Aquarium inside your cruiser.

[Tim francis]

I’ve had this pretty crazy oddball idea for a while.
In theory, on my mooring in Maui offshore in clean Bluewater, I could have a water tight acrylic tank with a small pump pumping water in and water drain out. Think of it similar to a livewell tank with filters at the intake thru hull line or a 90 off an existing thru hull. An internal filter inside the tank before the outtake. I know the pros would be that it could be a fun project. The cons would be sinking your boat. Maybe a cylinder. Maybe rectangular.
I’m just wondering if something like this already exists. I guess you could have your intake come in over the side of your boat and the drain go thru your sink drain? I’m sure I’ll never do it but just a boredom idea. Maybe a million dollar idea.

[john61ct]

Clean seawater will often be unavailable, don't want to kill your critters

[Tim francis]

It would definitely be a rotating hobby as in, only having things that can easily go back on the reef when needed. Even if I have to go into the harbor, it’s clean water here on Maui. I have Bluewater under my boat 99.9 percent of the time. I figure you could put some live rock and urchins and sergeant majors etc
When it’s time to sail, you can heel over without water leaking out. If you want to drain the tank, u just shut off the pump. Water drains out and you easily net out the critters and relocate them to the reef. Just feed em regular fish food

[Freedom45]

We have a very large aquarium around our boat, requires a mask and snorkel to see the critters.

[Tim francis]

I do too. I just think the chicks would dig it inside tho so. A little lighting and some good music.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Tim francis

I do too. I just think the chicks would dig it inside tho so. A little lighting and some good music.

Isn't that why they have screensavers?

[Fbfisher]

https://youtu.be/9jHwwJgSTR4

[Reefmagnet]

Think outside the square. I have seen a Spray with a big (non opening) style portlight on the underside of the hull. That was pretty cool.

[RaymondR]

An oilfield story.

I was responsible for the operations of a floating, offshore oil rig. One day I received a requisition for a fish tank. I thought it was just something the crew was amusing themselves with and since it appeared one of the harmless pastimes they amuse themselves with ordered a tank built.

I also thought it might go some way towards explaining the excessive use of medical oxygen on that particular rig and alleviate the problem.

So that the water did not slop out when the vessel rolled I had the builder put a top on the tank with a chimney sticking up out of it to let the oxygenating air escape. It was a nice tank, about five foot wide by three foot high and a foot deep.

Sent it out to the rig and on my next visit noted that it had been installed in the recreation room and contained some beautiful fish and a couple of small octopus.

On another visit I noticed it had no sea life and on asking the steward what had happened to them and had they all died.

The answer was "No senor, all gone to England."

When I finally found someone to tell me what was going on it eventuated that one of my British supervisors was a tropical fish collector who had a small fish trap and kept his catch in the tank whilst waiting to go on his rotation leave. The medical oxygen use was his oxygenation of the plastic bags he hand carried in his brief case for the flight back to London.

[gamayun]

That's too funny. Reminds me of the oil worker kidnapped in Nigeria and put up for a few days in a nice hotel while his ransom was paid. When the company ALSO got the bill for the room, they refused it and m made him pay for the hundreds of dollars he'd spent in porno movies over his time in captivity.

[Tortuga's Lie]

Although it sounds like a cool idea, I think in practice it would be more of a pain than it's worth. I can also imagine that if you have any gravel in the bottom, it would get sloshed around when underway and create a cloud of silt which could kill the fish.

[Tim francis]

I tend to agree. With the sloshing around daily, any and all sediment would be pushed out tho. I’d think u can have a filter just to catch big stuff going out like fish, fish poop. It wouldn’t be like a conventional home aquarium. More like a livewell. I could see having an octopus and sea urchins and a couple heavy pieces of rock or coral that won’t move much or could be attached to the bottom

[Calif.Ted]

Originally Posted by Tim francis

I do too. I just think the chicks would dig it inside tho so. A little lighting and some good music.

You already got a yacht, adding an aquarium hardly seems necessary.

[sailormed]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

An oilfield story.

I was responsible for the operations of a floating, offshore oil rig. One day I received a requisition for a fish tank. I thought it was just something the crew was amusing themselves with and since it appeared one of the harmless pastimes they amuse themselves with ordered a tank built.

I also thought it might go some way towards explaining the excessive use of medical oxygen on that particular rig and alleviate the problem.

So that the water did not slop out when the vessel rolled I had the builder put a top on the tank with a chimney sticking up out of it to let the oxygenating air escape. It was a nice tank, about five foot wide by three foot high and a foot deep.

Sent it out to the rig and on my next visit noted that it had been installed in the recreation room and contained some beautiful fish and a couple of small octopus.

On another visit I noticed it had no sea life and on asking the steward what had happened to them and had they all died.

The answer was "No senor, all gone to England."

When I finally found someone to tell me what was going on it eventuated that one of my British supervisors was a tropical fish collector who had a small fish trap and kept his catch in the tank whilst waiting to go on his rotation leave. The medical oxygen use was his oxygenation of the plastic bags he hand carried in his brief case for the flight back to London.

I read a story that goes somewhat along these lines. An airline company had a new data analysis tool’and was investigating why one captain was always consuming more fuel on a specific route to XYZ then the other crews.

It so happened that the captain in question on take off from XYZ had a tire blown during take off and executed an emergency braking.

After this the maintenance crew had to requalify the equipment bay under the cockpit because of large quantities of water sloshing around in that area.

The captain had build a transport business of tropical fish and had a very large open aquarium in the equipment bay. The braking had resulted in all the water and fish being thrown out of the aquarium.

The investigation into higher fuelburn for that captain had also come to a conclusion.
What happened to that captain is anybodys guess. It was not in the story.

[DailyLunatic]

I was looking for the same information. Disappointed.


I envisioned something akin to the globe shaped aquarium in Capt Picard's ready room.


My main concern was customs/quarantine. I've read that even a potted plant is a problems in some places. Is this true?



If so, wouldn't you have to stock in each port, then dump everything and sanitize before moving on.


Your aquarium would be sad and empty while traveling.