Georgia Aquarium

[eyebedam]

Me & the wife are taking the kids to the Georgia Aquarium this Thursday. Well be staying at the Grand Hyatt in buckhead chillen with the rich folks for a night. Does anyone know of any good LFS in the area? Ill make sure I get a bunch of good pics while were there.:rollface:

 

[fishdoc11]

I have heard Cappachino Bay(sp?) is not to be missed...several nice stores in Atlanta from what I have heard. They had reef stuff down there in the early 90's when I lived there
As far as the aquarium go early and make plans for eating elsewhere. It is an amazing facility but the crowds can be tough.
You might check on TRT in the Atlanta club forum for tips and local stores. Some very helpfull/nice people on the website and in that club that could possibly make your trip more enjoyable. Good luck and have fun
Chris

 

[c_stowers]

Cappachino Bay has the best SPS and clam selection I have ever seen and I have traveled all over the the SE looking at fish stores. Their prices are "reasonable", but you won't find any great deals. Frags range from $15-30, small colonies are 45-70 and large colonies are 70 and up. I have gotten a few really nice corals from there that would probably never show up here in Nashville. Most of the other stores have a nice fish selection, but only an average selection as far as corals. The problem with visiting all the stores while your there is that they are a solid 15 minutes apart. It took me a whole evening to visit 3 stores with the Atlanta traffic. When I pass through nowadays, I only bother with stopping at Capp Bay.

 

[nosferatu51]

I was just at the GA this past weekend. It is CROWDED....that's my warning to you. Also, make sure you book your tickets ahead of time or you will get to sit there for hours. The online ticket sales sell out almost a week in advance, so I hope you've got some.

That said, I wasn't really impressed with the GA for some reason. Its reef tanks were less impressive than A LOT of the home aquariums I've seen. The only thing they have that you can't see at home are the sizes of the tanks. Other than that, their corals are fairly bland in color and they use natural light to light the tanks so you lose a lot of the little color they do have.
There's a section called the Georgia Explorer in it. Since you have kids it might be worth your while, but other than that it's a bunch of touch pools and screaming kids in a jungle gym so you might want to avoid it
Enjoy your trip, I think I just went with my expectations too high.

PS: If you want a really good breakfast, go to a little bakery/bistro place called Zaria in some Vingny village or something like that. We lucked upon it and it was REALLY good.

 

[eyebedam]

Are tickets are for the 9-10 am admission time so hopefully we wont have to deal with superlong lines. We plan on eating a big breakfest before we go so we dont have to eat there. Ill take a bunch of pics & post some good ones when I get back.