Florida Aquarium 3-night long deep cleaning project
TAMPA, Fla. - The Florida Aquarium is getting ready for one of its biggest cleaning projects of the year.
The aquarium’s "Summer Scrub Fest" is a three-night long cleaning project that happens after hours.
Animal care divers and volunteer divers are deep cleaning around 25 different habitats. It’s considered a "spring-cleaning" effort.
The Florida Aquarium is "spring cleaning" habitats.
The Florida Aquarium cleans each habitat regularly throughout each week, but staff say this is a more thorough project.
"We do have an open-top facility," Karen Benson, the Florida Aquarium’s Coordinator of dive volunteers said. "So many of our habitats have the exposure to our longer daylight hours during the summer and that creates extra algae growth at a quicker rate."
Benson says this deep cleaning is especially crucial during the summer.
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She says divers suit up with different types of gear depending on the type of water and the size of the habitat.
"Some of the bigger rock work areas will have larger brushes. In addition to the brushes, we also use a power head scrubber," Benson shared. "So It's a power head scrubber that allows us to really get a lot of force onto the rocks, to get all of the dirt and the algae off of it."
Power head scrubbers help get algae off of rocks.
Benson says this cleaning can all be done without having to remove the animals from their habitats.
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"A lot of times when we're diving with the sharks, a lot of people at the guest side, when I'm viewing the divers and watching, they're like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Those sharks are going to get them,’" she said. "Absolutely not. We're very comfortable in all the habitats with our animals."
The deep cleaning and regular cleanings are also important to maintain the quality of the habitats for visitors.
Benson says their next major cleaning will be in November.