Aquarists at Sea Life Manchester are making like Mrs Hinch and donning their marigolds to undertake a mammoth Spring clean.
The attraction will be scrubbed and polished from head to toe to ensure everything is ship-shape ahead of the Easter holidays.
Instead of running the hoover across the carpet and dusting the shelves, an expert team of 14 is gearing up to polish the hundreds of metres of glass that make up the attraction’s 45 tanks and siphon the 750,000 litres of water used to fill them.
What’s more, a team of divers will be tasked with cleaning the inside of the 480,000 litre Ocean Tank. The attraction’s largest tank and home to 31 species, the tank will have all interior glass polished to ensure a brilliant view of all the creatures and the ocean floor combed to ensure all bottom dwelling creatures are comfortable.
Even the creatures will be getting in on the action, with Sea Life Manchester’s Giant Green Sea Turtles, Cammy and Ernie, being treated to a gentle scrub to prevent the build-up of algae on their shells.
Speaking on the spring clean, Brendan Malone, Senior Aquarist at Sea Life Manchester, said: “The annual Spring clean here at Sea Life Manchester is certainly a mammoth task, but it’s really important for us to keep our tanks clean – not just for visitors, but to ensure the very best care for our 2,000 creatures. If you visit over the next few days, you might even see Ernie getting his shell scrubbed!”
The annual clean gives the animal care team a chance to carry out routine health checks for all the attraction’s creatures and observe important creature behaviour. The process is also a fantastic opportunity to check up on new arrivals, including the latest member of the Sea Life Manchester family – a distinctive baby Bluespotted Ribbontail Stingray.
Not all cleaning can take place when the attraction is open, industrial-sized magnets are used to clean the specially designed donut-shaped tank, housing 100 moon-jellyfish – the sheer power of the magnet can impact on everyday objects such as pacemakers.
No strangers to a deep (sea) clean, aquarists at Sea Life Manchester usually spend a combined total of 40 hours per week making sure the tanks are spotless – adding up to a huge 2080 hours of elbow grease per year.
Weekly cleaning includes; the polishing of glass in the attraction, jet washing corals, checking water quality, cleaning filters and ensuring all creatures’ habitats are at the prime conditions for their species.
