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Seattle Aquarium


Planeden

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Not sure if any of you have been there, but I really enjoyed the Seattle Aquarium. It is a little small, but after reading so much on filtration and tank design I really enjoyed seeing how some of the tanks were set up. They have a tidal tank, a surge wave tank, and a bunch of normal tanks. They have what we started calling the jelly donut, which was round (vertical) tank that formed a sort of archway that had jellyfish floating around the circle in a current.

We had time to kill, so we went through the tropical section many times and took pictures to see what we may be able to grow in our tank.

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I've enjoyed it. I've been going there every few years for a long time, probably 25 years total. It's really progressed over the past 10 or so. It's definitely on the smaller side but I really appreciate the attention to native species since so much is usually focused at tropic fish.

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I grew up in Tacoma so I've been there quite a few times. They're known for their Pacific Octopus studies and demonstrations.

Speaking of small, we went to the Tacoma art museum, too. But they had a large octopus (2 years old, maybe ) and a new juvenile they had just caught. I found it interesting that the take them, play with them for a while and let them go when they are a few years old.

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  • 3 years later...

Figured I'd revive this rather than start a new thread. We just went here on Sunday, still looking great, they have 1 large reef tank that is amazing. Here's some pictures from this trip. It's a bit pricey of an aquarium, but it's still very well thought out. I think we lucked out with a ton of road construction and a Seahawks game going on because we basically had the aquarium to ourselves.

Largest single BTA I've ever seen by a long shot. This is my daughter's hand next to it, but it was probably 14" x 16".

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Same tank:

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Here's some of their main reef tank. Just guessing it's in the 2000 gallon range:

Left Side:

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Right:

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Lot's of very simple SPS that are incredibly healthy and everything is obviously well fed. The idol clearly owns this tank. But tanks like this are the reason many of use were lured into the hobby.

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30"+ Bubble coral:

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Tabling acros, montis, and seriatoporas:

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Jellyfish:

Moon jellyfish kreisel tank:

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We watched the dwarf cuddlefish for about 20 minutes. If these guys had a longer life, I would probably devote all of my tanks to them...

Not inclusive by any means, just posting some of the more interesting photos I was able to get. There's a ton more displays for native pacific northwest life tidal pools, salmon, seals, sealions, otters, large tidal touch pools, a huge viewing tank right as you enter.

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Nice pictures! I haven't been there since 2006 and I don't remember them having any coral tanks back then. Is the large reef sunlit? It looks very similar to the Waikiki Aquarium display tank. I wonder how they keep detritus from building up under all of that rock!

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Nice pictures! I haven't been there since 2006 and I don't remember them having any coral tanks back then. Is the large reef sunlit? It looks very similar to the Waikiki Aquarium display tank. I wonder how they keep detritus from building up under all of that rock!

I think it's artificially lit, or at least has a ton of supplemented lighting. It was really overcast and cloudy so no way it could have been this bright without some major artificial lighting.

No idea on the flow. I couldn't see a single pump or return and there was a hardly a single dead spot in the tank so they have something moving a significant volume of water.

I've seen a ton of reef tanks at public aquariums and this is one of the most well thought out and balanced systems I've seen. I wish I could have gotten a behind the scenes on this one. I doubt I'd ever be able to setup something this large but would love to see the specifics on how it's setup.

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