JoeBlog Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 I went to the Georgia Aquarium a little over a week ago, and it was AMAZING!! I bought the usual ticket as well as a behind the scenes tour. The tour was a bit pricy at $50 for an hour, but well worth it. Anyway, to the pictures… (I must apologize in advance. I was borrowing my buddies camera and couldn't for the life of me hold my hand still enough to avoid blurred shots in a few/many of the pictures. :oops: ) Welcome to the aquarium… I got the bright and early to avoid the massive lines that formed later in the day. Many of the hour time slots for entry were sold out even on a Monday!! Here is the 1st welcoming aquarium with a massive school of these fairly large fish. There was a 2nd aquarium with exactly the same stock on the opposing wall of the hallway. Next you walk into this huge entry hall to all the exhibits. Of course, I immediately headed straight for the reef! This is the first aquarium in the reef exhibit. It has an insanely large school of (possibly) squirrel fish. It was amazing and made me decide that a huge school of fish is mandatory for my next big tank. In the sand of this tank were all of these worms(??). Now to the main reef... Just after the surge... (I have a movie of this as well, but don't know how to post those.) The reef is VERY young and the corals are quite small (relative to the massive size of the aquarium). Also, they are starting a propogation center in order to completely stock the tank over time. In the mean time, they have quite a few fake corals to fill in the gaps. I am definitely planning on coming back in a few years to see how things have filled in. Just for propective though, most of those yellow tangs are HUGE compared to anything I've seen in anyone's aquariums. Now for some "behind the scenes" pictures... First, the massive skimmers for the reef tank: Now the surge device: At the back of the reef, they have a refuge with mangroves. They first introduce new fish here and when the fish decides that they want to enter the aquarium, they swim over the top of the reef. A few more behind the scenes shots before we get to the BIG AQUARIUM. Here are a few bags of Instant Ocean: The husbandry center where they prepare all the food. The vet center Now to the Ocean Voyage... You first enter by going through a tunnel at the center of the tank, which is SO big that you can't see any of the walls. It appears like an actual slice of the deep ocean. Many people were just lingering in awe in the tunnel and the staff kept trying to convince people to move on since it only gets better. And unbelievably they were right... Picture just after the automatic feeder went off and the fish went MAD. I also have a movie of this and will post if I can figure it out. Here is a sample of the plastic used for the viewing pane. Some behind the scenes pictures of this tank. The yellow catwalk is where they target feed the two whale sharks, other sharks and large fish. All the other thousands of fish in the tank are feed periodically on automatic feeders spread all around the tank. The viewing pane for this tank is right behind this catwalk. This is a view of the rest of the tank next to and from the catwalk. The viewing tunnel is right in the center where the water is agitated with fans/bubbles. So from the main viewing window, you actually only see about 1/4 of the whole tank, and it is still CRAZY huge. A picture of one of the whale sharks from the catwalk. I know that this will probably piss quite a few of you off, but here are some pictures of the "petting" areas. There are several of these around (various types of crabs, starfish, etc...) with a biologist at each one to educate and assist. I was surprised by having the hammer head sharks as one of the petting exhibits, but they didn't seem to mind. I found it quite interesting. Here's a picture of a huge crab in the cold water exhibit. They had many other exhibits including quite amazing fresh water stuff, seals, penguins, otters, Beluga whales, Georgia coastline specific species, etc… Unfortunately, I was running out of memory on my buddy’s small card and had to make not so tough decisions. The tropical marine stuff won hands down. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and would definitely recommend a trip there to anyone coming to the States. I got there around 9AM and they practically had to kick me out close to 6PM. So if you do go, make sure to plan a WHOLE day and pay the extra bucks for the "behind the scenes" tickets. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puttputt Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 wow!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KP Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Thats awesome, Hopefully go there someday. What else is there to do in Georgia? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiuh Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KP Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Also photobucket has a video hosting feature if you wanted to upload that video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmatix Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 very cool looks like a great trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeroen Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 I keep telling them at home that my aquarium is too small. Great pitcures. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 You know what? It makes Kelly Tarlton looks like a piece of junk and not worth visiting at all. I'd rather pay US$50 and visit the Georgia Aquarium. It only took me like 15 mins to go through Kelly Tarlton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 I wanna go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do they do overnighters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 I like the one with the beadlet? anemones, how was that set up with lighting & flow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted May 18, 2006 Report Share Posted May 18, 2006 Thats not fair I can only see red crosses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted May 18, 2006 Report Share Posted May 18, 2006 I can see now thanks Wonderful!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinity Posted May 18, 2006 Report Share Posted May 18, 2006 :lol: :lol: I want one of those bags of salt and I want a tank that big to go with the salt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikan Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Just to a post to on Kelly Tarltons it was built over twenty years ago and was the first in the world of its kind. Georgia aquarium had a bugdet in the excess of over 150 times the budget we built ours for. We are the only 100% protein skimmed aquarium in the world another first, after our filtration upgrade. If it only took you fifteen minutes then you can't of been that interested . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Is kelly tarltons protein skimmed? I would find that hard to believe since the ocean is right there. It doesnt make sense to skim it when you can just pump water through it and out the other side. Bloody rediculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikan Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 Its uses ozone, so skimming isnt so ridiculous. There is a ocean right there and the tanks temps arent the same as the ocean, it costs a lot of money to either heat, chill, pump and filter water from the Rangitoto channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted May 20, 2006 Report Share Posted May 20, 2006 Thanks JoeBlog for the pictures. I am in a state of shock... never thought anything like this exsisted. Can't wait to show my wife. Now I need to visit the USA..... how much can I get for a small child? enough for an airfair? Only joking I think Loto is my ticket!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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