The perfect aquarium for the Associate Professor

Spring is in full bloom! We admire nature, we want to have at least a little of it in our own home. Today is something for those young technicians who love animals but don't know what to do with them while on vacation or just don't have the head to do their job.

Small, small and smallest aquariums

For many school years, I had a relatively small, only ten liters, aquarium with several small fish on my desk. The fish were as real as possible, as was taking care of them. It gave me many positive impressions. But this requires some responsibility.

As a native of Wroclaw, I cannot but note that the largest aquarium in Poland and in this part of Europe is located in the very center of the capital of Lower Silesia. It is 12 meters high, 8,5 meters long, 3,5 meters wide and holds 120 liters of water, hence the total weight is 200 tons. It is not surprising that this is one of the greatest sights of Arcadia Wroclaw [2]. The ocean fish swimming in it (including blacktip sharks) eat about 1,5 kg of food daily. Routine maintenance work on such a large aquarium is carried out weekly by qualified aquarists-divers.

In order not to be accused of unhealthy gigantomania, it is also good for balance to write a few sentences about the smallest aquarium. Anatoly Konenko, a miniaturist from Siberia, presents the world's smallest aquarium on the World Wide Web [3]. A glass cube measuring 30x24x14 mm is filled with colorful pebbles, plants and only 10 milliliters of water, this allows the relative existence (for a while) of three fish (probably guppy fry). Additional photos and videos posted by the creator also show a true to scale mini filter and aerator.

Here, in the interests of justice, it is worth cautioning readers against taking such small aquariums seriously as a permanent place for keeping fish. In aquaristism, the principle applies that for every centimeter of the length of the fish there should be at least a liter of water (not as much as the capacity of the aquarium!). Also, you should not tire the fish (most often goldfish) in balloon aquariums, as this causes a lot of ailments and diseases in these animals.

Ideas for desktop aquariums

The main feature that distinguishes Docent's aquariums from other aquariums will, of course, be the lack of water. After all, the water needs to be purified, trouble can splash out! We're completely gone! This, of course, will allow us to greatly simplify the design of ... air tanks, we can use thinner glass (from thin plexiglass, cover with foil) or completely abandon glass. The frame of the aquarium, as well as superstructures, can be built from thin profiles and plastic plates, and even more simply from thick cardboard.

Of course, there are many ideas on how to make an aquarium for our fish. It is worth observing both the solutions of small spawning aquariums and the well-thought-out modeling and artistic solutions.

As in the case of real breeding, at the beginning you should decide on the nature of the aquarium and the type of fish and plants that will be in it. It can be local, exotic or coral fish. At this stage, it is necessary to decide not only on the type of fish, background, equipment, but also on a single design in terms of style. I will try to present some of them.

Plush Aquarium [8] and [9] Plexiglas content here is exclusively hand-sewn plush (more precisely, fleece) fish and the same type of equipment. You can read more about this method at fuckingbuglady.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-favorite-fish.html.

The cartoon aquarium has a couple of films that take place underwater, and graphics available on the Internet allow you to use them to create such an aquarium. An example of an aquarium with characters from the movie Finding Nemo? [10] - [13], built in the Emdek modeling studio by 2009-year-old Ola (by the way, she won with this model in her age category ABC, during the 200th Wrocław Card Modelers Meetings in 140 in Wroclaw, she won a netbook) . The clownfish in the foreground is available online at http://paperinside.com/characters/finding-nemo/, additional background was prepared in an artist software using images from the official distributor, also obtained from the web. The whole aquarium (140×10×XNUMX mm) was cut with a knife from one piece of blue cardboard, a flat removable cover from another. The aquarium frames are XNUMXmm wide. The lenses were cut out of protective foil and glued to cardboard with polymer glue. The fish hang on thin lines tied to a bamboo skewer, resting against the shorter edges of the aquarium. Is this aquarium not mechanized or not lit? its charm is in a situational joke and extremely accurate performance!

The perfect aquarium for the Associate Professor

Aquariums Creative Park? These simple yet beautifully crafted cardboard models are available from Canon's highly recommended websites:. Their characteristic features are the small size of aquariums glued together from small pieces of paper, the absence of glazing and the uniform style of drawing animals, plants and equipment. These models are prepared for self-printing on common home printers, have very detailed assembly instructions with drawings and are intended for non-advanced modellers.

Of course, the few examples above do not exhaust all the conventions and styles that can be used in our model. I also recommend to all those who are able to deal with graphics processing programs on their own, to prepare all the necessary elements for creating a phototextural aquarium, using a rich collection of illustrations available on the Internet.

 The perfect aquarium for a docent

We will make a title aquarium out of cardboard, for example, using a PDF file specially prepared for this purpose (). The printout (except for the first page with instructions) should be done on a good technical block card in black (or more strictly black) or white (and colored if desired with waterproof ink markers and for this purpose with water-based paints).

Gluing the aquarium (according to the instructions and using pictures) should not be a big problem. It is important to use good paper glue and to properly press the surfaces to be glued while the glue is bonding. The aquarium grid can be printed on separate sheets of black technical block or drawn on one large sheet of cardboard. It is also not difficult to glue the cardboard top box. As for the color, it does not have to be the same as the Ford, you can also choose dark blue, dark green or dark brown. Aquarium glazing films can be found at every better-equipped stationery store, or at photocopying bookbinding stations. In their absence, you can also refuse them, as in models from Creative Park.

Some mechanics that will allow the cardboard fish to swim a little will make our model very attractive. Its heart will be a miniature gear with the highest possible gear ratio. We will get it from the cheapest (4,8g) servo model. It will require some operation on it, but this is probably the best and cheapest solution to date. To do this, we throw away the electronics, but leave the case, motor and transmission. Although the servo is usually powered by 6-1,2V, in this case it will be more beneficial to reduce the voltage to 1,5-1,2V (depending on whether we use a dry cell or a battery). With some knowledge of basic electronics, one might be tempted to apply a few tens of volts less voltage to slow the fish down even further (see the video added to the article on mlodytechnik.pl, the motor is powered directly from a 1V nickel-cadmium battery). All mechanics, including the power supply and switch, are attached to a strip of thicker cardboard (1,5-XNUMX mm), then glued to the lid. On the side, you will need to carefully measure and cut a hole for the slider or switch button (depending on the solution used).

Lighting this type of aquarium is also possible and not even difficult to implement. You will need another basket, a power switch and some (4-6) white or blue fluorescent (LED) lights. The diodes must be powered by 3V from an independent circuit, and the motor is still powered by a maximum voltage of 1,5V (although lower, 0,8-1,0V would be better).

I will not give here a description of the gluing of fish. Is it usually attached to cutouts in the form of a pattern? there will be no problem understanding it even if it was prepared by Japanese designers, as is the case with the models used to build the aquarium discussed in detail here.

The background for the aquarium should be thematically and stylistically adapted to the fish models. The background back wall is easiest to find on the World Wide Web (wallpapers, aquarist blogs, etc.). A little harder to find the background at the bottom. I did not find ready-made backgrounds for our purposes on the Internet - I had to play painting. Now you just need to look here: ().

I think that aquariums made on the basis of this article will please their performers no less than the author. I also hope that other readers will also be able to see pictures of these models on our youth tech forum where I can help too.

ALSO WORTH SEEING:

 – the largest aquarium in Poland

 - as mentioned above

 - the smallest aquarium in the world

 - website of Anatolia Konenkova

 - simple fish from Japan

 – 3D bottom fish models