrated to millions of potential customers around the world.
End of "Tanked"
"Tanked" ultimately aired for 15 seasons, with its final episodes broadcast in 2018.
Animal Planet publicly confirmed the end of the series in March 2019, saying that the program had come to a natural conclusion. Although the announcement occurred shortly after a highly publicized incident involving King and his wife Heather, reporting at the time indicated that the decision to end the series had been made months earlier.
By the time the cameras stopped rolling, King and Raymer had spent the better part of a decade turning aquarium construction into reality television. Few businesses in such a specialized trade have ever received comparable mainstream exposure.
Marriage to Heather King
King married Heather Raymer on October 25, 1997. Heather is Brett Raymer's sister, meaning King's marriage and business partnership were intertwined from the beginning. Wayde and Heather had two daughters, Taylor and Morgan.
Heather became an important part of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing, handling accounting and appearing regularly on "Tanked." Her father Irwin and brother Brett also worked at ATM, making the company a genuine family business rather than simply one portrayed that way for television.
In March 2019, Heather was arrested following a domestic dispute with Wayde. Police were told conflicting versions of parts of the incident. Wayde alleged that Heather had slapped and kicked him, while Heather admitted slapping him but said she did so after he prevented her from leaving a room. She denied another allegation that she had dragged him with a vehicle.
Two days after the incident, Heather filed for divorce in Clark County, Nevada, after more than 21 years of marriage. The filing requested arrangements involving custody, support, and the couple's marital assets. Publicly available biographies and databases have subsequently been inconsistent about whether the divorce proceeding was formally finalized, so it is more accurate to say that Heather filed for divorce rather than assign a definitive final marital status without stronger documentation.
Cars, Scuba Diving, and Personal Interests
Outside the aquarium business, King is a longtime automobile enthusiast. Cars occasionally became part of "Tanked" storylines, and the show's custom-building format gave him opportunities to combine his interests in vehicles and aquatic design.
He is also an experienced scuba diver, a natural extension of a life spent around marine animals and aquariums. King has described his approach to the business as being focused not simply on producing visually spectacular tanks but also on creating environments in which the fish can live properly.
That technical knowledge was an important part of his television persona. While "Tanked" emphasized outrageous concepts and family comedy, King's underlying career was built through decades of practical work with aquarium construction and aquatic systems.
The unusual combination ultimately gave him two careers: first as an aquarium specialist who built a successful Las Vegas company, and later as a reality television personality whose work introduced millions of viewers to an industry most had never considered before.
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