Large Aquarium Design. Help Tips Etc Req.

[Arachnidzone]

Myself and my wife are relocating to live in the rainforests of Malaysian Borneo in a region called The Kelabit Highlands. So-called due to the Kelabit people being the indiginous inhabitants.

We will be designing and building a home which will extend the rooms and facilities for an exsisting and family run eco-lodge. Our main room will be approx 40ft square and one 14ft square corner will be set aside for an impressive custom aquarium set up.

I have experience with filter design, fishkeeping etc but i have never attempted such a large build. I am designing using 3D software which does make things much easier to visulise and also when it comes to giving the design to the Chinese Acrylic company for building this will be what ensures no breakdowns in communication.

THE IDEAS
One idea is to make a circular area, half being made up of multiple aquariums sweeping round into a semicircular seating area. The house design is yet to be finalised which means 99% flexability of aquarium design.

A possibility is a multiple part tank assembled on site into 1 large aquarium. Let me know your thoughts on this. 1 bonus on this is it can be done when just the frame and roof have been built meaning fully ventilated and weather-proof at the same time.

This will primarily be to house local fish for educational purposes. Although myself and my wife will each have our own collection tanks, hers with orandas etc from Singapore, mine with some kind of tropical fish, possibly from throughout Malaysia otherwise purchaced from local fish im/exporters.

LIMITATIONS
At the moment the biggest limitation is individual size. IT has to be able to be transported via 4x4 which at present leans me to a 4 tank design, all neatly slotted together to give the impression of one.

There is a possibility of hiring a Shinook helecopter to drop in a load of supplies and building materials, if this happens the plans can happily be started from scratch s this would open the possiblilty of 1 v.large and 2 smaller tanks, or just 1 huge. For now we need to plan around pickup trucks.

Cost is a limitation but this is unknown until designs are put to the company. I think to presume lower cost we need to minimise curves and thickness of acrylic.

Solar powered home, the aquarium will probably have its own solar panel, battery and inverter system but still means low power is a must. I think sumps and external filters are out so that the wattage of the pumps is all used for power not the strenuous task of pumping up 1metre+. So a horisontal filtration system. This will all be integrated into the design to give the feeling of no filter.

Again low power so LEDs will play a large of entire part of the design. There are UV LEDs available now too, unsure of their actual outputs in terms of ~UV sterilisation or plant growth but im willing to experiment with this. White LEDs can be used along the legnth of the tanks for the main light.

is the general shape of the tanks from the front when all placed together is a bow or semi-circle, the central tanks must be double-sided. The room behind the tanks will be a research lab/classroom and access to the tanks for cleaning will be either from this room at either side, or the tanks can be open top as there will be a balcony area above.

IDEAS WELCOME.
I accept all giddy ideas here, and there will be an oportunity for people come come visit this once finished. OR in fact for volunteers to assit in the building process in return for free accomodation at the lodge. So think big, not sealife centre big, but impressive. Cleaning practicality is an issue but i am willing to have a walk-in aquarium as the central 1-2.

WILL ADD PHOTOS AND MORE DETAILS AS DESIGN PROGRESSES...

 

[KraKen]

If you're looking for LED grow lights I'd recomend buying or making ones with red and blue LEDs like the ones seen here

They won't look that good but they would certainly be efficient

 

[Arachnidzone]

If you're looking for LED grow lights I'd recomend buying or making ones with red and blue LEDs like the ones seen here

They won't look that good but they would certainly be efficient

Cheers KraKen, I think this checkerboard blue/red could look ok, that pinky/purple glow could look quite warm if done correctly maybe quite beautiuful. Maybe as one part of a daily lighting cycle of 2-3 modes?

I would most likely have something made up from a private electrical dealer over in Asia, would probably work out cheaper that way than it would to buy the componants over here. An electronics buff would be able to set this up as a cycle which would fade between the different lighting modes slowly over the 18hr period 1 LED at a time. Could be really cool!

Thanks again!

---------------

I need some assitance with pressures and thickness of acrylic. Does anybody know a good general thickness calculator? Im aiming at no thicker than 20mm acrylic.

 

[Arachnidzone]

Right. Heres some renders of the designs so far...

1st designs were cheaper, easier and baisc looking...

Then it progressed into wanting something much more organic feeling, curvy etc...

Then sweep the curve round to make this corner area into a stylish relaxing area...

Heres a seperate unit of the above. In terms of manufacturing its all using identical pieces. In terms of assembally theres 2 pairs of symetrical aquariums.

 

[Arachnidzone]

QUESTION: Sealing two large aquariums together (approx 155g UK/190g US) The problem is i can not bring anything too large in unless the small possibility of a helicoptor drop come in (which is unlikely but possible as it would bring many supplies etc for several households.) With this ammount of water i imagine the seal would have to be a good one so i came up with the idea of windown in the join ends rather than no side piece.

Like this...

A generous, thick coating of silicone sealent all over this end piece then squish the other tank up against it. I think the two flat surfaces pushed together will seal this well and due to the width of the sealed surface which will be around 60mm approx 2"+ the pressure would not pose a problem. I would finish the edges as normal smoothing out the silicone or if there is anything a cap or seal of some kind?

What do people think? Will this hold out? or should i just have 4x 155g tanks instead of 2x 155g and this 310g?

 

[schooly20]

First off I must say that I like the renderings! Being an industrial design student this project is right up my ally and would like to know what program you're using to design and render the design in? Secondly I really like your last Idea of have the 2 155 gal tanks with the large one in the middle, I think that would give a very successful look and would give you the ability to house some larger species in the middle tank with some smaller ones in the side tanks. When it comes to determining if that joint in the middle will work, you will definitely have to do your research on what type of silicon to use being that their will be great amounts of pressure in water that is that deep. I think you can make it work though! Make sure that the house can hold the weight too, 620 gallons of water will equal out to be about 5 thousand lbs. and thats not including any of the stand, substrate and anything else you need.

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_...ic_aquarium.php

This is a link to how to build a custom acrylic aquarium, think the most valuable part of it for you will be how think the acrylic should be and I believe it does mention types of silicon to use.

 

[Arachnidzone]

schooly20, thanks for the reply.

1st, i use Rhino3D which is primarily NURBS, learned it for concept art and some modelling for gaming and car industry. I picked it up within a day litrally. Not nearly as concise as 3D Studio Max but much easier to use in my opinion. Definitely for people who can not get their head round 3DSmax etc...

I also use 3D home Architect which i inport the models into to add the aquarium to the entire house design.

Glad you like the design and bein an Industrial Design student i hope you can stay involved in the planning at least as you will have a more up-to-date understanding of some of the more technical and archetectural elements. IF your really keen and have spare time later next year-ish we are looking for volunteers to come over and help with all aspects of the build from the entire house to the aquarium, furniture, painting etc etc. We will provide bed and board while people are helping.

Anyway... I may scale the height down yet or even go for paladarium setups as these tanks with acrylic, base etc etc would weigh something like 2.5 tonne which is a little overkill!

But with the width and depth of the overall project its still very impressive.

I will do another design now where the sides stay the same but the centre is even deeper but much more shallow and open topped so it can be made into a paladarium...

 

[Arachnidzone]

I am now also thinking of editing the design again. I do like paladariums, (Half water, half planted land) and their bio-tope style. And this main tank is supposed to be partly educational with local fish etc.

Well... What about a full on display. Starting on the left with a waterfall, into a river, down a level into another river to create better current, then finally dropping into a pool? Have an acrylic window with good drilled or mesh panel ventilation all along the top front and back (remember this will be accessible from the rear too.) I will do a design now... The good part is it can be in several pieces without addid to the pressure, the largest part which will be the main pool can be one piece, the river will be no pressure and the sides etc also so sealing will be much easier.

Trip the front in flat-backed branches complete with tree bark etc...

I would still havew 1-2 other tanks for our own fish collection.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that sounds amazing, i've no experience with big projects like this to offer any real help, but that just sounds brilliant.

for me the primary concern is what you are going to stock with..... from there you can work out what is the most sensible set up where to use height, width etc etc

so what are your plans for stocking?

i like the paladrium idea i'd do a high land area at one side with a waterfall/river bit running down it into a pool of water at the other side, then you may be able to find some lizard/frogs/amphibious creatures to make use of the land area as well as having fish for the pool area. the waterfall would obviously deal with oxygenation of the water, you could use a pond type filter buried under the land area sucking water in from the pool then back out at the top for the waterfall..... be awkward for maintenance but i'm sure you could find some way.

as it's gonna be nice n tall why not look closely into suitable plants, if you can find like a small tree that lives in marsh areas and have that planted in the pool end with branches reaching out across the whole area that would look pretty special.



geez i'm getting carried away!

 

[Arachnidzone]

Miss Wiggle, carried away is good, get all the best ideas from people who are carried away!

Dont forget i will actually be in the middle of the rainforest here, literally!

This is our plot...

There are many many specied of orchid, pitcher plant, mosses, ferns, bromelieds etc plant wise, and if i measure the humidity, lighting and temp in the paladarium once running with water i can just chose plans which grow in similar habitats outside. Most of the plants there grow in the shade so that helps!

Fish-wise there are about 20-40 species locally within a few mile. found this list from a survey carried out there. at least half of these are on google, some are subspecies etc. The one that instantly comes to mind is Clarias batrachus, a nice, not too large catfish. Not sure of the colouration of the wild ones there. Will do some research once there. I also found some snakehead type fish. Will be taking a good net this time to temporarily catch and photograph. There in 7 dyas so wont be long... Back end of July.

Anabas testudineus
Mystus baramensis
Leiocassis robustus
Gastromyzon borneensis
Glaniopsis hanitschi
Parhomaloptera microstoma
Protomyzon borneensis
Sundoreonectes sabanus
Oreochromis mossambicus
Oreochromis niloticus
Clarias batrachus
Hampala bimaculata
Lobochelius bo
Lobochelius achwanenfeldii
Nematabramis borneensis
Osteochelius pleurotaenia
Paracrossochelius acerus
Puntius sealei
Rasbora argyrotaenia
Rasbora lateristriata
Tor duoronensis
Tor soro
Tor tambroides
Mastacembelus unicolor

The Borneo butterfly suckers (or whatever common name you know) are nice too, small and good algae eaters. I like the idea of something capable of swimming back up the river to the first small pond under the waterfall. These lil beggers woudl suck their way back up but are small so limit the other inhabitants.

I like ecosystems. Currently have a paladarium with newts and guppies and fully planted. Its been running over 4 yrs and all i do if clean the tiny filter every few months which will run for about 2 weeks before becoming clogged, then i unplug it. I trip the plants twice yearly, dip a stick in and twirl it to remove algae once every month through summer, top the water up with a 1litre jug every week or so. Thats it! no heating, the plants roots have all escaped their sealed perspex shelves into the water now and they consume enough of the nutrients etc to filter it and the guppies are still breeding nicely. The newts are dying off now i think, but they are about 5 yrs old and were adult when i purchaces them so doing well. The guppies eat the newt eggs now though which is the only downside. The newts do catch some young guppies but i never intervine so it must be a resonable balance. USed to have large stick insects living in the plants too but not enough land for the eggs so they died off.

I also had a young caimen (see my signiture) who moved from his jewel aquarium to a 6foot fishtank which was paladarium setup. Loads of reeds and grass in one side, a huge slate chunk sat ontop of a plastic basket with a pond pump in surrounded with filterwool and alpha grog all covered in large pebbles. the other half fell away to water. I let the water level drop to about 6" before topping back up (slowly over 2-3 hours with hosepipe) to about 10" every few months. I put a few guppies in with him when he was just 12" long and living in his jewel aquarium and he chased and ate them. Then tried again when he was 15" long and moved into his large tank and he left them. The water was well matured as were the bottom layer of gravel and the filter media so the guppies bred fast. I just bought in a couple of males here and there and eventually there were literally hundreds. Looked amazing when he slashed into the water and the shoal fled. they were so many guppies even if the croc left a defrost mouse they manages to eat it all within 2 days. There were about 10 khuli loach in there too to eat between the rocks. Had to clean his filter twice in 12 months. A very stable paladarium...

anyway, i will get back to a design idea. and you feel free to get carried away! The more ideas the better even if completely different!

Oh and theres plenty of house geckos there which would be suited to the paladarium. got to be things which are usually liked as this display will be in our main living area where guests can chill out. So rules our spiders, scorpions, snakes and a lot of creepy crawleys (all of which i keep here and will study wild there)

Heres a picture of the main area...

The area to the centre of the render where the wall is missing is the location for this setup. The main tank will be the wall and all 3 will be cleaned and maintained from the rear. I may opt for a sump on the centre tank to increase surface area. But need a 100% reliable plumming method as we will have to leave this for a month at a time with litle assistance while away. So i need to plan for back ups and abackup backups. BUT no sump means highar potential flow rate per Watt which is good for our solar powered house.
I may actually have to have a panel, battery and controller just to power this setup but I think its worth it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that all just looks amazing, can i come and live with you??!!!

plant wise that's what i'd be thinking of for the paladrium, you could control the humidity etc just as you would in a lizard vivarium type set up to give them ideal conditions and make the whole thing like a river bank with all the life that gathers around it.

yeah something like gecko's would be a good choice for the paladrium, I'm not brilliant at knowing where different animals come from but perhaps something a little more lively in the daytime like a group of skinks would be good as well. Bet you could dump a load of creepy crawlies in there and they'd just breed and provide a constant food source.

 

[Arachnidzone]

that all just looks amazing, can i come and live with you??!!!

plant wise that's what i'd be thinking of for the paladrium, you could control the humidity etc just as you would in a lizard vivarium type set up to give them ideal conditions and make the whole thing like a river bank with all the life that gathers around it.

yeah something like gecko's would be a good choice for the paladrium, I'm not brilliant at knowing where different animals come from but perhaps something a little more lively in the daytime like a group of skinks would be good as well. Bet you could dump a load of creepy crawlies in there and they'd just breed and provide a constant food source.

Hi again, you can happily stay with us, we will have 2 kingsize ensuite rooms, then sharred bathrooms with 2 basic double rooms and 2 basic twin rooms. Gem's Lodge (the current part) already has 4 rooms and 2 private rooms in a chalet. Prices are v,v,cheap, if you come to volunteer to help build, decorate, construct and build the aquarium then free or reduced accomodation and food will be given. You can stay easily up to 3 months. The longer the trip the more worth while and the more you get for the money as its the main flights which are the expensie. Once in Malaysia its cheap. Holidays around Malaysia can be arranged with us too as we will be continuing to review, video, potography etc every restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, airline, airport, hotel etc we use.

Do have a look on my forum, particularly at the photo gallery section which i will be adding to continually. Theres also low quality videos of the clouded leopard i spotted. If you think you would possibly come see us some time join the forum now and if your on facebook let me know and i will add you to mine. We may be out there before christmas this year so gathering as many contacts as possible now. Our forum aint like this, its pretty much a bullitin board where i will post progress reports, diary, events, group trips planned, photos, videos etc.

Anyway, thats the advert done!

Back to the project...

The geckos are plainish, out later at night and in shady areas.

The skinks and flighty lil things and come out to bask or grab a bug and run back for cover. I may go for an open top version though in which case these will have their own enclosures back stage in the research area which is the 40x40ft area to the rear of the house through the archway on the render. Thats 2 research/lab/classroom type rooms for specimins, workspace etc, and also the basic rooms and sharred facilities are downstairs at the back too. Our bedroom and the 2 large kingsize rooms are upstairs to the rear, behing the green wall paintings on the render.

Just done the shape for the setup, making the solids now...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

actually, my other half is a builder by trade and while i'm not quite so handy i'm more than willing to muck in and we're both fishy nuts.... we also have a pet gecko but that's a v new hobby so would hardly say we are gecko experts or anything like that.

i may just talk to him about this!! sounds like an amazing project and i'll definatley pop over to the website when i get a chance. i'll pm you my facebook details (don't want the world to see!! lol)

 

[Arachnidzone]

actually, my other half is a builder by trade and while i'm not quite so handy i'm more than willing to muck in and we're both fishy nuts.... we also have a pet gecko but that's a v new hobby so would hardly say we are gecko experts or anything like that.

i may just talk to him about this!! sounds like an amazing project and i'll definatley pop over to the website when i get a chance. i'll pm you my facebook details (don't want the world to see!! lol)

Hmmm a builder! Well to give you an idea we will be having...

Concrete footings for the house frame...
Hoping locals will do the footings, main frame and metal roof then we can build all the interior at our leisure in the dry.
Earthbag walls for the first 3-4ft which is rice sacks filled with soil and used like giant bricks.
Then large wood sheets to quickly box in the entire house,
then fit windows which will either be glass or plastic.
Then panel over the front and possibly the sides (only front will be visible)
Render over the earthbag walls using a cob-mix type render, rice husks, clay etc.
Possibly clad the render with stone chippings.
Treat the wood exterior.
Solid wood flooring inside
Wooden staircase and banisters.
Interior walls
Some furniture and cabinet building
pluming
wiring of the solar power modules and house
Constructing and fittinf LED lights on various sensors, timers and switches throughout.
Treating and painting inside
This aquatic setup
bits and bobs like curtain rails, bamboo blinds etc.
Gardening
plumbing and assemble solar water heater and showers.

Prob loads of other things too. all the time Gem's Lodge is next door so us and any volunteers will stay there. Photos and info on the forum, anyway i have emailed you...

What Gecko do you have by the way?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cool, well he's a dry liner and ceiling fixer by trade so could easily do all the ceilings and interior walls.

But he's also what you'd call a handy lad, he can do a bit of everything basically!!

For a few years when he was younger he was a brickies mate so he can do brickwork (not quite as fast as an experienced brickie but he can do it!), he does all the water based plumbing and electrics in our house (which are obviously then signed off by his qualified mates or that would be illegal and any bits and bobs like putting shelves, shower curtains, curtain rails etc etc etc he can dop easily.

I strongly doubt we'd be able to get a few months visit in but I may be able to persuade him for a fortnight or something like that.

oh and our gecko is a sunglow leopard gecko called Eddie Lizzard