Open Ocean / Jelly Kreisel
The open ocean appears to be an endlessly uniform, three-dimensional, barren environment. However, it is actually home to a diverse community of microscopic plankton, drifters like jellies, and the occasional pelagic predator. This exhibit is a designed to keep fragile organisms, like jellies, suspended in an endless circuit that is representative of the open ocean. Jellies could easily get caught in the corners of rectangular aquarium so kreisels allow them to remain suspended in open water...
SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
The Open Ocean / Jelly Kreisel exhibit is a ??-gallon cylindrical tank that is part of a 3,000-gallon recirculating temperate system that connects many of our temperate-water exhibits. The water temperature is kept at approximately 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees C), a salinity of 35 ppt, a pH near 8.1 and has two airlines to increase dissolved oxygen concentrations. The temperate filtration system that this tank is a part of includes a central sump, a biomedia sump, a main and emergency chiller, a large protein skimmer, a fluidized sand filter, a Polygeyser bead filter, a UV sterilizer, a macroalgae reactor, a wet-dry trickle filter, filter socks and two cartridge filters that can house activated carbon, diatomaceous earth, granular ferric oxide, or nitrogen sponge media.