I went down to the ATL Aquarium with the MACNA conference... It is a nice aquarium, but I agree that the Chatty aquarium is probably a bit better in the fish department...
The biggest gripe I have heard is that it is VERY crowded... Most people have to elbow their way to see the displays, if they get to see them at all... When I went it was closed to the public so I didn't have that problem...
My biggest problem with it is that it is not a very large Aquarium... I know it has one of the largest single volume tanks, but beyond that I just don't see the value for the price of admission... It was cool to stroll through before we had our dinner, especially since it was included with the conference package, but I would not have been too happy had I paid full price admission...
I did like the Garden Eel tank and they did have a few "fake reefs" with lots of anthias and whatnot... Their actual reef tank mostly has polyps and a couple anemones... It is probably smaller than a lot of your members in the MTRC...
Here is a link to some of the pics I took when I was down there...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1473371
If I remember correctly there are two behind the scenes tours... One goes to the top of the Aquarium, where the wave maker, and whatnot are, and the other goes toward the bottom where the "guts" of the aquarium are... I'm not sure if you can do both together... I do think it would be a fun trip if you got enough club members involved... Hope this helps...
