I Wonder… How do Aquariums Maintain Good Water Quality?

Published March 15, 2025

Did you know Wonders of Wildlife contains more than 1.5 million gallons of water? Did you know the 35,000 live animals that live there depend on good water quality to live?

Kayleen Parker plays a crucial role in maintaining good water quality as WOW’s in-house WaterQuality Technician. She works with a lot of other teams to monitor levels of a variety of things, including nitrites, salinity, alkalinity, pH, ammonia, calcium, and much more.

“Water is important because it actually helps the animals that live in that environment,” Kayleen said. “We want to make sure a system maintains a sustainable level of any kind of contaminants or waste from the animals themselves and that those levels are minimal and can allow the animals to live their best life.”

While Kayleen leads the charge in monitoring water quality, every member of our Animal Care team is involved in ensuring each exhibit and each animal is living in the best environment WOW can provide.This includes the Husbandry team doing water changes or deeper cleans when needed. It requires the Life Support Systems team to confirm all pumps, sand filters, skimmers, and other equipment pieces are in optimal working order. It also means theDive team helps where they’re needed, even if that means their schedule for the day changes suddenly.

“We’re a big support team. We’re pulled in a lot of different directions to help where we can,” DiveSafety Officer Keifer Cox said. “Communication is key to maintaining a good quality of life – for the animals and everyone working here. Every day is new and fresh, and that’s what the Dive team loves.”

From deep cleaning large exhibits to installing underwater equipment like filter sensors, the Dive team is constantly helping to ensure the water quality in every exhibit is the best it can be. Even when a dive is planned in one location, if certain levels are not within a safe range, the team will shift and adjust for the safety of the animals and divers. “We always want to make sure nothing is out of balance. And if something is out of balance in an exhibit, we don’t want to get in and stir it up even more,” Keifer said. “We check water quality for the humans too because one, we want to make sure all of our equipment is working, and two, we don’t want to put anyone at risk of exposing them to something that could potentially cause them to get sick.”

Kayleen’s job in conjunction with the multitude of other teams she works with is crucial to the wellbeing o every animal at WOW and every human who works there. Because every team works together daily, there’s always something new to learn. No job is siloed, and that’s something Keifer and Kayleen both love about working at WOW.

“There’s always something new to learn,” Kayleen said. “Working with the holding and animal quarantine teams, I got to learn a lot about the sea turtles – my favorite animal – in our Sea Turtle Rescue Center. I’m also interested in learning from our Life Support Systems team, and they always tell me I can come and learn from them whenever I have time.”

“There’s so much cross-training we have,” Keifer said. “The Husbandry team could do a lot themselves, but they trust us enough to be an extra set of hands, which we love because it’s a new experience and we can be a support team.”WOW is excited to announce our Back of House Tours are now open to the public! Members receive a 20% discount on the tours as part of their perks.

Click HERE to learn more about our Back of House Tours!