Scubaquarium: Chicago area INDOOR REEF DIVING!!!

[MN Lakeman]

Another one to check out to compare: http://www.underwaterworld.com/swim.html

This "mega-mall" as we call it here in Minneapolis, has had this operation going for some time, but @ $185, I don't know but one person who has done it.

 

[mike_s]

We get bored with our local quarry after a few dives a year. It's 8 acres and 50 feet deep. I think that a swimming pool that's 100-300 feet long and only maybe 20 feet deep would get very boring after about the 2nd dive.

They want you to pay $20 to $90 per month plus $12/dive....

Like the others said, I'd pay maybe to dive it once....

I've dove in "indoor" scuba tanks before. yeah they were neat and fun but it got pretty boring pretty quick.

 

[emtdan]

How deep is it?

 

[StSomewhere]

How deep is it?

The one they are planning for Chicago will only be 20 ft on the deepest half.

 

[wetbehindtheears]

Suggest you exhale that breath you have been holding and write a check to go to the ocean instead. Putting live corals into a closed system with dirty, oily people is probably not a winning combination, unless you have enough clean seawater to change it all a few times a day. Most invertebrates wouldn't tolerate the contamination. Building and operating what they are proposing would cost many dozens of millions. Unless they find a sugar daddy that will keep pouring money in for perpetuity without any return, this probably won't ever become a reality. If you do away with the inverts and use fake corals, then you have a Discovery Cove sort of attraction. They get around $160 a day per person and don't have to pay to heat a building or lease land. They have huge economies of scale and lots of cheap, outside area for water treatment. The math here doesn't seem to work out. Not to mention the depth would be a huge liability. Nice dream, though.

 

[mike_s]

Suggest you exhale that breath you have been holding and write a check to go to the ocean instead. Putting live corals into a closed system with dirty, oily people is probably not a winning combination, unless you have enough clean seawater to change it all a few times a day. Most invertebrates wouldn't tolerate the contamination. Building and operating what they are proposing would cost many dozens of millions. Unless they find a sugar daddy that will keep pouring money in for perpetuity without any return, this probably won't ever become a reality. If you do away with the inverts and use fake corals, then you have a Discovery Cove sort of attraction. They get around $160 a day per person and don't have to pay to heat a building or lease land. They have huge economies of scale and lots of cheap, outside area for water treatment. The math here doesn't seem to work out. Not to mention the depth would be a huge liability. Nice dream, though.

As for the live coral... I didn't think the tank was going to be filled with "live" coral.

I thought it was going to be fake? (like plastic or concrete?)
Most large aquariums that have fish in them, the coral is fake.
Otherwise it just wouldn't survive....


Did they ever open this place?

 

[H2Andy]

well, their target opening date (summer, 2006) hasn't changed, so...

we'll see

 

[wetbehindtheears]

Their web page indicates live invertebrates and they have many images of live hard and soft corals. Here is a link: http://www.scubaquarium.com/life-invert.php. Regardless of whether the inverts are living or not, this is probably not a sound business plan unless you are printing your own money.

Regarding opening ... I seem to remember their web site last year said it would open in 2005. If it isn't well under construction now, at least foundation, walls, and roof, it is highly unlikely it could open in less than a year. Expect to see that 2006 become a 2007 in a few months.

It would be fun to dive there, real corals or not; maybe buy a membership and go there a few times a year. I would be pleasantly surprised if my naysaying was proven wrong. But taking a realistic perspective: if something appears too good to be true, it probably is.

One thing they have done, from the wording of the web site, is try to protect this business concept as their own. So that if anyone does ever come up with a way to make this work and pay for it, Scubaquarium could take the real business to court for infringing on their intellectual property rights. That would certainly be an interesting legal argument.
<snip>
Scubaquarium LLC holds all intellectual property and intends to build and license individual Scubaquarium entities around the world.
<snip>

Suggest driving downtown (Chicago) and volunteering at the Shedd Aquarium instead. You can dive there once a week for free once you get on the schedule.