The Atlantis Bahamas resort shut down its shark tank after a child was attacked ... and now we have an idea of how the excursion operated days before the tragedy.

A couple clips -- obtained by TMZ -- show guests heading down into one of the resort's tanks last Saturday ... just two days before a 10-year-old was attacked by one of the sharks.

Guests are all donning big white helmets while staff members are floating around in more traditional scuba suits -- and the ratio seems a bit skewed, with a lot more guests than employees floating around.

And, check out how near the guests are getting to the underwater beasts ... talk about up close and personal!

Our sources tell us ... the tank's got about 15-20 sharks with the largest measuring about eight feet. Three chaperones help the guests get into the water and walk around for about 20 minutes -- before sending them back to the water park.

In terms of whether or not that's safe ... we can't say for sure -- we're not experts on the subject ... and this wasn't taken at the time of the attack, so we don't know if this is the same setup the resort had going Monday -- what we do know is it look like a whole bunch of tourists getting real familiar with some massive sharks.

We broke the story ... showed the aftermath of the brutal attack on a 10-year-old -- with people screaming and what appeared to be employees in blue shirts running for help.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force said the boy -- on vacation from Maryland -- got bit on the right leg and was taken to the hospital ... thankfully, he was in stable condition, and Atlantis shut down their tanks immediately.

We've reached out to the resort for comment ... so far no word back.