Odd question for Disney's aquarium ???

Samgumbert · May 8, 2022

So my wife and I are watching a documentary about Disney's animals and aquariums so naturally I was intrigued by the aquarium portion and apparently their "tank" is 5.7 MILLION gallons. First off I'm jealous and my second thought is, how do they make that much salt water ?? Is it filtered sea water ? Or do they use Millions of bags of Instant Ocean? I tried looking online and couldn't find anything, so I'm hoping someone on here knows ! Thank you in advance ! And sorry this isn't a direct discussion about my or your aquarium, just really curious !

Spare time · May 8, 2022

@Jay Hemdal might know this one

lapin · May 8, 2022

Great question

“We buy one-ton bags, or what we call ‘super-sacks,’”

How a Landlocked Aquarium Gets Its Seawater

In the 1930s, saltwater was shipped by rail. Since then, things have gotten more high-tech.

www.theatlantic.com

Samgumbert · May 8, 2022

lapin said:
Great question

“We buy one-ton bags, or what we call ‘super-sacks,’”

How a Landlocked Aquarium Gets Its Seawater

In the 1930s, saltwater was shipped by rail. Since then, things have gotten more high-tech.

www.theatlantic.com

I was honestly joking about buying instant ocean but I wasn't wrong that's crazy. Thank you for the article !!

lapin · May 8, 2022

Sometimes the large aquariums have a "behind the scenes" tour.
Well worth the price if you can schedule one

monkeyCmonkeyDo · May 8, 2022

We used filtered natural seawater drawn from like 200 ft out and 50ft down at the last place I volunteered at. You could prob shoot them the question. They might answer. Lol.
D

polyppal · May 8, 2022

Maybe there’re using the packets from the snack bar?

MrGisonni · May 8, 2022

I know Seaworld mixes their own seawater with dry salt for everything in the park.

Jay Hemdal · May 8, 2022

Samgumbert said:
So my wife and I are watching a documentary about Disney's animals and aquariums so naturally I was intrigued by the aquarium portion and apparently their "tank" is 5.7 MILLION gallons. First off I'm jealous and my second thought is, how do they make that much salt water ?? Is it filtered sea water ? Or do they use Millions of bags of Instant Ocean? I tried looking online and couldn't find anything, so I'm hoping someone on here knows ! Thank you in advance ! And sorry this isn't a direct discussion about my or your aquarium, just really curious !

I don’t know about Epcot, but Georgia and the Shedd use Instant Ocean super sacks. When I worked for the Shedd back in the 1980’s, we made up salt from its component parts. One employment “test” was if you could add an 80# bag of magnesium chloride to the mixing tank (grin)
Jay

Lost in the Sauce · May 8, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
I don’t know about Epcot, but Georgia and the Shedd use Instant Ocean super sacks. When I worked for the Shedd back in the 1980’s, we made up salt from its component parts. One employment “test” was if you could add an 80# bag of magnesium chloride to the mixing tank (grin)
Jay

How big were the mixing tanks?

Jay Hemdal · May 8, 2022

Lost in the Sauce said:
How big were the mixing tanks?

You know, I can’t remember! We had 500,000 gallon reservoirs in the basement that we added sodium chloride to through a hatch in the floor. But I also remember adding salt to 1200 gallon vats connected to the main system up on the mezzanine level….not sure why we didn’t add it all in the basement. I remember showing an aquarist who weighed all of 90 pounds how to shoulder the bag of salt up the side of the vat to pass her “test”.

Jay

monkeyCmonkeyDo · May 8, 2022

I still have an IO shirt that says the gerogia aquarium uses nothing but IO.
My mom wants to go to the shed and swim with the balugas. Lol.
D

flyfisher2 · May 23, 2022

Samgumbert said:
So my wife and I are watching a documentary about Disney's animals and aquariums so naturally I was intrigued by the aquarium portion and apparently their "tank" is 5.7 MILLION gallons. First off I'm jealous and my second thought is, how do they make that much salt water ?? Is it filtered sea water ? Or do they use Millions of bags of Instant Ocean? I tried looking online and couldn't find anything, so I'm hoping someone on here knows ! Thank you in advance ! And sorry this isn't a direct discussion about my or your aquarium, just really curious !

Behind the scenes at Georgia Aquarium. they get trailers of these Super bags. ThIs is what they use in all their tanks including the Whale Sharks. I'm sure Disney does the same.
I just checked and the Disney aquarium gave up the number one spot in size to the Georgia Aquarium.

ninjamyst · May 23, 2022

Wow. I wonder how much money IO makes from commercial aquariums vs hobbyists. I assume they give massive discounts to these aquariums but still... that's a lot of salt

flyfisher2 · May 23, 2022

I'm sure. But hey if it's good enough for them... The behind the scenes reef tank tour at Georgia is awesome too. Metal Halides and a huge wave maker.

Gtinnel · May 23, 2022

flyfisher2 said:
I'm sure. But hey if it's good enough for them... The behind the scenes reef tank tour at Georgia is awesome too. Metal Halides and a huge wave maker.

I’m getting to go to the Georgia Aquarium for the first time, in a few months and I am incredibly excited. I never even thought about a behind the scenes tour. I’m glad you mentioned it so I can book it when I get the tickets.

damsels are not mean · May 23, 2022

flyfisher2 said:
Behind the scenes at Georgia Aquarium. they get trailers of these Super bags. ThIs is what they use in all their tanks including the Whale Sharks. I'm sure Disney does the same.
I just checked and the Disney aquarium gave up the number one spot in size to the Georgia Aquarium.

They really ought to use tropic marin... Tsk tsk!

flyfisher2 · May 23, 2022

Gtinnel said:
I’m getting to go to the Georgia Aquarium for the first time, in a few months and I am incredibly excited. I never even thought about a behind the scenes tour. I’m glad you mentioned it so I can book it when I get the tickets.

The actual behind the scenes tour does not include the area with the salt shown in the pic.
I got to talking with the tour guide and he requested special permission after the tour to take my family further and show us around a bit more. It was very cool when he came back to us and pulled us aside for the private walk. I felt like a VIP for all of about 20 minutes. LOL

Bucs20fan · May 23, 2022

The georgia Aquarium is great, I went in February. They have some pretty neat cold water species too. They've got one large tank with Metal Halides on it. Almost looks like a football stadium light suspended above, kinda nuts. It has several species of coral and most of our common reef fish. Definitely very cool to see.

Sharkbait19 · May 23, 2022

Watching the Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom?
In one of the episodes, they mention that they have a mixing facility and show it running. Never mentioned which salt was used, but Jay has the inside-aquarium knowledge there.

If you are ever at the aquarium at Disney, you could probably ask cast members, one of them probably would know or could point you to someone who does.