I'm in the design phase of building a new home, and I had an unusual design concept that you all probably have more experience with than just about anyone else. I want at least a bathtub - and possibly a small shallow outdoor balcony hot tub as well - to be like a fish tank. That is, the bathtub would have one transparent wall (likely inserted into the concrete before it's even set, so that it's securely fastened and watertight... though with glass it'd probably be inserted into a slot to allow for thermal expansion), and the rest would be natural-looking, irregular shaped (formed from the concrete of the home), maybe with soft sand on the bottom (french drain or the like for draining water from it), mossy rocks, and so forth. If I did the outdoor balcony hot tub too, it'd have no sand or rocks, probably two transparent sides, and a transparent bottom. Significantly reinforced, of course.
Really, the construction requirements sound a lot more like fishtank construction requirements than anything else... so that's why I'm here!
First off, I wonder what you all think of this concept. Does it even sound reasonable? Or are bathing humans just too much of big clumsy animals to be trusted around transparent materials?
The other questions have to do with construction.
First, what sort of material would be best? I've been thinking about acrylic, polycarbonate, and glass. I think I'd have to rule out the polycarbonate for outdoors because it's more UV-susceptible than acrylic. For indoors, it is majorly more fracture resistant and tolerates heat better... but then it bends a bit easier, and it's easier to scratch. So I don't know. Then on the other end of the spectrum is glass.... no problems whatsoever unless it breaks, wherein suddenly it's *big* problems.
(I don't care much about transparency/optical quality issues... any transparency is better than no transparency!)
Then comes the subject of bracing. From the calculators I've seen, it looks like a long piece of acrylic, for example, braced on top supporting 60cm / 2 feet of water, requires 2cm / 0,8in acrylic. But 60cm squared required is only 1,2cm / 0,5in acrylic. Does that mean that if there were vertical bracings every 60cm / 2 feet that one could use the thinner acrylic? What if one had additional reinforcing bar at an angle against the middle of each of the 60cm squares, could the plastic be thinner still? Again, while reinforcing obstructions aren't ideal, any transparency is better than none, and if reinforcement can lead to significant raw materials savings....
And speaking of heat earlier... how does water temperature affect the required thickness? I mean, we're not talking boiling, but it could get to 40C (104F), maybe even more. I know polycarbonate is more heat resistant than acrylic... and then of course glass is pretty much indifferent to temperature, assuming there's enough room to handle thermal expansion.
Another question is layers. Can one use two layers of 0,6cm / 0,25in acrylic (or whatever) bonded together in place of one layer of 1,2m / 0,5in acrylic? I imagine it'd lower optical quality, but again, that's not the main issue (unless it completely destroys it). Are the strengths roughly equivalent? The reason I asked is that I priced panels and 0,6cm / 0,25in acrylic is a third the price of 1,2m / 0,5in, not half price, so using a double layer of it would save 33% of the cost of the plastic.
(Of course, these prices were from overseas; I have no idea what prices here in Iceland will be like, they can be weird sometimes! I also haven't priced glass at all. Polycarbonate was (surprisingly) only marginally more expensive than acrylic)
Anyway, I'm just trying to get a sense of general project feasibility, thoughts, and recommendations.
Really, the construction requirements sound a lot more like fishtank construction requirements than anything else... so that's why I'm here!
First off, I wonder what you all think of this concept. Does it even sound reasonable? Or are bathing humans just too much of big clumsy animals to be trusted around transparent materials?
The other questions have to do with construction.
First, what sort of material would be best? I've been thinking about acrylic, polycarbonate, and glass. I think I'd have to rule out the polycarbonate for outdoors because it's more UV-susceptible than acrylic. For indoors, it is majorly more fracture resistant and tolerates heat better... but then it bends a bit easier, and it's easier to scratch. So I don't know. Then on the other end of the spectrum is glass.... no problems whatsoever unless it breaks, wherein suddenly it's *big* problems.
(I don't care much about transparency/optical quality issues... any transparency is better than no transparency!)
Then comes the subject of bracing. From the calculators I've seen, it looks like a long piece of acrylic, for example, braced on top supporting 60cm / 2 feet of water, requires 2cm / 0,8in acrylic. But 60cm squared required is only 1,2cm / 0,5in acrylic. Does that mean that if there were vertical bracings every 60cm / 2 feet that one could use the thinner acrylic? What if one had additional reinforcing bar at an angle against the middle of each of the 60cm squares, could the plastic be thinner still? Again, while reinforcing obstructions aren't ideal, any transparency is better than none, and if reinforcement can lead to significant raw materials savings....
And speaking of heat earlier... how does water temperature affect the required thickness? I mean, we're not talking boiling, but it could get to 40C (104F), maybe even more. I know polycarbonate is more heat resistant than acrylic... and then of course glass is pretty much indifferent to temperature, assuming there's enough room to handle thermal expansion.
Another question is layers. Can one use two layers of 0,6cm / 0,25in acrylic (or whatever) bonded together in place of one layer of 1,2m / 0,5in acrylic? I imagine it'd lower optical quality, but again, that's not the main issue (unless it completely destroys it). Are the strengths roughly equivalent? The reason I asked is that I priced panels and 0,6cm / 0,25in acrylic is a third the price of 1,2m / 0,5in, not half price, so using a double layer of it would save 33% of the cost of the plastic.
(Of course, these prices were from overseas; I have no idea what prices here in Iceland will be like, they can be weird sometimes! I also haven't priced glass at all. Polycarbonate was (surprisingly) only marginally more expensive than acrylic)
Anyway, I'm just trying to get a sense of general project feasibility, thoughts, and recommendations.
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The worst you're doing is making waves that will come back and inpact the side. But we all know waves don't pose a thread to an aquarium.
