184 



JOHN CLARK AND RONALD EISLER 



caving into the well, but there is no casing in 

 the lower half of the well where the hole enters 

 into the ancient coral reef. The water from the 

 buried coral reef enters the lower open part of 

 the well and rises up the casing and stands at 

 tide level. The Aquarium pumps this water out 

 of the casing and it continually replaces itself 

 from the coral reef beneath. This 12-inch well 

 cost $1,600 and took about 4 or 5 days to drill. 

 We pump 500 to 600 gallons a minute from it, 

 but it will yield in excess of 1,000 gallons. When 

 the pumping rate approaches 1,000 gallons a 

 minute, the drawdown approaches 2 feet. The 

 quality of this water is good. It is absolutely 

 clear, without larvae of any kind, free from sea- 

 weed, and makes us independent of storms and 

 tides. It is more saline than the water on the 

 shoreline and compares in salinity with the water 

 far at sea. It is about 1° or so cooler than the 

 shoreline water. Its great disadvantage, if this 

 be one, is that it contains no oxygen. The oxy- 

 gen in this water measures about 0.1 cc. per liter. 

 This, of course, is insufficient for any biological 

 work. We do imagine, however, that this lack 

 of oxygen may prolong the life of various things 

 that rust. To restore the oxygen into this water, 

 we let the water draw in air as it comes forth 

 from the valve above the fish tank. This simple 

 act lifts the oxygen content to about 2.5 cc. per 

 liter. This is not enough, perhaps, but it gets 

 better with use and aeration. 



These wells can be drilled close together. Eight 

 or ten feet apart is sufficient distance to provide 

 a well of the same capacity as the first one. 

 These can be drilled into lava rock as well as 

 into the coral reef. 



The New York Aquarium on the beach 

 at Coney Island also uses a ground-water 

 supply. All attempts to pump water di- 

 rectly from the sea have been abandoned 

 in favor of two 12-inch-diameter wells 

 drilled to a depth of just over 200 feet, 

 into a stratum of coarse gravel which pro- 

 vides excellent sea water. Each well is 

 capable of producing 600 gallons a minute. 

 The major problem associated with the 

 Coney Island wells is that the water must 

 be oxygenated. The New York Aquar- 

 ium, which is about 714 nautical miles 

 north of the Sandy Hook Marine Labora- 

 tory, has no iron problem with its wells. 



Efforts to locate a subsurface source of 

 sea water at the Miami Marine Laboratory 



were unsuccessful (see Wisby, this vol- 

 ume) because of contamination of the 

 ground water by H2S. 



At the time of writing, the Narragansett 

 Marine Laboratory at Kingston, R.I., was 

 in the process of developing a ground- 

 water supply of sea water. The plans for 

 this system called for a series of collecting 

 wells from which the water was to flow 

 by gravity through pipes to a central 

 pump well. The water was to be pumped 

 from the central well to a storage tank 

 from which the aquariums were to be sup- 

 plied by gravity. 



EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS 



The major suppliers of components of 

 our sea water system are listed below : 



Submersible pump — Model 75 Kl-5Ca (This 

 model contains some metallic parts and is in 

 use temporarily until the all-plastic model, 

 75 Ml-5Cb, becomes available) : Red Jacket 

 Mfg. Co., Davenport, Iowa. 



Water-supply pipe and fittings — Kraloy Type 

 II, Schedule 80, pipe and fittings (3-inch- 

 diameter, thick-wall, threaded PVC pipe 

 and li/i-inch-diameter PVC pipe) : Kraloy/ 

 Chemtrol Co., Santa Ana, Calif. 



Drain line and fittings— "Tuftite" PVC Plastic 

 Sewer and drain pipe (During the course 

 of our well-drilling operation we changed 

 from the aforementioned Kraloy/Chemtrol 

 Company to this manufacturer for the fol- 

 lowing reasons : ( « ) A branch office located 

 nearby, therefore involving lower shipping 

 expenses, and (&) a wider selection of ma- 

 terial, particularly fittings. Lower prices. 

 All pipe and fittings could have been ob- 

 tained from this source. ) 



Well screen : Gator Sales Co., Shreveport, La. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Barksdale, H. C, R. W. Sundstrom, and M. S. 



Brunstein. 

 1936. Supplementary report on the ground- 

 water supplies of the Atlantic City region. 



New Jersey State Water Policy Commission, 



Special Report 6. 139 pp. 

 Collins, W. D. 



1925. Temperature of water available for 



industrial use in the United States, U.S. 



Geological Survey, Water-Supply Paper 



520-F. 



