Garden Tub Aquarium!

[The0wn4g3]

I recently moved into a mobile home to live for college, and the master bathroom has a huge garden tub. I'm planning on moving my 65 gallon tank in this coming weekend, and was going to keep the livestock in the tub while I was setting up the equipment.
Then i had an idea, 'why not just use the tub as a tank big coral tank?'
It's about 48" wide and 14' deep. I happened to be at Lowe's yesterday and picked up a 10" x 25" roll of 4 mil plastic sheet to place in the tub. I can probably triple layer it for 12 mil total to protect the tub surface.

So what do you guys think about my idea?

 

[eznet2u]

Mobile home...Aquarium in the tub...

:lol:

 

[BeanAnimal]

Likely not a good idea when the big picture is looked at.

Who owns the trailer? What about the evaporation and the moisture problems it will cause?


On a side note: I am willing to be that the hot water tank is not large enough to even come close to filling that tub for a warm (let alone hot) bath...

 

[E30 E T A]

Haha^
your mobile home looks better than my house! If you don't mind me asking,how much did the house cost?
That would be sweet!

 

[Kaos]

:lol: There is probably only a handful of people on this board that haven't considered doing this at one time or another. My biggest question would be filtration. I guess you could set a reverse sump on the side. Have a pump going from the tub to the sump and have an overflow of some type flowing the water from the sump to the tub. It would be a very unique and redneck-esque setup. The hard part will be keeping your friends and stuff out of it during parties.

 

[The0wn4g3]

Haha, I thought putting an aquarium in a tub was hilarious at first, too. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I have a stand-in shower in the exact same bathroom, so i have absolutely no use for the tub. And to top it all off, I pass a cow pasture on the way to class

My father owns the trailer, and I've discussed it with him already. The bathroom is about 10x13 which has a 4ft door connected to my 15x16 bedroom. I don't think evaporation or moisture would be a problem with all of the circulation available. Plus, I'm in Alabama. There's already 49% humidity right now, and it's a pretty dry day.
I've never tried it, but the hot water heater could definitely produce a hot bath. The tub is about 107 gallons, and the heater is around 80 gallons of 125deg. water. But I'll never know for sure, hah

Haha, thanks! It took me 2 straight weeks to clean it all top to bottom. Took about 14 hours of repainting, had to replace all the outlets, the thermostat, the blinds, etc.... real pain haha.
I'm not really sure how much it cost. I'd guess around $20k. We plan to resell after I get my MD and hopefully not lose a lot on it. Renting an apartment just seemed like throwing money away...

 

[The0wn4g3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13307816#post13307816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kaos
:lol: There is probably only a handful of people on this board that haven't considered doing this at one time or another. My biggest question would be filtration. I guess you could set a reverse sump on the side. Have a pump going from the tub to the sump and have an overflow of some type flowing the water from the sump to the tub. It would be a very unique and redneck-esque setup.

Exactly what I was thinking on the filtration.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13307816#post13307816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kaos
The hard part will be keeping your friends and stuff out of it during parties.

Word....

 

[BeanAnimal]

80 Gallon heater in a double wide trailer? You sure about that? Most come with a 20G or 30G. Most homes have a 50G heater. I have seen many a double wide with a garden tub in the bathroom and the standard 20-30G water heater.

The evaporation very well may be a big issue. That is a lot of surface area. You are going to easily have 4-5 gallons a day of evap, if not much more.

Other than that, I suppose there is not a problem. Good luck with the project.

 

[chrismunn]

what about left over soap scum, or the fact that the drain piece is metal???

ive also thought abot using a whirlpool tub or hot tub as a reef tank. its already got an awesome closed loop built right in! not only that, but it has different levels for aquascaping where the seats are! :lol:

 

[coralfragger101]

As a prop tank - yes.

As a display tank - no.

You would only be able to look at your corals or whatever you have in there from the top down and then would only get a "clear" view when you turned all the pumps off to stop surface agitation.

No way would I do this.

NEXT IDEA ?

 

[Harry_Fish]

I'd do it!

I've considered doing something simmilar myself using kiddie pools.

My only real concern here is that my cats may decide to play in it.

 

[The0wn4g3]

Beananimal, I'm not taking a bath. It's enough for 2 people to take a 10min shower each day, and that's all that matters.
I would use some plastic painter's sheet to cover the tub. That way when I move out in several years the tub itself won't be harmed, and I don't have to worry about soap or metal.
It will be a prop tank only I like the look of coral from the top down a lot, and being shallow it will be easy to clean. We had 5 6ft x 1ft frag tanks at my LFS. Had all the tunzes on a AC jr. so you could turn them all off to look at the coral. It worked great.

 

[MeuserReef]

Why not just get yourself a super-tricked-out nano until you get your degree, then get you super tank.

Im not knocking your idea, just throwing out an alternate idea.

If I were going to use a garden tub as a tank, I would make a super-fund-my-college-degree frag setup that would supply the whole galaxy with frags.

 

[Rhodophyta]

Evil thought! Convert the shower into a wet/dry sump for the tub.

More practical (if anything about this really could be) might be to put a small plastic waterfall somewhere there is space and the sump and filtration under it, returning perhaps via a dump bucket through the water fall channel into the lined tub.

 

[Letmegrow]

I did a few remodel jobs on mobile homes.

One coems to mind when the bottom broke on one of those tubs when the tennants tried to take a bath together.

The man weighed 3bills and the woman weighed 4 bills easily.

So you might want to think about the water weight.

 

[BigEivlSquid]

being a double-wide owner myself, I think its a great idea. FYI they use chip board for the floors on older units, so you need to make double sure the floor can't get wet or it might warp or fall out.

 

[MeuserReef]

700 bills in a bathtub.... not the mental image of choice!

 

[REEF-n-Chicago]

Personally, I say go for it. Def line the tub with a liner of some sort (pond liner) to avoid the chemicals.
You could overflow out one of the jets.
Use the others for closed loop!
again though I would replace the piping due to chemicals

Overall cost would be cheap........ and if your not using it anyway what a cool experiment

 

[Ehgemus]

What if you have a few girls over one night and they want to get in the bath tub together. Than what are you going to do?

 

[BeanAnimal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13308726#post13308726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The0wn4g3
Beananimal, I'm not taking a bath. It's enough for 2 people to take a 10min shower each day, and that's all that matters.

I never said you were taking a bath. I simply tried to point out, in a light hearted way, that double-wides never come with hot water heaters big enough to fill the silly garden tubs that are sold with them. I find it funny, and thought other people would also.

No more, no less.