Oklahoma Aquarium

[steamboat1569]

Not long ago I posted that the Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society was going to do a tour of the wet lab facilities for the still under construction Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, OK. I took many pics. It was a do it yourselfer's dream, as much of the holding equipment is totally diy.
I was very impressed with the tour, and just wanted to share. I am only going to post a few pics, so this won't be such a long thread.
This first one is one of 4, 15ft. tall protien skimmers that are hooked up to the holding tank for the sharks. they have bothe bull sharks, and lemon sharks in this massive tank.

 

[steamboat1569]

Overall view of shark holding tank.

 

[steamboat1569]

Overall view of wet labs.

 

[steamboat1569]

18" long Pocupine Puffer.

 

[steamboat1569]

They have about 15 small reef tanks like this.

 

[iechy]

Pretty cool Steamboat Thanks for sharing!

 

[steamboat1569]

This guy was curious.

 

[steamboat1569]

I have many more pics., just did not want this to be too long.
Thanks for letting me share!

 

[steamboat1569]

Oh heck, what about a lionfish. this bad boy is about 18"long.

 

[twoods71]

Cool pics.
Now thats a skimmer huh?

 

[jonthefb]

man can you imagine cleaning the collection cups on those skimmers!!!! gross, it would take like five guys!
hah!
thanks for the great pics. keep em coming!
good luck
jon

 

[steamboat1569]

Hee,Hee
The collection cups have a pvc line that comes down off of them. When operating, the line is closed with a valve. When the collection cup gets full, you just simply open the spigot located at the bottom of the big aeration tank.

 

[overanalyzer]

Steamboat - where is this massive new aquarium located??

 

[steamboat1569]

It is in Jenks, OK. Just south of Tulsa. It was soposed to open this summer, but construction delays have put off the opening.
They have a web site up, here is the link.
www.okaquarium.org.

 

[overanalyzer]

Hey Steamboat - can you let us know when it finally opens? The link you posted does not work ..... unless you remove the final . after the .org so remove that last dot!!
Thanks!!

 

[steamboat1569]

Try this,
www.okaquarium.org

 

[j21kickster]

Thanks for sharing, i would love to work at a place like that

 

[steamboat1569]

I just want to add that these pics were taken at the wet labs, and holding facilities. None of this stuff that I have seen will be open to the public. All the filtration systems and "really neat stuff", that I was able to see in these buildings will never be seen by most people. All the systems they put together in these buildings were mostly stuff that they built themselves. There were some amazing things to see, and I wish that everyone in this hobby could see the things they have. The amount of creativity and ingenuity was incredible.
Just under the reef tanks they had in there were totally diy. They built their own skimmers, calcium reactors, plumbing, sumps.
Most of their large holding tanks were made of hog troughs. They cut a big square out of them, installed acrylic windows, bolted, and sealed with silicone caulking. Hooked up to these were diy protien skimmers, ozonators, etc.
I wish we could get together a group and go!

 

[steamboat1569]

Yes, I will let you know when it opens.

 

[steamboat1569]

I think that more people are intersted in this than they let on. Come on you guys.