One of the best aquariums I have ever seen!!

[Acro76]

I know probably quite a few of the NY crowd have seen this, but I was blown away!! :tongue1:

Atlantis Marine World
431 East Main Street
Riverhead, NY 11901

http://www.atlantismarineworld.com

Todd and I had the good fortune of meeting the curator of this facility, Joseph Yaiullo while at a frag swap in NYC last weekend. Joe was kind enough to invite us on a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium. 2 hours did not seem like enough time to check out this awesome public aquarium! The "jewel" of this place is the 20,000 gallon reef tank! Many aquarists were first introduced to this tank by the book, Ultimate Marine Aquariums. It was photographed in 2001 for this book, and my how it has changed!

Wished I would have brought my DSLR on this trip, but I made do with the point and shoot camera.

The drive from New Jersey into Manhattan...

Building front with outside Seal tank

Doing the backstroke!

 

[Acro76]

The "Best buddies, clownfish and anemone exhibit"

Top down of this tank - Quite a few different clown species in here: Skunks, Ocellaris, Saddleback, etc.

Phytoplankton and rotifer cultures... quite a few different breeding programs going on here!

Baby saddlebacks

Tiny horseshoe crabs!

I think these were the shark tank skimmers, but they had this same design on a number of displays

 

[Acro76]

The 20,000 Gallon Reef - 30 feet long, 14 feet deep, 6.5 feet tall....

These powder blues were doing circles trying to catch each other's tails...

Even the "small" coral colonies in this tank are about 12" around!!

 

[Acro76]

Over 800 fish in a feeding frenzy!!

Going up top you see this nice warning sign about keeping the door to the seal exhibit CLOSED from the reef tank!!

Yeah, I'm impressed!

Todd is in reefing nirvana!

A few top-down shots

 

[Dive STX]

And Now You Know.buy The Pigs A Beer.

 

[DrCooper]

I still haven't made my way out there, I can't wait
Great pictures!

 

[mckostya]

wow great pics - diving with sharks sounds intense

 

[Thatguy96]

Awesome Pics

 

[krzysiek]

nice pictures

 

[NDY]

Great Pics
I Bet It Was a Nice Place To Visit Lol

 

[crox99]

Thanks for the pics. It looks like that you guys were having fun.

 

[aznt1217]

Great Aquarium... Just a tad small but... how did you get access to look at the equipment room and stuff?

 

[Malibu361]

Todd and I had the good fortune of meeting the curator of this facility, Joseph Yaiullo while at a frag swap in NYC last weekend. Joe was kind enough to invite us on a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium.

Great pics by the way I think I will make it out there this weekend....:splitspin

 

[michaelp]

I've been there. It's amazing.

 

[Beaun]

One of the best aquariums I'v been to in the area. I'm a member and make it out as often as possible. Its the largest self contained reef in the western hemisphere. You can sit there and watch it for 30 minutes and still be amazed. The saddle back almost ALWAYS has eggs on a tile in the bottom right of the anenome tank. I'v been there several times and its always been protecting a group of eggs on the tile. Some of the anenomes are HUGE. as well as the corals. Its rediculous how big some of the corals are in that aquarium. The shark tank is another impressive display with reef fish, pelagic fish, sharks, rays, and a turtle living together. There are some large groups of lookdowns, what appear to be tuna, very large yellow tangs, and various others. they also have some very nice small tanks, there is a tank above the shark tank with a large colony of sun corals in it, its a nice little tank.

In the summer they have a "reef" outside that you can snorkel in, just has some fish and stuff, but its still kind of neat. They also have small exibits with reptiles, snow monkeys, and a few other odds and ends. Their "local" tank is nice, got some good sized kilifish, mumichugs, and other species that come and go. But what is most interesting is that they have muscles in the tank with a "tide" cycle to give the muscles wet and dry times, very interesting.

What I find amazing is that they get their water from the Shinnecock Cannal for everything. Makes me wonder what they do to the water to prepare it for the reef tank? Anyways, if you live anywhere close to this aquarium, you need to go and check it out. I think I will be making a trip with my wife and brother on our day off on Monday.

 

[HappyInWater]

Thanks for sharing the Incredible pics!!

I have yet to go out there but will make it a day trip one day.

 

[reefnewbe]

very cool!