How One of the World’s Largest Aquariums Gives Their Tanks a Daily Deep Cleaning

Insider visited the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta to learn how their immense and numerous tanks are given a deep cleaning on a daily basis. The aquarium, which is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, uses a combination of machines, divers, and filtration systems to ensure their marine animals remain healthy and comfortable within their tanks. The wastewater is then cleaned and recycled for other exhibits.

Every day, specialized teams gear up to clean the hundreds of exhibits across all eight of the aquarium’s galleries. Workers use brushes, mechanized scrubbers, and scrapers to deep clean every inch of the habitats. All that waste is funneled to a filtration system beneath the aquarium, where some of it will be filtered and reused as top-off water for the aquarium’s main attraction — Ocean Voyager.