Aquarium of the Pacific Pics!!!!

[ReefSparky]

Wow man. Thanks for posting these pics. These definitely qualify as reef porn. Those jellyfish pics are astounding.

Are there more?

Karma to ya for taking the time!!

[Bogie]

Here's the last of the reef and coral pics. It's taking a long tiime to organize and upload these, so I need a break.

I'll get the "Behind the Scenes" pics up for you next BMSHEHAN. There's some goodies there.

[inwall75]

Great thread!!!!

The flashy jellyfish are typically called comb jellies. Their technical name is Ctenophore (the C is silent....ten O 4).

There is one interesting fact about this aquarium that most wouldn't know. I'm explaining this because it will help people understand the industry a little better. Inside LAX there is a street (104th street to be exact) that is nothing but companies that supply our hobby. On occasion, they'll receive a coral that is illegal to sell. These companies obviously freak out and want them out of their care as soon as possible and a donation is quickly made. As a result, many of the corals you saw cannot be legally owned by most hobbyists.

I didn't even know they had a coldwater reef section because I've never personally visited. The Catalina Gobies and Strawberry Anemones prove otherwise.

[baugherb]

Awesome pics.. Thanks for taking the time to share them with us...

[missionsix66]

Killer pics bogie. Thanks for taking the time to share them. I know it's alot of work. Let's see some filtration behind the scenes action.

[Daniel072]

I'm ready to see a really big skimmer

[Bogie]

Ok here it is. Everything from HUGE sand-filled filters and ozone reactors in the "back yard", to some roof-top shots of Long Beach palm trees, to the room on the third floor above the display tanks. You'll see the diving suits, hospital/quarantine tanks, some shots of tangs and a barracuda from above the tank, and even some real plastic coral.

First, some baby sea horses in the back room:



And even the aquarium has a yellow tang that's not doing so hot in that hospital tank.



And a big protein skimmer for Dan:

[Bogie]

More to come still....

So I know most of their corals in my pics above were real, but I guess it's too hard to keep all live coral in their fish-only tanks. These brought back the reality of how hard it is to keep coral, espcially in a tank that deep... But their lighting is still no joke - I can't afford it for sure.

[Bogie]

Here's some shots of the fish from above in the room over the big display tank. Yes, I have a video clip too that shows how loud it is in there ...later, later. We had to step in these shallow bleach/water trays to clean the bottoms of our shoes before going in here. We also got to feed some nori to the tangs.

[Bogie]

The tours were groups no more than 10 people. For the extra $5 for the behind the scenes tour, it was definitely worth it.

Just one of me.



Shark egg.



Some of the hospital/QT tanks make ours look "tiny". But those are sharks. Leopard sharks or bamboo sharks, I don't remember honestly.