Experimental Aquarium

Facilities for in vivo studies include two large experimental aquarium rooms. Hubbs Hall experimental aquarium facility is 2751 square feet with 12 trays and 30 tanks (most insulated) of volumes ranging from 1020 l to 7560 l, utilizing an 'open seawater system' that can deliver chilled (8 deg C), ambient (12 deg C-21 deg C), and warm (28 deg C) seawater . Chilled and warm seawater temperatures are very reliable, usually fluctuating no more then +/- 1 C deg. Four additional aquarium wet labs exist throughout Hubbs Hall, including a chilled 'closed system' in a controlled temperature room.

The Ritter Hall Experimental Aquarium facility is 2150 square feet with 18 trays and 19 tanks with volumes ranging from 300 l to 21,000 l, a two chambered controlled light room and three each 3 m square cubicle rooms. Chilled (10 deg C) and ambient (12 deg C-21 deg C) seawater is also available via an 'open system'.

Approximately 4,000,000 liters of seawater is supplied daily to various SIO facilities. Seawater is pumped from inlets at the end of the SIO Pier (330 m long) and then flows by gravity through a prestrainer into a large settling tank. It is filtered through several large capacity sand filters and further pumped up to a series of 227,000 l holding tanks. The filtered seawater is then gravity fed to labs and aquaria at SIO, The Birch Aquarium, and Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

Experimental Aquarium Manager: Phil Zerofski
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD
8750 Biological Grade
Hubbs Hall Room 2400
La Jolla, CA 92093-0202
(858) 534-4777
pzerofski@ucsd.edu