Grand Rapids, MI
John Ball Zoo’s Entry Valley contains their Pygmy Hippo Pavilion, a habitat home to two pygmy hippos. This 35,200-gallon freshwater exhibit has five pools all interconnected by the same aquatic Life Support System. There are both indoor and outdoor pools with underwater viewing features to see the hippo’s natural behaviors. Two of the pools are back of house holding pools used for the treatment of the hippos.
Satchell Engineering & Associates designed the aquatic Life Support System for this exhibit. The system uses both a coarse and fine filtration system to ensure high quality filtration of the water. The coarse filtration system consists of a screen channel screen channel system to ensure the larger particulates are removed from the water before it moves to a fine filtration. The fine filtration system consists of sand filters and pumps, vertical GAC filters and pumps, deaeration towers, ozone disinfection, off-gas destruct, chlorinators, and heat exchangers. See Photo Gallery.
