Georgia Aquarium Pacific Reef Interview

[waltercat]

So I landed an interview with one of the reefkeepers of the GAI's Pacific Reef Aquarium. I am going to be in Atlanta on Wednesday and am going to see the behind the scenes setup for this bad boy:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-03/feature/index.php

I will be taking video and conducting an interview. While I plan to run through some of the usual questions on setup, I was going to ask some more fun type of questions that are directed more at small time reefkeepers like us. Was wondering if anyone had any good ideas.

Here are some of the ones I considered:

How much waste do you pull out of the tank on a daily/weekly basis?
What is your clean up crew like?
Is your tank bare bottom or does it have a deep sand bed?
Do you trade frags?

Shoot out some questions if you have them!

 

[prattreef]

Ask them how long they think it will take for the tank to become even close to as nice as the one out at Atlantis :biggrin:

 

[waltercat]

Haha I know. I'm curious if they have any spawning behavior like Atlantis. I am definitely going to try to set up a similar interview there. I've already taken the behind the scenes tour and I'd love to get some video of that as well.

Speaking of tank interviews, when do I get to interview you and your amazing tanks?

 

[finksmart]

Wow good job. I wanna ask:

1. Have you observed any spawning behavior of the tangs?
2. Either way, any plan on further research on tang spawning since you have the conditions?

 

[prattreef]

Their tank is very immature at this point. It takes a few years to really settle in and take off. I was there in Sept. and frankly it wasn't all that spectacular yet beyond it's size.

I'm out of town this week John. When I get back we'll get together.

 

[waltercat]

Their tank is very immature at this point. It takes a few years to really settle in and take off. I was there in Sept. and frankly it wasn't all that spectacular yet beyond it's size.

I'm out of town this week John. When I get back we'll get together.

Yeah they said it would take 5 years before it gets broken in. I think they are at 2 years now.

 

[greggnyce]

I was there in April and the tank needs to grow out more, but great view,. I also thought the could use more diversitiy in the fish species they had in the reef exhibit. But the Open Ocean Tank(cant remeber the name) is incredible, you could stand there for hours and see new stuff. I would urge anyone to go see that first hand.

 

[DHaut]

I'd like to know how they've planned against aggressive corals killing each other and other non-aggressive species.

 

[ari5736]

What methods do they use to export nitrate and phosphate.

 

[waltercat]

Just wanted to update this thread. I've been traveling alot so haven't had much time. The interview went well and I was able to get alot of cool footage. I even got to go to the aquarium before it opened and was able to enjoy the tank without anyone else around. It was very peaceful.

I'm going to be doing alot of editing over the next few weeks cuz I am trying to make these interview somewhat interesting. I took some video of other areas of the aquarium too. Here's a quick one I did of sea nettles:

http://www.reefvideo.net/sea-nettles-at-the-georgia-aquarium/163

I went to the Birch Aquarium (during the SD Comic Con) and they have a very nice aquarium. It is small but has very healthy tanks and interesting informative displays. It reminded me of Atlantis Marine World, yet it didn't have nearly as impressive of a reef tank. The birch aquarium does have a wonderful Kelp Tank though. I didn't do any interviews but I did get some good video.

 

[LifeStyle]

Nice update.