Has anyone ever made, or thought about making an Acrylic tank to swim in at events? I know Mertailor has one. It really seemed to draw crowds. It might be cool as a marketing tool. I dont know anything about working with acrylic but it just looks like a glue to me.
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
As far as I know the Mertailor had a tank. Raven of the Merbellas bought it.
We had that in a thread on the old site mer.yuku.
It sounded also interesting to me, but such a tank would be very expensive.
it is expensive. i know how to make it its just gonna cost about $600 and its caulk and bent metal holding it together.
i know someone who made one but for a bunch of fish and a little smaller. real cool.
When I looked into tank-construction (and I was thinking a wooden waterproofed tank with a plexiglass front so it would be lighter than glass), it seemed like the project, even done DIY could run up a bill of 2 grand, easily, but I'm continuing to search for options. If you want the tank to be large enough to move in at all, the plexiglass has to be really thick to withstand the water pressure.
I was thinking of a tank sort-of like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmwoxaGh-k
Rather than making it clear all around.
Of course, even an empty 150 gallon tank (granted, a glass one) weighs around 200lbs, so to make a tank large enough to fit inside of (try 900gallons, ideally), you would need a pretty serious truck and a lot of people to move it (and then hours to fill it up with water on-location, so hopefully you'd be performing in the same place for several days, like at a festival.)
I really, really want one for my circus' sideshow, but I have no idea how to make it happen.
For a less beautiful, but still very fun and much more portable option, getting a small above-ground collapsible swimming pool would work great... if you could make it look nice/decorate & light it well.
I actually have a private club I work every weekend at that it would be perfect for. Also I work alot of conventions each year that it would be awesome. Also trying to get one so I can set up at a Renaissance Festival next year.
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
Yeah, that sounds ideal. I'm very interested, so if you come up with a financially viable solution to building one, let me know!
Cool will do!
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
Mermaid Odette, I'd was think the Ren Faire route, too! That would be amazing and awesome to do! I'd love to partake in that. :-)
Would you have it set up with tubes for air, so you wouldn't have to surface, or just make it a regular tank?
eric told me the stand ALONE for the tank cost 3000 and Raven told me it was so expensive she coulda bought a car but she and Meshpa dont like to discuss the actual numbers. I found a tank that would fit 1 mer in it on kijiji and it was 5000$ and it was from the 80s!
@Raina - that sounds about right, numbers-wise, it definitely would cost more than a car to get an all plexiglass tank of a nice size. Thus my ($2,000ish?) plan to make a treated-wood type tank with a plexiglass front.
I actually found a tank that I could fit into on Craigslist for only $200, but I couldn't fit in it with my tail on, and I could only fit into it sideways even so, so it wouldn't work for swimming around, more of a water-coffin really. Meh. That, and it was glass, so it would have weighed a ton, even empty. I almost wanted to go for it anyway, but it was a bad idea - lots of work moving something around that wasn't actually what I wanted. Still, folks are trying to get rid of 200 gallon fish tanks pretty regularly... 400 gallons and I'd be tempted again.
If I found someone trying to get rid of a big enough tank, I would probably start up a Kickstarter Campaign for it.
I dont have any experience with air tubes so it would probably be just a regular tank, I would probably set a filter on it each night to clean it . The renfair route seems like it would be really amazing. If I cant get a tank, my renfaire has a huge wishing well area that I may try. We have a big aquarium company here in Ohio that I may pay a visit to and see if they would be interested in a mermaid for all the home and garden shows that they do. Maybe they could give me a discount.
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
Since we were on the subject of tanks, I wanted to share these and thought they were really cool.
http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/aquariums#47
There is alot of cool things to click on but its a confusing sight. My favs are the tanks where you can pet the fish, the one with birds in it, and the one where the cat can stick his head in.
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
Those are amazing. I want that sink (although I imagine it would rarely look that clean).
Ya the sink toliet and all the ones in tables are awsome, i also love the telephone booth, i want my house when i grow up to be full of fish tanks
I didn't know Eric sold a tank is it on his website?
There lays a lovely maiden combing her long hair
im working on making a pool like tank to bring to events so i can swim,splash, and still communicate well with all the kids. they get much more into it when you talk to them.
the cost just for the wood on my pool tank thingy was $200.
Ide, i was thinking the very same thing with the wooden frame. tho i would like to burn some images into the wood. pyrography looks reall cool. you can burn your logo on the back.
come find Mermaid-Odette on facebook!
my website is here
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I am thinking about having a tank made in 2012. It is going to be 8ft long 4ft wide and 4ft deep.
You would need 2 inch thick acrylic, plus your supports, plus wheels.
guys, Ive had big discussions with Raven about hers and I think you're seriously underestimating the cost, the mobility, and the safety. Trying to transport the tank the size you're hoping for is very difficult. Ravens vehicle couldnt easily move it and they had to get another. And you need that plexi glass thick, stable, and SAFE. In order to hold the amount you all seem to want for water I think you're going to be dishing out a lot of $$. Especially for custom. Raven's got a big filter and a heater, it takes her at least 4 hours to fill it with water too (you also have to consider the cost and liabilities that come with needing to fill the tank every time and dispose of the used water within city law) and at least 4 hours to pump it out. Im not trying to discourage anyone or be a downer but there's so much more that goes into these things, maintaining them, keeping safe (Eric was almost killed once trying to get it off a trailer) and it's so much more expensive to create something that's safe, functionable, and transportable than you're theorizing.
aniaR, thanks for mentioning that.
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