Large Aquarium Design. Help Tips Etc Req.

[Arachnidzone]

Good stuff. No exact skills are needed here. Its handy people we need. Common sense, experimentation, some patience, and a little crativity is what we ask. Obviously your fella would have a head start on a lot of people and had experience of allsorts. Theres no 'codes' 'corgi certifications' or even architects, or planning permission where we are going so the common sense and lots of planning are the main things.

By the time we go AirAsia shuld have their cheap flights in place from Manchester so that will make a big differance on the cost. While with us it will be cheap and/or free, and i reccomend a few days somewhere on the way home for sights, shopping, relaxing, diving or whatever depending what your after. It wont be slave labour with us though. I ma very patient person and like to do things properly. Once the roof is up we can take our time. Plenty of time to explore and enjoy too! Also we would meet guests in Miri and spend 1-2 nights with them there first to discuss and recover from flights. Have some beers and meals and a walk round etc.

Anyway, half way though this river design and eating bran flakes at same time so will get back to it!

Oh and Leopard geckos are great. Got a friend who breeds. Aiming for his Mac Snow and albinos etc. He bought most of my old tanks, heatmats etc etc but if theres anything you need i may have it left and will just send it you as times getting on. a bit to be selling...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Theres no 'codes' 'corgi certifications' or even architects

that sentence alone should sell it for him!! ha ha ha

it all just sounds amazing, quite possibly a pipe dream, but sometimes you have to make dreams come true by yourself, i've found it's not often people do it for you!! ha ha

like i say i'm not as handy as him...... but i can do bits and bobs, i know my stuff with the fishy stuff a bit better and i'm also a pretty good cook which tends to be handy with a lot of people around working.


awesome, well we're just getting into the gecko thing, we've only had him 2/3 weeks but Ian is totally besotted with him

oh and hte bloke who sits next to me at work say's his missus has been daydreaming about a project like this for years so may well be up for it.... will put her in touch on facebook or onto your website.

 

[Arachnidzone]

good stuff, and the more the merrier to a point. A group of 4-6 is good to travel with anyway. And anyone with any skills are welcome, if someone who comes, or comes with their partner wants to sit in the sun reading instead thats fine, its primarily a home-stay for guests so guests and volunteers can come at the same time. Anyone who does nothing pays the regular price, anyone whos mucking in every day and helping aorund the house etc will probably end up totally free. theres a local art gallery and a few shops so we ask everybody or every group which comes to put something into the local economy, but a minimum of a few ££s worth of food, drink or whatever is fine! ITs about positivly promoting this place and keeping it the property of the Kelabit people at the same time. So eco-lodges are one of the best ways. Theres loads of other projects too, deer and boar d=breeding, bridges, a community care project to help the elderly people stay and not have to move away to the cities is the primary project but the first step will be our house.

What i ask is a basic version of a CV be sent to us via email, not so we can decide who comes but so we can put their hobbies, skills and interests to their best use. Make sure the fun bits inbetween are perfect for those people. so anyone you contact, get em to send me some details, Full name, nickname, age, approx location, work experience, education, hobbys, intrests. Even what kind of music you like as we want to have a party the last night of anybodies stay and have a hard drive full of music and films to take with us.

It started a pipe dream for us, now 2 years later (as i like to do lots of research etc) we are getting there. this trip is to finalise the sponsorship side of immigration, and our building and website for Gems Lodge, then come home to sell up, then back there for another month to place our application which we are 99.9% likely to pass. Then back home to live with my mum and dad while me and my wife work our notice for 3-4 months at work. this is the time the money we earn will build up best so we will be able to start buying furniture, clothes, allsorts aswell as pay for the house to get to frame and roof stage. Then we go for good! To get someone over for a trip its just a matter of budget and time off work. And like i say AirAsia flights will be much cheaper. At the moment its about £1200ish for all the flights which is UK-Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to Miri, Miri to Bario, and back. That price is for 2 people return. The rest of the hol would be an absolute budget minimum of £60 per person per week for food and accomodation etc. So anything above that is better accomodation and more spends!

So per person about £600 flights, and for food, accomodation and taxis, minimum £60 per week (budget) £150 per week (Decent) £400 per week (luxurious) and every £ inbetween...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cool cool, well i signed up with your forum and i had a poke around, if my mates missus is interested i'll give her a link to this thread and your website.

 

[Arachnidzone]

cool cool, well i signed up with your forum and i had a poke around, if my mates missus is interested i'll give her a link to this thread and your website.

Cheers! More recruits to build paradise!

have approved you on the forum.

 

[Arachnidzone]

1st concept for a river paladarium. There would be a lot of stone shelves etc glued into this (which i will add to a more finalised design) these will create pools and waterfalls. The aim is to allow some fish to swim/jump back up the river.

what do you think? I will remake this as 3D wise its messy. Then i may add cabinet, etc. This would the the right hand side of the large C shape setup, leaving room for the 2 aquariums on the left..

The large bottom pool is 58g (UK).

The middle pool is 34g (UK)

The 2 river sections would hold approx 20g and a filter area behind the waterfall would hold an aditional 10g.

Not bad. I will do another version...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i can visualise that it my head now, would be awesome!!!

would mostly need to be smaller fish (not tiny, could go up to 6/8" comfortably, just no monsters) because of the shape of the pools and river sections but I think that'd be brilliant.

 

[ALW]

WOW! Id love to do something like this.

 

[Arachnidzone]

WOW! Id love to do something like this.

Well you can all help with mine, suggestions? critisism? comments? tips?

Im trying to keep its impressivness but bring the weight and acrylic thickness right down.

What do you think to the circular ponds?

QUESTION: Approx how deep OR how many G would i get away with using 20mm Acrylic?

 

[ALW]

Why not use glass, why acrylic

 

[Arachnidzone]

ah you have to read the first part. I will fill you in...

moving to live in middle of rainforest. Transportation limited and bumpy so acrylic is a must. size is limited to pickup truck transportation so a multi-part or several aquariums.

So, any ideas?

 

[ALW]

Ok, but acrylic glass can be brittle, was just a concern.

 

[Arachnidzone]

Glass is not totally rules out. Something like this multi part paladarium doesnt need any 1 huge sheet so would be cheaper to buy pre-cut glass and silicone. So maybe!

To my understanding glass is much more fragile than acrylic. Am i wrong? We are talking 20mm thick from a company that makes acrylic tunnels for sealife centres.

 

[ALW]

i just read it some where that acrylic glass can behave in a brittle manner and especially when some thing hits it hard. Maybe im worng.

EDIT: never mind just found this http/www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-differ...s-aquariums.htm

 

[Arachnidzone]

i just read it some where that acrylic glass can behave in a brittle manner and especially when some thing hits it hard. Maybe im worng.

EDIT: never mind just found this [URL="http/www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-differ...s-aquariums.htm"]http/www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-differ...s-aquariums.htm[/URL]

Thats a good page of info. So now you realise why i am wanting acrylic. ITs a lot more expensie generally but if you can afford it it should be worth the extra.

Main downside is it scratches. So does glass but you can not polish glass back. Inside the tank i will have to be more carefull especially with algae removel, algae eaters are the best way. Outside the tank i can just use car polish every few years when wiping, cleaning, touching etc starts to dull the surface.

So back to the tank. Trying 2 large shallow tanks with a river inbetween next...