I know it has been a few years since it closed, but whatever happened to the Aquarium at the front of the park? And if it closed due to unpopularity, why didn't they change it to something else. As a kid I always remember loving these tanks and seeing the variety of creatures and fish in there.

Must have been more then a few years, I don’t recall ever having seen that aquarium and I’ve been a fairly regular visitor to SW the last 5 years 

^It’s where Penguin Encounter is now 

No details on why it did close, I assume SW at the time wanted to do something now

It shared the same filtration system with the Shark Encounter/Reef Discocery/Dugong Discovery next door.

 

Don't know for sure but I'd guess that changes that they needed to make to the system for Penguin Encounter were incompatible with the aquarium, and it's Sea World so why would you put in effort to keep something open when you can just as easily close it. On the upside though, there is a toilet nearby if you need to do some flushing 🙂

54 minutes ago, Adventures With JWorld said:

^It’s where Penguin Encounter is now 

No details on why it did close, I assume SW at the time wanted to do something now

It was next to the Penguin Encounter. The building is under the experience bookings area. The entrance door is still visible today 

This is that said door 

Looks like the aquarium has made a very small return within the sea jellies exhibit. They couldn’t get enough jellies so they’ve got coral and fish in their too

At least it's now more of a natural environment for them 

Kicking up a very old topic here, but I only just realised this even existed! Is there just an empty aquarium sitting inside that building now? Do you think it could be re-opened?

2 hours ago, Tin Foil Hat said:

Is there just an empty aquarium sitting inside that building now?

To clarify it wasn’t a single large tank, it was a lot of smaller tanks. Similar to the size of the reptile/frog displays inside the Bilby Centre at Dreamworld.