My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

[naturalart]

For your 25k problem, maybe a more resilient, protective 2nd fabric layer like acrylic, or theres that fabric they use for boat hulls (not sure if its fish safe). Then the flag stone on top. Then, the largest, smooth pea gravel possible for cover and backfill. Not perfect but cheap. Just thinking out loud.

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

For your 25k problem, maybe a more resilient, protective 2nd fabric layer like acrylic, or theres that fabric they use for boat hulls (not sure if its fish safe). Then the flag stone on top. Then, the largest, smooth pea gravel possible for cover and backfill. Not perfect but cheap. Just thinking out loud.

Thank you Clay! Don't know and never heard of an acrylic fabric, nor do I know the boat hull fabric - is that like a carpeting for boats? My prerequisite is to not have an accumulation of detritus in the inaccessible areas in the tank and not having to vacuum the accessible areas. I cannot afford this labor and time wise.

[naturalart]

Here's a couple links. I have never used these materials myself so can't vouch for durability, off-gassing, or anything like that.

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S- ... 4QQAvD_BwE

https://www.amazon.com/lehom-Fiberglass ... MKEIZ31UE4

There are many other iterations of these materials. I'm guess a lot of this stuff probably floats, so would be a pain to hold down; but I guess that is where the flag stone would come into play if you were to move forward with it.

And I agree that you would be trapping some detritus, but you would also be gaining some beneficial bacteria surface. Again, just thoughts.

[edds]

Have you thought about rubber root membranes? The sort of stuff used for bamboo root barriers?

Though I think you might best getting the fish and water out and pouring concrete or fibreglassing the inside. Short term pain but a better long term, robust solution.

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here's a couple links...

Thank you, Clay! Appreciate thinking outside the box. I'd need to look more at these but they don't look promising. Fiberglass sheeting are obviously not going to work outside of encasing them in resin as in the fiberglass reinforced plastic production. The soak-up mat wouldn't work either, worse than a 45 mil rubber liner anyway.

I am thinking at the moment that my only simple but high risk approach is to hang the rubber liner only covering the vertical walls, hoping that the tenants wouldn't puncture the bottom and let the waste flow towards the pumps along the bottom, as it does now, and collect on the matt over the shower tower filter, which I vacuum regularly.

Have you thought about rubber root...

Thank you for this. No, never heard of this before but it looks like HDPE sheeting that comes in long strips of 2-3ft width. It's a good idea but impractical to implement for me because it would need to be immobilized by rocks or sandbags and the whole thing would collect hard to clean out waste. Plus I fear the water standing between the main liner and the protection would get stagnant and stinky and there is no easy and convenient way to combat that. At least I tried to think it through and couldn't find such a solution. For this reason, I don't want to cover the bottom with anything at this point. My thinking has been heavily evolving.

You may be right on the emptying the pond and concreting. One big con is that the 45ft acrylic homemade window is only 3/4 inch thick and it is an experiment and IDK when or if it fails. It bows in some places a lot and has been developing crazing and IDK how well, if at all, it could handle the inevitable run-ins and blows from 100lb arapaima, paroons, other monsters. So going all this trouble of concreting the exhibit just to have to replace, or repair, or reinforce the window soon or having to rebuild the whole tank anyway is counterproductive. A cheap and easy way out for now may be warranted. But it's a gamble. IDK. Really.

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]

[Viktor Jarikov]