Filtration tour today(long)

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
I went over to our sister property, the Mirage, again today to meet and chat with the curator in charge of the filtration and water quality in the Dolphin habitat and the aquarium this time. He's a very nice guy and we chatted for 2 hours-extended lunch ;D - about a bunch of different stuff. I wanted to ask him about their Ozone method of treatment in the tanks and the other methods they used as well. Boy did I have a wonderful time. Let me see here, first we went down below the "birthing pool", into a below water observation room the biologists use to monitor the dolphins. They recently had an addition to the family with the birth of a baby dolphin. This was the one whose mother(still pregnant with him) I did the "interaction" with on my last tour. It was the most beautiful sight to see with the light penetrating through the ABSOLUTELY crystal-clear water, into the room as the dolphins frolicked in the B.B tank ;D. The dolphins knew he and I were in there, as they kept coming over to the glass right where I was standing and staring in at me. The "Grandmother" of the group gave me a nice stare and blowhole acknowledgement with a burst of bubbles as I reached out to greet her through the glass. He then took me to the room with the "controller" that has a LARGE range of measurements such as temp, pH, Ca, ORP, and on and on. We then went to the Ozone room and he showed me the coronal discharge generator..........that thing was HUGE and costs a serious penny. They use a combo of Ozone AND, hold onto your seats,.........Chlorine to disinfect the water. They have the coolest thing called a Chlorine GENERATOR that utilizes amperage somehow to split the Sodium Chloride molecules into Sodium and Chloride ions that runs through there(salt water) and creates Sodium Hypochlorite. It does precipitate Calcium, which must be cleaned off the plate between the cathode/anode(?) with a good ol' acid wash. The tanks have 8 or 10(can't remember) HUGE sand filters which move 15000 gals per MINUTE each.(yes, this is not a misprint-they could drain my pool in 1 minute and then refill it in another minute with ONE of these!). Anyway, we went into his office where the "brain" of the system is, the computer. You should see the stuff on that thing, it blew my mind! It is FULLY AUTOMATED and can do anything, including your laundry! ;D We spent some time chatting about marine stuff and he suggested I fire up a salt tank and try it out. Hmmmmmm, jury's still out on that one. I have so much info in my head right now that I need to sit down and write it down to sort it out. I will post a little write-up about Ozone in the water works section soon. By the way, the MOST IMPORTANT filtration factor in the tanks he said was the surface SKIMMERS......they filter 80% of the total water in the tanks due to the dirt/dust/crap that settles on the water surface on top.


Steve

[brewmaster15]

Now thats a set up! Thanks for sharing the info Steve. Dolphins in the desert ...Hmmmm... they must buy their sea salt by the truck load

-al

[daninthesand]

pix?

[iceskater]

Hi Steve,
I will be at the mirage on the 28th of this month, could I see this???


Karen

[joelfish]

Steve,

Does sand filter = fluidized bed filter? Or is it something else.

thanks,
Joel

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Brew-they buy MILLIONS of pounds of the stuff. They actually buy the food grade components separately(Sodium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Potassium Chloride-hydrated with small trace elements, etc. etc) and mix them to concentration It was quite a cool sight to see. I will ask my friend if it would be ok to take some pics and post them on here. I didn't have my digi-cam while at work.

Karen-Yes, you can see the exhibit, but I don't know if they'll take you in the back to see the workings, you can always ask them. The exhibit is the Secret Garden(with Seigfred and Roy's white tigers, elephants, etc.) and the Dolphin exhibit. It's a few bucks to get into and is next to the pool area.

Joel- I believe they are not the same, but I'm actually not sure on that one. I think one relies on a heavier liquid medium(fluidized bed) and the other, obviously, relies on sand, with differing graduated grain sizes.

Steve

[RandalB]

Steve, they use RO to mix the water or Vegas Tap?

Just wondering.

I've seen a 40,000 GPD commercial RO unit and that was impressive. I'd love to see pics of that dolphin tank filter system so get back over there!

RandalB

PS: If I ever get the opportunity to set up a central filter system I will also consider a small scale ozone system....

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Randal, I believe they use all R/O water to mix since we have hydrated granite(liquid rock) coming outta the tap ;D I'll have to check into that one, I forgot to ask them about that! I know for sure the aquarium at the front desk uses all R/O. The Ozone is really cool and makes the water crystal clear. I thought I was looking at a digitally-enhanced image when down, below the water.

Steve