Our trip to the Georgia Aquarium + !!!Behind the Scenes!!! *TONS OF PICS*

[binaryterror]

Me and brianiscool (were freinds), went to the Georgia Aquarium last weekend. We just got back yesterday and had a great time. it was one of the coolest places I have ever bee to in my life.

Now, we also forked over the extra cash to go on the *Behind the Scenes* tour! We were able to see all of the filtration and the tops of the reef tank, and the legendary 6.2 million gallon tank! it was really cool.

We have many pics to show, so lets begin!

This is the lagoon where you get to touch Bonnetthead sharks, and Cownose rays.

They had a tank with 2 sea turtles, it was behind the touch lagoon.

 

[binaryterror]

The next exhibit was ColdWater Quest. It had Japenese Spider crabs, Seadragons, a Giant Pacific Octopus, and Buluga Whales.

Here are the Seadragons. They blended right in with the plants around them. They were really cool. Some people could'nt even see them!

Here are the Spider crabs. They were under red light since they are a deepwater species. No flash was allowed. They can also grow as big as a car!

These are the Baluga whales. I think they were the coolest thing there. They were all very active, swam in front of the tanks. They were really, really cool!

 

[binaryterror]

This is the area with the huge reef tank, lots of jellyfish, and some misc. small reef tanks. This was one of my personal favorites.

This is a smaller fake reef tank, it had loads of activity and fish!

Annularis Angel
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There were tons of little garden eels in the sand. They went back into the sand when something came close. They were funny.

Lined seahorse tank

Clownfish and Anemone tank
This is there Jelly tank. It was really interesting how they move.

 

[binaryterror]

Now here is the big tank. It is currently 50% real corals, and they plan to make it 100% real corals, which would make it the largest reef tank in the world! This tank was spectacular. I could have watched it for hours!

Vlamingii Tang

Blue Tang

Tomato Clown in a RBTA

 

[binaryterror]

The next exhibit was the Ocean Voyager. This is what we came for, the 6.2 MILLION gallon tank! They now have 4 whale sharks, 2 male, and 2 female. They just got the females 3 weeks ago! It was so deep, you couldnt even see through the whole thing. This was just jawdropping. I cant even really describe it with words, just pics!

Whale shark in front of the big window for the huge tank.

 

[binaryterror]

Hammerhead shark

They had a HUGE school of batrays. They moved so elegantly, and gentle!

Huge grouper

Hammerhead semi-closeup

 

[The_fishkeeper86]

hey, sweet pics man, I went there on june 20th. Did you see the top of the reef tank amazeing stuff!

 

[McCrary]

awesome pictures, I wish I lived close enough to go.

 

[geckofrog]

awesome stuff! I'd love to work there

 

[steveo32]

very nice pics thank you for sharing !!

 

[marinelife]

looks good

 

[thor32766]

yeah great pics thanks for sharing!

 

[binaryterror]

***BEHIND THE SCENES***

Top view of shark logoon

This is where they put the sick and diseased fish

This is where they operate on fish. They have only done 2 major surgeries.

This is all of the frozen food for the fish. They feed 2000lbs. of food per day!

This is what they shipped the 2 new female whale sharks in. They just got them 3 weeks ago.

This is the crane used to lift the whale sharks into the big tank. It can lift 20 tons!

This is where they will begin to propagate corals, and seadragons

 

[binaryterror]

Top of reef tank

Huge skimmer. They had like 7 of these on the reef tank

This is all of the piping and the buckets used for creating the wave on the reef tank.

The wavemaker pouring

Huge MH lights on each side that they raise over tha tank on a cloudy day. They usually use sunlight

This is the refugium area where they put new fish, and where fish can lay there eggs. It was really cool. Fish can come and go as they please!

They had a few buckets with fish that are badly injured and get pick on.

 

[binaryterror]

Top view of 6.2 million gallon tank. Its HUGE!

This is how close we were to the whale sharks on top of the tank!

This is what we walked across to see the whole tank.

Coral propagation again

 

[binaryterror]

Here are the many vids we have.

Bat rays


Sea lioins


Whale shark


Wave over reef tank



How they make the wave over reef tank (behind the scenes)



Baluga Whales


Touch lagoon

 

[binaryterror]

Whale shark again


Big viewing panel *note the bubbles. They are because the whale sharks kept running into the acrylic and making huge scratches. So they put bubbles to let the whale sharks know when to turn.


Whale shark shipping containers and crane


Whole view of 6.2 million gallon tank


Enjoy!!!

And yes the vids suck... lol. They were takek with mmy crappy digital camers. So bear with me!

 

[Spiffyguy]

great stuff. Thank you for sharing. I would love to get there soon.

 

[binaryterror]

You should go there. We had a great time. Me and brianiscool flew down to Atlanta for 2 days just to see the Aquarium. And it was definatly worth it!

 

[jakaufman]

amazing.. i wish i had known more about sea life and reefs when i went to atlantis (bahamas) .. i loved to watch everything but didn't know near as much as i do now!

its goign to be a completely different experience to see any aquarium after setting up one at home