Waikiki Aquarium - 12 pics

[Ninong]

Here are a few selected pics I took last month on vacation. These were taken with my old Olympus 35mm camera. My sister just got a new Kodak digital camera, so maybe my next pics will be better.

Waterfall along Waikiki Beach sidewalk on way to Aquarium.

[Ninong]

Walking along Waikiki Beach to Waikiki Aquarium.

[Ninong]

Waikiki Aquarium entrance. Here is a link to their website: http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/ The website is not up to date because it does not show the new 5500-gal reeftank and it lists the weight of their largest Tridacna gigas as only 120-lbs. It weighed 167-lbs when they weighed it in 2002.

[Ninong]

Black Tip Reef Shark in 35,000-gal shark tank.

[Ninong]

Monk Seal in outdoor exhibit.

[Ninong]

Outdoor reeftank with Carlson surge. This tank is much larger than it appears. It's about 14' long by 6' wide by about 3-1/2' high.

[Ninong]

Closer view of outdoor reeftank.

[Ninong]

Close-up of outdoor reeftank.

[Ninong]

Outdoor Edge of Reef exhibit. This is their 7500-gal outdoor tank with corals and fish native to Hawaii. Talk about ease of maintenance! There is a surge of a few hundred gallons of natural seawater every 5 minutes. That's it! Nothing else. No controls on temperature, salinity, water params, or anything else for that matter. Notice their very convenient location.

[Ninong]

5500-gal reeftank. This exhibit was just overhauled a few months before my visit, so it's brand new. Very beautiful!

[Ninong]

Center of 5500-gal reeftank. There are three large T. gigas in this tank. The two in the center of the tank are really gigantic. The one to the rear is the largest I have ever seen in an aquarium. It is 27 years old and weighed in at 167-lbs when they redid their tank a couple of months ago.

[Ninong]

Last pic. Close-up of 5500-gal reeftank. That beautiful tang is Acanthurus japonicus (Japan Surgeonfish, White-Faced Tang, and sometimes sold as the Powder Brown Tang). I have never seen one of these guys this colorful. Absolutely stunning!

If any of you has one of these, please tell me if it is close in coloration to this one, especially the glowing yellow body color. I have searched the web and looked at dozens of pictures of this species but none of the pictures comes close to this fish. There is evidently a wide range of coloration in these guys.

[Reefland]

Ninong,

The "old Olympus 35mm" takes pretty good pictures if you ask me!

Do you know the dimensions of that 5500gal tank? It must be a monster! Thier outdoor reef looks really cool too!

Thanks for sharing,
Scott Z.

[Ninong]

Originally posted by Reefland:

The "old Olympus 35mm" takes pretty good pictures if you ask me!

Those were the selected pics! I have a couple of dozen more that I won't post. I think I have an inferiority complex from looking at all of Mark Ridley's threads.

Do you know the dimensions of that 5500gal tank? It must be a monster!

I wish I had stepped off the length of the tank while I was there, but I didn't. I assumed it would be featured on their website, but it's not. I got the figure of 5500 gallons from a thread on Reef Central. If I had to guess, I would say that the length is somewhere around 15 or 16 feet, the height is approximately 5 feet and the width must be in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 feet--that's the most difficult dimension to judge. The T. gigas closest to the front appeared to be about 30" and the one behind it was considerably larger.

P.S. added 5/22/03: Wow! I was pretty close on my guesstimates about the size of that tank. Here are the correct stats according to J. Charles Delbeek:

The tank is 16.5 ft long, 9 ft wide at one end and 7 ft wide at the other and 5.5 ft tall. Without rock, etc., it would hold 5500 gallons. There is also a 1000 gallon sump. There are two 250-gallon surge devices on the roof, one for each each end of the tank. There is an ETSS 5000 skimmer.

The lighting is 3 x 1000w 6500K metal halides from Sunmaster plus 4 x 400w Radium 20,000K lamps, plus natural sunlight via skylights. There is a 2 HP pump for internal circulation, a 2 HP to feed the surge towers, a 2 HP to feed the 10 HP chiller outside and a 1 HP to feed the skimmer. The sand bed is about 3"-4", it is only in front of the rocks. The rockwork sits on fibergrate framing.

[Reefland]

Ninong!

You mentioned th Clam is 25 years old, do you know how long they've had it or is that how long they've had it? They sure are huge!

Scott Z.

[Ninong]

They got it 20 years ago when it was only 5 years old. It came from Palau. (P.S. -- That information from Waikiki Aquarium's audio tour was a little dated. That clam was actually 27 years old when I viewed it in September 2002.)

I wonder if that qualifies it as the longest held in captivity?

[Minh Nguyen]

I can't wait for my Gigas to get that big. Mine is about 18 inches or so. I had him since 12/1997.
T. gigas

Minh Nguyen

[Reefland]

WOW! 20 years is a very long time; if it's not to longest it has got to be the second longest!

I was looking at tthe pictures again and you've got the love large tanks and the wide selection of fish they can house. Absolutely beautiful!

Scott Z.

[Reefland]

That is a fabulous clam and a fabulous tank you have there! Congratulations!

[Barry N.]

Hi Ninong , Love those pictures

I was over there a few years ago but ran out of time and didn't get to the Aquarium.

Great shots of those clams.

Minh, your tank looks GREAT as always.


Barry