Mechanical drawing of aquarium

[Moontanman]

I hope these drawings are a bit more informative, this is the smallest practical size but it can be scaled up as long as the ratios are kept the same. 

The idea is to recreate a tidal environment where the water flows clockwise for 6 hours and counterclockwise for six hours. This reversing motion creates a more diverse setting for the fish as well as making the plants more productive. 

This echos the current trend among zoos  to make the animals habitats more natural and gives the fish the illusion they are in a tidal river instead of a square glass box. 

I think even large pelagic fish could be kept successfully in a scaled up version of this enclosure... 

[Moontanman]

I have the idea of the center triangle being made as an island of volcanic rocks with layers of wood chips and hay between layers of lava rocks. The idea is to made a refuge in the middle where things like amphipods, isopods, crayfish, ghost shrimp and other small invertebrates can live and reproduce while being partially protected  from predation. The apex of each triangle would be the site of a swamp tree trimmed back somewhat in the manner of bonsai. Cattails and other swamp plants would also root in this island and allow for the protection of small fish, egg scatterers, and live bearers. 

A flow through drip of about 1 to 2 drops of water every second would be introduced and allowed to drain out as the level rises.  2 drops per second should be near 2.25 gallons of water per 24 hours. 

[Moontanman]

This design is the result of 45 years of aquarium building, fish husbandry, plant cultivation and live food cultivation. A full size version of this, actually the one pictured here is just a proof of concept, but a significantly larger version could be a self contained ecosystem (not a closed ecosystem) and the plant, fish, mollusc, crustacean, infusoria, and algae would be similar to a natural pond or stream with little input. 

The reversing current would increase productivity significantly over a square box or even a single round cylinder. You would have to have inputs like other aquaria but that would be limited to light, new water (about .1% per day) and some replacement of biomass to make up for natural inputs like insects. 

A food pyramid consisting of small fast reproducing fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans would allow for an almost natural system with smaller fishes and then small predatory fishes. The constant stirring of the water back and forth to imitate an estuarine system would allow for higher bio output per square foot of living space. 

This would be a very interesting system to keep in of itself but the construction also allows for a larger more diverse population of display fishes although the upkeep would be similar to normal fish display. 

This design allows for more varied habitat and would allow a larger number of fish being kept in a smaller space without the sad look of fish simply swimming back and forth against the glass. This would allow fish to be kept that would normally not due well confined to a square glass box and allow for more varied and normal behavior of the captives.

I also assert that a larger, adjusted to the size of the fish, version of this could be used to keep pelagic fish that normally need a huge habitat to allow them to survive without killing themselves against the side of the aquarium. I think I could keep fish like mahi mahi, cobia, mackerel, and even fish like marlin and swordfish under these conditions. Sharks husbandry would benefit greatly from this design.  

I can go into detail about specific species and estimates of numbers and to what extent this design could be used to imitate natural habitats or used to keep a larger diversity of fish under normal aquarium conditions.  

[Moontanman]

On 11/9/2017 at 11:16 PM, Moontanman said:

Here are revised pictures. 

For what I would call a full sized version double the stated measurements... 

[Moontanman]

Doubling the measurements of the proof of concept talk gives a volume of 1150 gallons...