My First Time Diving

December 30, 2016

I never would have expected that the first time I donned my gear and stepped into the water that my life would be forever altered.

As a zoology major I took a special interest in Marine Science. While looking at potential jobs, I realized that getting my scuba diving certification would be a necessity. So, after classroom and pool instruction, one early May Saturday morning I woke up before the crack of dawn and made my way to Gilboa Quarry.

Being my first dive and not knowing what to expect had me both excited and nervous. The water was a brisk 45 degrees so I was instructed to wear gloves and a hood, which I had never practiced before. The feeling was restrictive which only made my nerves worse. Although I was scared, I was exhilarated knowing I was finally going to dive, so I took a deep breath and jumped in.

Being in the water was amazing. I felt like I was entering an entirely different world. Visibility of at least 40 feet made my experience with seeing the rainbow trout, perch, catfish and paddlefish more than I expected.

When I reached the underwater platform, we began to practice the skills we learned in class. When I was instructed to take off my mask and put it back on, I started to freak out. I had a million thoughts running through my head. Will this be different from what I practiced with a hood on? Will I be able to breathe? Will I be stuck with a water-filled mask? Luckily we were not far from the surface so I went up and calmed myself down.

Once I collected myself, the instructor walked me through everything and I realized that I would be completely fine. After practicing a few more skills in the water, we followed my instructor for a “fun dive”. This consisted of stare downs with perch, swimming through tire obstacles, feeding zebra mussels to blue gills, pretending to jump on a trampoline, playing rock paper scissors, and lots and lots of smiling. Actually, I kept flooding my mask with water because every time I smiled, water cracked through the bottom of my mask! However, I didn’t care; I cleared it as practiced and focused on the underwater world in front of me. It felt like the quarry went on forever, finding new treasures and organisms every inch we went. We explored the inside of sunken airplanes, cars, boats, helicopters and buses. Some of these are things I’ve never even experienced on land!

The most memorable part of this dive was when our instructor took us over the big sunken school bus. He stopped us before we swam and gave us some weird hand signals that we thought meant, “follow me”. We were wrong… we followed him over and rested at the top. In an instant, we are surrounded by at least 100 fish; big, small, brown, yellow, hungry, starving. Us students were laughing into our regulators; flailing our arms in a tornado of fish until eventually we swam away panting. After we got out of the water, turns out those hand signals meant, “swim on the side of the bus, and don’t go over it.” Apparently that bus is a place instructors go with food to feed the fish, so they always swarm there (thanks for the warning instructor am I right?) After what felt like an exhilarating few hours, we surfaced only to find twenty-three minutes had passed. Time slows when you’re underwater, and thankfully so.

I had the time of my life. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing, my brain couldn’t believe I was breathing and my heart couldn’t believe I’ve missed this feeling for twenty two years of my life. Though its embarrassing to say, I climbed out of the water only to run to my mom and tell her, “I can’t wait to get back in!!!” with a gigantic smile on my face.

That first dive, six months ago, has lead me to my current position as an Exhibit Diver here at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium and I happily wake up at 6am everyday anxious to get in the water.

To see what I explored on my first dive, click here!

Diving Physics

December 19, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Becoming a SCUBA diver is more than learning how to breathe under water; you also have to understand the physics that explain why certain things occur while you are diving.

Starting with the basics:

Density: water is 1000 times denser than air, and while air’s density can vary- the density of water cannot.

Heat: Water has a high heat capacity ~4 times more than air. Water also has high thermal conductivity. Heat is conducted 22-24 times faster in water. This means, divers get colder quicker when in water. Wet and dry suits are different types of clothing worn by divers that can keep them warmer for longer.

Sound: Sound travels differently through water than air. When something makes a sound above the water you generally can tell what direction it is coming from, whereas in water you cannot pinpoint a direction. This is due to the fact that sound travels four times faster in water than in air.

Compressibility: Air can be compressed. When divers fill their dive tanks, they will use air compressors to fill the tank to 3000 psi. Water, however, cannot be compressed. You cannot take two liters of water and fit it into any container smaller than a two-liter bottle.

Light: Ever stick a straw in a cup of water and look at it from the side? The straw appears to be bent. This is due to the refraction of light when it passes through water.

Objects also appear larger and closer when under water. It isn’t uncommon for new divers to reach for something in front of them (a rope for example) and completely miss grabbing it. This is because the rope appeared to be closer than it really was.

Light absorption in water is high compared to in air. The first color to disappear as you go deeper into the water is red; the following colors of the rainbow too would disappear when you go deep enough. This is why underwater cameras, for example, GoPro, often have a red filter so that the photographer can capture all of the colors of beautiful reefs and fishes while at depth.

There are also some important principles to take into account when scuba diving. The first, Archimedes Principle, states that a body immersed in liquid is buoyed up by force equal to the weight of displaced water. As a diver you have to be able to accomplish neutral buoyancy when diving. Neutral buoyancy means that you are neither sinking nor rising within the water column.

Divers first need to use some weight when diving, especially when wearing a highly buoyant wet suit. The excess weight helps displace the water that surrounds the diver. The next important piece of equipment is called the Buoyancy Compensating Device (BCD). This is the vest that divers wear; it contains an air bladder that can be filled with the air from the divers scuba tank. The BCD helps the diver become neutrally buoyant by adding the correct amount of air to almost counter the weight worn by the diver-it should look like the diver is hovering within the water.

Another important principle is Boyles Law-volume varies inversely with pressure, with the greatest relative change in volume occurring near the surface.

Simply put-as a diver goes deeper into the water, the pressure on everything becomes greater. The volume of air in the dive tanks is getting smaller while the pressure rises. Remember from the basics that you can compress air. This also means that the air in the divers lungs also becomes compressed when at depth. When the diver surfaces- one of the most important rules is to be continuously breathing. Never hold your breath when ascending. This is due to the air in the lungs will start to expand because there is less pressure of the water exerted on the body. Holding your breath can cause catastrophic injury to divers lungs.

Charles Law, which states; at constant volume, pressure varies directly with temperature. When divers need to fill their air tanks, they must do so slowly. This is because as the tank fills, all of the air molecules are being jam packed into a rigid area.

Those molecules will start bumping into one another as the pressure builds- creating heat. A newly filled tank will feel warm and if filled too quickly will show a higher pressure than what is actually in the tank. Given time to cool, the tank will read at a lower psi.

Dalton’s law of partial pressures is our next physics lesson-especially for divers who are diving on NITROX. NITROX is a mixture of gases that allows divers to stay at depth longer due to its enrichment of oxygen. The law states that the total pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the pressures that would be exerted by each gas if it alone were present and occupied the total volume.

Ptotal = P1 +P2 +P3….

Even though a gas mixture is made up of several different constituents, each gas will demonstrate its own behavior. This is important for divers to understand because they must be aware of oxygen toxicity (yes, you can have too much oxygen if you go too deep on enriched air) and Nitrogen Narcosis which occurs at depths around 100 feet and deeper and makes the diver sluggish and even drowsy and can have an effect on good decision making.

The final law divers should be aware of is Henry’s Law. The solubility of gases: the amount of gas that will dissolve into a liquid is a function of the partial pressure of the gas over the liquid. With great depth comes greater partial pressure. More gas dissolves in cold water. This law is important to divers because as they go deeper in the water their body will absorb nitrogen gas into their tissues. When the divers want to return to the surface they must do so at a controlled slow rate so that the nitrogen they absorbed at depth is effectively off-gased. Divers should be aware that at greater depth they would have high absorption rates of gases.

Although these laws may be a lot to take in, they are all very important to all SCUBA divers. The laws help divers remain safe when adventuring in the world underwater.

Diver Costume Construction

October 10, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

The dive team loves participates in many GCA holiday events including Halloween and Scuba Claus. Construction of the underwater props and costumes for these dives needs to ensure that both the diver and animal safety is always taken into consideration. Marine animals are very aware and often curious about changes in their environment and will investigate, pick at and if given the opportunity, eat anything new. We see this every year with our Halloween pumpkins. Within minutes of being placed in an exhibit they will be picked, ripped and eaten. Because of this anything we build and take into an exhibit that can be eaten needs to be approved be the curator. Props need to minimize dangling straps, threads, strings and anything that an animal can remove. Care must be taken to not have anything come off the costume such as metal which can scratch the acrylic or sequins that may be ingested.

Construction materials used for props need to chosen to not cause an adverse reaction in the exhibit. Some metals, copper in particular, can be toxic to the animals and should not be used. PVC and approved adhesives are best as these minimize the potential to upset the delicate chemical balance in the environment. Paints and coating must chosen with the same consideration. Paints and coatings must also resist flaking and peeling for the same reasons.

The goal of costumes is to enhance the guest interaction, particularly our younger guest. Planning for these events starts months in advance. Choosing a theme that is relevant and easily recognizable is debated and finally decided on. Once that decision is made we brainstorm what costumes and accessories will enhance the show. Often costumes can be purchased but often we will construct accessories. Last year’s “Ghost Busters” Halloween costumes were purchased, but the additional accessories, such as the Proton Pack and Ghost Trap were made using the guidelines outlined above. Using PVC pipe to create swords and nunchucks enhanced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes.

Scuba Claus is a major event for the Dive Team. The addition of the full face mask with underwater communications adds to the experience but also contributes to a more complicated and time considerations in getting divers safely in their gear and in the water. Did you know it could take up to 15 additional minutes for Scuba Claus to get dressed before he makes his trip down to see all the guests? Because the team makes so many dives in a short time, the costume requires constant attention and repair.

Summer Camps Wrap Up

September 28, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Another season has come and gone for the Greater Cleveland Aquarium summer camps. Knowledge was gained, crafts were constructed, and friends and memories were made. Camps varied greatly in size and topics, but all of them had their own highlights and unique happenings to touch on. If you missed out on GCA camps this year, hopefully this will inspire you to come check us out next summer!

One camp was so important we just had to run it twice. Marine Scientists in Training has always been a popular camp here, and for good reason. A big shout-out to our curation staff, who made many of these experiences possible. The campers had the amazing opportunity to actually feed our shark exhibit. They went behind the scenes and tossed in food to the resident fish such as the Barracuda, the pufferfish, and even a few Sand Tiger sharks, who swam by to check out the commotion. As if that wasn’t cool enough, these campers were able to take home art beautifully painted by our own stingrays. Even the cownose pups contributed a few strokes to the canvases!

Of course, we love all of our animals here at the Aquarium, but we also love our environment outside the Aquarium too. We traveled over to Edgewater beach and did our best to make it spotless, leaving our mark on the war against pollution. All in all, we hope our campers came out of the week with a new passion for their future careers!

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, we ran our first half-day camp for the little ones this year, called Under the Sea. From feeding our Painted Turtle and our stingrays, to going aboard the massive William G. Mather steamship, a lot was packed in to such little time. With this particular camp, we hope to see these campers over and over again until they graduate from Marine Scientists in Training. After attending all of our camps here, there’ll be nothing left to know about the earth’s aquatic life! (kidding)

Another new camp this past year revolved mainly around our neighboring waters, Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. Come Sail Aboard the Schooner Appledore IV, as the camp was titled, involved boarding a tall ship. The kids took to the open waters and learned all about what’s threatening the lake and even raised the sails of the Appledore IV. The rest of the week’s highlights included trying on SCUBA masks to breathe under water, learning all about shipwrecks in Lake Erie while hearing a firsthand account of someone who has actually dived those, and of course feeding our stingrays.

Our last two camps were returning favorites of years past, Aquatic Adventures and Sharks. Sharks of course entailed the famous sleepover in the sea tube. There’s nothing quite like falling asleep and waking up to magnificent sharks and other sea life swimming right over you. These campers had the ultimate experience of feeding our local fish in the Ohio exhibit, while also feeding the animals in the shark tank, to compare and contrast the vast differences in the fresh and salt water habitats.

Our Aquatic Adventures campers once again had a blast aboard the Nautica Queen, and our fishing trip this year was especially exciting. One of our lucky campers caught a HUGE largemouth bass which actually snapped the fishing pole in two! Miraculously, the fish was still reeled in and caught. I don’t think anyone attending that day will be forgetting that image anytime soon.

As you can see, it was an event-filled summer at the GCA camps. We hope to see everyone come and visit throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Then next summer we’ll be back, bigger and better than ever! If you haven’t already, follow us on social media to keep up to date on all of the happenings around here, because there’s always something exciting going on.

The Great Lakes

September 14, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

The Great Lakes or the Laurentian Great Lakes (from the name of the glacial ice sheet that formed them) may sometimes be referred to as the inland seas, due to the characteristics that it shares with the open oceans (long sustained winds, extremely strong currents, and long rolling waves). The lakes are a series of five interconnected fresh water lakes that are located in the Northern Midwest of North America. They were glacial formed nearly twenty thousand years ago when the planet started to warm causing the glacial sheets to retreat and start to melt. The massive size of the North American ice sheet carved the surrounding land into a basin and the melting waters would then go onto fill the basin we now call the Great Lakes.

FUN FACT: Lake Superior is the largest lake in North America by both surface area and volume, while Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume, but it beats Lake Ontario in size by surface area and it is the only Great Lake whose maximum depth is not below sea level. It is also the shallowest of the Great Lakes at 210 feet.

The five lakes are Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Michigan. The names originated either from Native American or French languages. The five lakes combined make up the largest body of fresh water on the planet. They account for just over twenty percent of earth’s unfrozen fresh water and approximately eighty five percent of North America’s fresh water supplies. They contain six quadrillion gallons of water and has an area of over ninety five thousand square miles. If the water was spread across the contiguous United States, we would be swimming in almost ten foot of water. The shoreline of the Great Lakes is over ten thousand miles and creates one thousand miles of international border.

FUN FACT: The five major Great Lakes are bordered by eight U.S. states but only one Canadian province.

There are over two hundred and fifty species of fish in the Great Lakes and this brings the concern of environmental impacts on the Lakes. The fisheries started to decline as far back as the late eighteen hundreds. The native fish had to contend with increased water temperatures, and loss of habitat, and increased silt levels from poor forestry and agricultural practices. Direct discharge from factories and waste from major cities created many health impacts for fish and humans alike. Many people thought that the enormous amount of water contained within the basin would prevent situation from happening, but when you look at the fact of pollutant retention times ranging just over two and a half years for Lake Erie to the one hundred and ninety one years for Lake Superior, one can begin to see that what we put in will not go away any time soon. Some of the issues have been addressed, but today we face many invasive species to add to the list.

FUN FACT: Despite its small size, Lake Erie is the most biologically productive of all the Great Lakes with more fish taken from it commercially than all of the other Great Lakes combined and is even home to the mythical “monster” named Bessie that is said to be thirty to forty feet in length.

Endangered Species

July 25, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

What exactly does endangered mean? You often hear species described as “endangered” but what does that imply? When an animal is deemed “endangered”, it means that species is likely to become extinct if changes in the conservation strategy are not altered. The term endangered is one of many classifications on the Red List created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This list is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of thousands of biological species and is used to assess their extinction risk.

This figure shows the relationships of the different classifications of the IUCN Red List *EX-Extinct, EW-Extinct in the wild, CR- Critically endangered, EN- Endangered, VU-Vulnerable, NT- Not Threatened, LC-Least Concern

According to the 2015 Red List, 3,801 animals are listed as endangered. Species at higher risk are classified as critically endangered which is only one step below extinct in the wild. There are 2,542 animals in this critically endangered category. 5,639 animals are classified as vulnerable; this means that these species will likely become endangered unless the circumstances threatening their survival improve.

As you walk through the Greater Cleveland Aquarium you can spot some of these threatened species. In the Ohio Lakes and Rivers Gallery, you will find our spotted turtle (endangered) and shovelnose sturgeon (vulnerable). As you make your way through our ocean exhibit your eyes will be drawn up towards some of our largest residents, our sand tiger and sandbar sharks, both of which are classified as vulnerable.

There’s also another very important species in the exhibit: the critically endangered goliath grouper.

You’ll likely find this fish in the very front of the exhibit, often tucked between a few of our nurse sharks. This impressive fish can grow to be 8 feet in length and weigh up to 800 lbs. Naturally residing in shallow, tropical waters along the Atlantic coast this fish was often sought after by fishermen. Their fearless nature made them especially easy prey for spear fishermen. Unfortunately, due to their large size, slow growth and reproductive rate these fish are very susceptible to overfishing. This has led to severe population declines, classifying them as critically endangered.

Goliath groupers are now protected from harvest: if you catch one it must be released immediately. These sanctions set in place are beginning to positively impact the grouper populations. There are many other ways you can help threatened species like the goliath grouper:

Recycle! A lot of trash ends up in our lakes, rivers, and oceans. This is very bad for the organisms that call these places home. By keeping trash out of these areas, species will have a better environment to thrive in! (The GCA hosts beach cleanups throughout the year!)
Fish responsibly and support responsible fishing methods! Millions of tons of marine species are caught each year as bycatch. Sometimes this bycatch significantly outweighs the intentional catch. This poses a serious threat to many marine species including dolphins, whales, sharks, and turtles.
Actively support legislation to prevent overfishing. Many species are now threatened due to overfishing and irresponsible fishing methods. Help support regulations to protect marine species!

Find and Watch Dory, But Don’t Buy Her

July 15, 2016

Animal Care

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

With the recent release of Finding Dory, marine life organizations want to remind families of being a proper pet ownership for fish.

In the movie Finding Dory, the main character is a Blue Tang. At the moment, Blue Tangs cannot be bred in captivity. What some marine life organizations fear is that Blue Tangs will be pulled out from the wild and attempted to be sold in pet stores. When that happens, collectors will double their efforts to obtain more blue tangs, and that will inevitably lead to their coral reefs habitats in the Coral Triangle being harmed. While blue tangs are sold as 1- to 2-inch animals, they reach 12 inches as adults and have difficult care requirements, making them unsuitable for most home aquarists.

Similarly, this happened with Clownfish with the release of Finding Nemo. After the release, sales skyrocketed for Clownfish. These fish are different from Blue Tangs in that they can be good for a beginner pet fish owner and can be bred in captivity. According to Variety, “By 2012, the orange and white stripped fish were the fifth-most imported species in the United States. In the process, wild populations of Clownfish in countries such as the Philippines were decimated.”

The positive from movies such as Finding Nemo and Finding Dory is the spike in interest from all different age ranges about marine life. The opportunity for education now presents itself about fish, aquarium keeping and other topics to discuss in the classroom and at home.

Disney developed educational materials for those who may look for more information regarding pet fish ownership, including recommendations that “Blue tangs, like Dory, do not make good pets so instead choose appropriate aquacultured fish.”

Sewage, Sludge, & Fire: Students Investigate Water Quality of the Cuyahoga River

May 10, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Cuyahoga River”? If you said “gross,” “burning river,” or “industrial wasteland,” you are not alone. And, unfortunately, that is not too far from the truth. The Cuyahoga River has quite a colorful history with sewage, sludge, and fires, but, let’s start at the beginning.

THE BASICS

Map of the Cuyahoga River Watershed Photo credit: Wikipedia

Cuyahoga means “crooked river,” and it certainly earns the name; it kind of looks like a backwards letter “U.” The river’s origin starts in two separate branches in Geauga County which join and flow south through the city of Akron. The river then loops back north to the city of Cleveland making several tight hairpin turns at the end before emptying out into Lake Erie.

The Cuyahoga’s watershed, or drainage basin, consists of farmland, many urban and suburban neighborhoods, and some green space like Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

THE HISTORY LESSON

When Moses Cleveland first landed on the Cuyahoga in 1796, the river was beautiful and pristine. He surveyed the land around the river and deemed it a prime place to expand our country westward; and thus, the city of Cleveland was born.

Through the 1800s, Ohio’s growth became exponential. With the addition of the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River, local businesses and farms had access to fancy goods and building materials from factories along the east coast. Ohio’s farmers could sell their goods for higher prices in a more competitive market. Our city grew quickly and Cleveland became THE place to be.

By the 1900’s America was at the height of the industrial revolution. John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie contributed significantly to the growth of Cleveland. Carnegie produced steel mills (steel is essential for building sky scrapers and large bridges) and Rockefeller produced oil refineries (kerosene lamps were used to light every home in the country). At this time, more millionaires lived in Cleveland than in New York City.

One of Rockefeller’s oil refineries. Photo credit: wikipedia

While businesses boomed, and Cleveland became richer, the Cuyahoga River suffered the consequences. With no laws in place to regulate waste, industries dumped all kinds of chemicals and waste materials into the river. Imagine open trenches in which gasoline slid from the oil refineries to the river (gasoline was an unwanted byproduct prior to the invention of cars). The pristine Cuyahoga landscape Moses Cleveland once surveyed had been replaced with buildings, concrete, and an immense amount of pollution.

Here comes the crazy part. There was so much sludge, gasoline, industrial waste, etc. entering the river that the Cuyahoga caught on fire! Not once, not twice, but thirteen times. The biggest fire, pictured below, occurred in the 1950s. The most famous fire, igniting in 1969, gained national attention and sparked an important environmental movement. Have you ever heard of Earth Day?

Photo credit: Ohiohistorycentral.org

Time Magazine published a famous article about the Cuyahoga, titled “America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism.” It describes the river at its worst using phrases like, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with surface gases, it oozes rather than flows,” and, “Anyone who falls in the Cuyahoga does not drown… He decays.”

Photo credit: Cleveland.com

Along with the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the general public started to increase their environmental literacy. Slowly but surely, over time, the river started to recuperate. Though we’ve amended some of the obvious pollution sources (no more open trenches of gasoline), we still have a long way to go to fully restore the river to a healthy state.

AT THE AQUARIUM

Students assemble a timeline of Cuyahoga History. Photo credit: GCA

In our Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program, and our Water Quality Scientist program, we take kids to the Cuyahoga to determine the health of the river today. Guided by the scientific method, the students complete a set of scientific tests to determine whether the water quality is excellent, good, fair, or poor.

***Link Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rivers-Lakes-Keeping-the-Great-Lakes-Great-Teacher-Guide.pdf

***Link Water Quality Scientist to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Students test for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, and turbidity. We discuss why each of these parameters is important and what can make their levels change. For example: oxygen levels can drop if the water is stagnant, phosphate levels spike when farm fertilizer runoff enters the water, and nitrate levels rise when human sewage is dumped in the river from sewer overflow points. According to our research, most days the Cuyahoga’s health comes out “fairly good.” There is definitely still room for improvement.

Student teams test the water for dissolved oxygen content.

LOOKING FORWARD

We end our water quality programs with a discussion about the future. How can we restore the river to its excellent, healthy state? First and foremost, become environmentally aware and literate. Share the information you learn with your friends and family. Every action, from every person, contributes to our river’s health. We all have to do our part.

How can YOU help the Cuyahoga River? Here is a short list to get you started:

Stop littering and pick up trash you see along the river
Plant trees — trees and plants hold back sediment and reduce turbidity.
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and take shorter showers – by conserving water, less wastewater will enter our rivers during heavy storm events through combined sewer overflow
Learn about Combined Sewer Overflow: https://vimeo.com/7707491

Buy organic produce — organic farms do not contribute to fertilizer runoff
Support local parks and help with river restoration projects
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Continue Learning! Check the additional resources below.

Learn more about Cuyahoga River history and the many river fires:
http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/

Learn more about watersheds and stormwater runoff:
http://www.neorsd.org/stormwater-watersheds.php

Read the 1969 Time Magazine article:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901182,00.html

Learn more about education programs at Greater Cleveland Aquarium:
https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Water Quality at the Aquarium

April 28, 2016

Animal Care

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Taking care of the animals at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium means taking care of their homes. Sometimes that means cleaning the décor, and sometimes it means taking care of the water itself…this is where water quality testing comes in. I do most of the water quality testing here at the aquarium. There are many interesting pieces of equipment (with fancy names) that go into testing, including a spectrophotometer, pH probe, refractometer, and titration kit.

Spectrophotometer

We test for a number of things at different times. Nitrogen is one of the most frequent tests. The nitrogen cycle includes ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Bacteria convert the toxic ammonia from fish wastes to less toxic nitrite, and then to the much less toxic nitrate. We test all of these regularly, adding reagents that will react to the nitrogen, and using the spectrophotometer, a machine that reads the color change and converts it to a measure of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate.

Blank ammonia test, sample ammonia test, sample nitrite test

Two more very important tests are pH and salinity. Evaporation can change the salinity of the water as the salt gets left behind in the smaller volume of water. When adding water back, it is important to know how much fresh and how much salt water to add to keep the salinity in the narrow range that is best for the animals. These are tested with the pH probe and refractometer directly.

pH probe refractometer

Alkalinity is related to pH. It is a measure of the buffering capacity of the water; its ability to maintain a steady pH in the face of other changes. We measure this with a titration kit.

Alkalinity titration

Some animals have special needs, and their water gets additional tests. For example, elasmobranchs such as sharks and rays require iodine, so their water is tested for it. Corals and hard shelled invertebrates like snails require lots of calcium and magnesium to make their shells. These are tested ensure the water always has enough for them. These two tests also use titration methods.

A lot goes in to making sure our animals are healthy and happy. What many people don’t realize is that chemistry plays a large role here at the aquarium in addition to the manual labor and biology that takes place in every day operations. I am lucky enough to participate in these roles for work every day.