How to move from 20,000-gal reef tank to 212,000-gal reef tank (video/pics):

[Ninong]

You really have no control over when school tours will show up but I'm sure the Academy schedules them so that they don't end up with too many kids at one time. I have been there many, many times over the years and I can tell you that the sight of five or six school busses pulling up at the curb just as you're about to buy your tickets is not something you want to see.

Now that they're in a brand new building with all these new and improved exhibits, every school within a hundred miles will be wanting to take their students for an all-day field trip. Which is great as long as they don't arrive just as you do.

[Ninong]

I wonder if they intend to put any black-tip reef sharks in there? At 212,000 gallons, it's certainly large enough. I don't think they will but it's something to think about.

They're Open for Business!

Yes, there are black-tip reef sharks in the 212,000-gallon Philippine Coral Reef Exhibit.

California Academy of Sciences website.




List of FREE days.

[TimH07]

i've crossed the atlantic 7 times, and multiple nationwide flights, i dont like flying and dont want to, but i feel a trip comming up............

[tommyc]

"The California Academy of Sciences recognizes the importance of understanding evolution for both scientists and the public, and we emphasize that evolution belongs in school curricula and textbooks as one of the fundamental concepts of modern science".
I agree!

[Ninong]

Update:

I visited the new California Academy of Sciences building last month. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. Maybe I was expecting too much? I have been visiting the old building for the past three decades and I guess I expected the new building to be twice as nice. In some respects it is but in other respects it isn't.

We deliberately avoided the weekends because of the crowds. We figured a Monday would be a nice quiet day to visit. Wrong! For starters, we had to wait in line for an hour just to reach the ticket window. I never waited in line for more than five minutes at the old building. This was the first week in August and I forgot that Europe shuts down for August and they all head for San Francisco, or so it seemed. I was amazed at the number of European tourists. San Francisco has always drawn a lot of European tourists in August but this was ridiculous.

The building was very crowded. There were three times as many people as we have ever run into when visiting the old building. There was virtually no seating anywhere except in the two huge cafeterias. The old building had lots of decent seating where you could simply sit down and rest before heading off to the next attraction. No more! All gone! The cafeterias were another disappointment -- overpriced, unappetizing trendy fast food. And both cafeterias were jammed.

The main attraction, for me anyway, was the Steinhart Aquarium with its new 212,000-gal reef exhibit. The reef exhibit in the old aquarium was only 6,000 gallons. This was a major disappointment!

The reef tank is more like a gigantic FOWLR aquarium. The fish were certainly beautiful and there were lots of them. There were very few corals and only leathers. The old reef tank looked like a regular hobbyist's reef tank with lots and lots of corals, including many Acropora and other SPS. The glass (acrylic) front panes in the old reef tank were set about 40" above the floor, just like you might have in a home setting with a large built-in aquarium. The glass (acrylic) pane in this new aquarium is set on the floor of the room. That means that there will always be visiters, especially children, in front of you blocking the view of the bottom part of the tank unless you push your way to the front. It's extremely difficult to look at such a large tank from only 6" away.

They have a viewing section, sort of like what the Monterey Bay Aquarium has, that is set back about 25-ft from the front glass but every available seat was taken. And if you do manage to find a seat, there will always be dozens of people 5 to 10 deep standing in front of you.

Maybe August was just a bad time to go. Maybe the crowds will thin out later in the year, like a rainy day in January or something. Maybe they will figure out a way to get something to grow in this very tall tank? I doubt that it receives direct natural sunlight more than an hour a day this time of the year and at that lattitude. Maybe it gets as much as two or three hours of sunlight in June and July. Maybe. They do have a lot of very powerful metal halides over the tank but they aren't getting the job done. The new reef tank at the Waikiki Aquarium in Honolulu is only about five feet tall. This tank at the Steinhart Aquarium is 25-ft tall.

They still have some of the freshwater exhibits and reptile exhibits but not as many as they used to have in the old building.

The roof of the building was cool. At least that wasn't a disappointment. I guess it's just hard to enjoy yourself if you can't view something in peace and quiet, or even view it at all if there are crowds of people constantly in front of you.

We also took in the King Tut exhibit at the de Young Museum across the plaza. That was another major disappointment. Way too crowded to enjoy yourself. They schedule a group of people every 20 minutes or so. Each group is probably around 80 people. The exhibit is housed in about a dozen different rooms, maybe more. Every item on exhibit is encased in acrylic, as expected. The descriptive text for most of the exhibits is placed maybe 24" above the floor (for the tall exhibits). You can't read that unless you stoop down. Once again there were always people standing in front of you. And, if you waited for everyone to move to the next room, the group behind you would be overtaking you.

The de Young was way too cold. And it was way too drafty. I can understand why they might want to keep the A/C a little on the low side but this was ridiculous. It felt like you were in a walk-in freezer. They tell you to allow about 90 minutes to complete the tour of the exhibit. We finished it in 60 minutes because we were getting frustrated and just wanted to get out of there. Once again, half the people were from out of state with a heavy concentration of Europeans.

In summary, the new California Academy of Sciences building is very modern, as you can see from the photos on their website. I sort of liked the old 100-year-old building better. Except for the roof. I liked the roof.

If you go, don't go during August. Don't go on a weekend. If you go on a free day, expect it to be jam packed. In fact, it might be jam packed almost any day you go. This wasn't much of a problem with the old building unless you went on a weekend or a free day.

[tommyc]

Sorry Ninong. I guess bigger isn't always better.

[berkdog]

Wow Ninong, I just saw this thread. I have groups of friends going all the time, but I haven't been out myself yet. I'd have to agree: avoid the crowds whenever you can! They have a nice Thursday "NightLife" events if you are 21+ and don't have kids (https://www.calacademy.org/event_tickets/). That's probably what I'll be going to when I visit.

Did you happen to have VIP access to staff-only areas (https://www.calacademy.org/tours/platinum/)?

[Ninong]

The behind-the-scenes tour cost $99 per person. We didn't go for that. I already know what it looks like behind the scenes.

[berkdog]

Then I assume you're not planning on attending this: Aquarama 2011

I'm considering it. 2011, time to start saving!

[Ninong]

Then I assume you're not planning on attending this: Aquarama 2011

I'm considering it. 2011, time to start saving!

That's a trade show in Singapore. What does that have to do with a thread reviewing a public aquarium???