The science of seawater.
Maintaining tropical marine fishes was still difficult throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. As a result, saltwater aquariums were rare curiosities that could not be located far from tropical coastal areas. This wasn’t a minor obstacle that kept a small handful of landlocked hobbyists from pursuing their pastime. It was a serious challenge for educators and researchers who needed to keep marine organisms in a lab environment in order to conduct controlled experiments.
A salt solution.
Everything changed in 1964. That’s when William Kelley, a former director of The Cleveland Aquarium, founded Aquarium Systems, Inc. (ASI). The company was rooted in the science of seawater from the very beginning. Kelley’s goal was not to replicate natural seawater exactly, but to use its fundamental chemistry as a guideline to create a synthetic marine environment that would sustain life reliably and consistently from one aquarium to the next. Using a formula based on one obtained from a prominent scientist at the Frankfurt Zoo, Kelley eventually achieved his goal, creating a synthetic sea salt that maintained invertebrates indefinitely. He called his innovation Instant Ocean® and, in 1965, filed the company’s first patent application.
The early formulations of Instant Ocean® were a significant breakthrough, but Kelley and his ASI team still had much work to do before the product was ready for the consumer marketplace. Throughout the late 1960s and early ’70s, ASI continued to tweak Instant Ocean® to make sure it lived up to its name — to make sure anyone, regardless of where they lived, could stir up an ocean and know, with absolute confidence, that it would support a healthy, vibrant marine system. The company also looked for opportunities to test its product in both small- and large-scale marine environments.
Water, water, everywhere.
It didn’t take long for the world to learn of Instant Ocean. In 1966, The Aquarium of Niagara Falls commissioned Aquarium Systems to build and operate the first major public aquarium exclusively using synthetic sea salt for marine animal exhibits. Ten years later, The Mystic Marinelife Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., followed suit. Institutional researchers were also quick to realize the benefits of Instant Ocean, which helped to revolutionize the study of marine biology and marine ecology at colleges and universities across the world. Through it all, Aquarium Systems continued to refine both the ingredients and the manufacturing process of Instant Ocean, making sure that the product contained every necessary major and minor trace element — in every single batch.
Today, Instant Ocean remains the standard for scientific research and for large-scale marine environments. It has been used by NASA and, with proven results, in numerous public aquariums and parks, including SeaWorld, Orlando; Shedd Aquarium, Chicago; Wonders of Wildlife Museum, Springfield, Ill.; Columbus (Ohio) Zoo & Aquarium; the (Atlanta) Georgia Aquarium; The Dallas World Aquarium; Underwater Adventure in the Mall of America, Minnesota; Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas; the Denver Zoo; and many others.
Best of all, the four decades of research and development that underpin the success of Instant Ocean in the scientific community make it the ideal choice for consumers, from longtime hobbyists to those who are new to marine aquarium-keeping. No other sea salt is as rigorously tested or meticulously manufactured to ensure superior results every time it is used. And none offers the same value or convenience. So anyone — anywhere — can enjoy all of the beauty and diversity the ocean has to offer.
History of Innovation | Sponsorships