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Shedd Aquarium To Close For 2 Days For Regular Maintenance

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Shedd Aquarium will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday for an early spring cleaning, but the fish are staying put.

WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports Facilities Vice President Bob Wengel stressed nobody's draining the fish tanks to Windex the glass.

"No, you never use Windex on the glass inside, and we're not draining any of the tank," he said.

Shedd Closing For Cleaning

Wengel said the fish habitats are cleaned regularly, and won't really be involved in the big cleanup, but crews sill spruce up the coral in the tank of the Caribbean Reef exhibit.

"What you do, is you get a diver in the water, and he has a power washer not uncommon to a power washer that you would have for your home to wash your deck down," he said. "The divers are, of course, very strong swimmers, so it doesn't really push them around that much; and they can anchor themselves as they're doing it, against other pieces of coral."

That's keep algae from taking over the coral.

Crews will also deep-clean the carpets at the aquarium, swap out thousands of incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving LEDs.

The Shedd will reopen on Friday.

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