What do the pros do?

[HawkeyeDJ]

So I was thinking about the pros, the big commercial aquariums like Sea World and Aquarium of the Pacific, Shedd Aquarium, etc.

Do they do 25% water changes weekly? How do they deal with aiptasia and hair algae? Their protein skimmers and sumps must be massive. Am I right?

I visit these aquariums frequently. Do they quarantine all livestock for months at a time? How do they deal with an outbreak of ich?

 

[blaxsun]

I think they do everything - but on a much larger scale. The really large ones probably have their own water filtration and treatment plants, as I don't think water changes are feasible.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

So I was thinking about the pros, the big commercial aquariums like Sea World and Aquarium of the Pacific, Shedd Aquarium, etc.

Do they do 25% water changes weekly? How do they deal with aiptasia and hair algae? Their protein skimmers and sumps must be massive. Am I right?

I visit these aquariums frequently. Do they quarantine all livestock for months at a time? How do they deal with an outbreak of ich?

I've worked behind the scenes at a smaller public aquarium as well as helped run a finfish research facility for my university after I graduated college. Short answer answer to all those questions is: yes. Yes to large consistent water changes, dealing with things like hair algae are the same principle just at a larger scale. Pest/hitchikers/disease are less of an issue, because they do quarantine all livestock for months at a time. Equipment is similar but larger, look into foam fractionators, used to have to clean and maintain ones that were 10+ feet tall.

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

It depends on the facility. Joe Y. at Long Island for example has the ability to do whatever he wants to his exhibit, basically whenever. Places like Georgia have life support teams that do water changes/maintenance, diet teams that prepare food and feed, chemistry people that run chems, divers to scrub, vets for health issues, and everything needs an approved work order to get started, etc. etc. The facility I worked at we were totally hands-on with our exhibits, from QT to diving and everything in between, which was nice. Yes equipment is just bigger (8' ladder for scale).

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

It depends on the facility. Joe Y. at Long Island for example has the ability to do whatever he wants to his exhibit, basically whenever. Places like Georgia have life support teams that do water changes/maintenance, diet teams that prepare food and feed, chemistry people that run chems, divers to scrub, vets for health issues, and everything needs an approved work order to get started, etc. etc. The facility I worked at we were totally hands-on with our exhibits, from QT to diving and everything in between, which was nice. Yes equipment is just bigger (8' ladder for scale).

Is that a protein skimmer? If so, did they get it at BRS?