Ship wreck/airplane wreck reef tank

[Roll221]

Has anyone seen or tried to set up a tank as a wreck vs. the normal rock reef. I am contemplating it and have just started to investigate what it would take. First of all a large tank; I have found 1:8 scale RC WWII era airplanes with wing spans up to 8 feet. I think that would almost give a realistic scale if you only kept small fish and encrusting coral, or just kept big SPS well trimmed. This would equal about a 600 gal display but would still leave some room for normal reef structure to accent the wreck.

As for as the ship wreck I have not found anything that would look right in scale. I was thinking maybe just a bulkhead or just part of a gangway with a porthole or something. I would really want to make it look realist otherwise it would lose the effect once things started to encrust to it. Maybe a movie prop place would have something but have been successful finding anything like that on the web.

Like I said, just toying with the idea, I retire from the Army in a little over a year and will finally settle in a permanent place and be able to set up my dream tank. After diving some of the wrecks here in Hawaii I just thought a tank like this would be different then all the beautiful yet normal looking tanks you see here on RC.

Ed

[ihopss]

That would definitely be a challenge.

[siropa]

sounds like it would be hard to pull off and make it look good/realistic, but if you did, it would be awesome and something really different. I love the idea, but it would take someone with the right artistic touch to make it really look good I think.

the plane would have to be made out of something solid that also wouldn't leech into the tank. concrete plane?

[New to the reef]

Go for it!!! I love watching dives on old war wrecks on TV. Maybe you could look into remote control boats, they come in good sizes.

GOOD LUCK!!!

[LionFish-xS-]

Yeah Dip the plane in something to make it more of a solid

Great Idea im tagging along here!

[pdfb55]

that sounds like a cool idea. I'd love to see it happen

[Wrench]

I think it's definitely worth a shot if you have the resources! It would take lots of time and that artistic 'touch' to pull it off. To be realistic, the wreck would have to be large enough for fish to be able to swim through. Maybe a part of the plane would look better due to the size of the fish in relation to the wreck. If you decide to do it, I would make a mold of the plane and cast it in portland cement. Just throwing some ideas your way. Good luck!

[seagirl]

very cool idea. looking froward to seeing if it comes together

[MJAnderson]

Closest I've seen to a 'themed' reef was someone who did a pier reef...had 2 logs tied together vertically to look like a dock.

[LobsterOfJustice]

I think the key here would be to only do part of it... a cockpit, wing, the inside of a boat, etc.

[Fiziksgeek]

I remember seeing a tank that was like 15' long and 5' wide with a ship wreck theme.....someone else has to remember it too....hmmmmm...where did i see that...

[nsreefer]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1039382

[balto777]

The biggest problem I see is having enough biological filtration. Live rock is solid and very pourous but an airplane is pretty much empty.

Also, RC airplanes are usually covered in a thin plastic-like coating. I think it would fall apart pretty quickly underwater.

[Roll221]

LionFish-xS- - Yea I was thinking the same thing, the RC plane I was looking at has a fiberglass fuselage but as balto777 said the wings come covered in a plastic film, would have to find a solution there, but would be cool to see some of the wing structure show through. For example, the "Corsair" here in Hawaii is in 106' of water, has been there since 1946 and portions of it’s thin skin exterior are disintegrating.



bolto777 -- I thought to off set the lack of pourous surfaces I would have to throw an additonal sump into the system and load it with extra rock

nsreefer-- Great link, will love to see the finished product.

Ed

[algaeguy]

Hi guys,I've been scheming the same thing, but leaning towards keeping it to "scale", and just featuring part of an "airplane" or ship- sort of like a sectioon of Truk Lagoon wreck..I'm leaning towards plastic pices, and remote biological filtration with rock elsewhere in the system.

I would be gluing pieces of coral and/or zoos onto the structures, etc.

Very interested in seeing your progress!

Good luck!

Scott

[bgreenlee]

Ed
Not sure if you saw the show Myth Busters where they did the airplanes out of concrete. Jamie made a mold using styro foam and poured a thin layer of a concrete mixture in it to make the correct wing shape. Once it had set up he used acetone to remove the mold from the wing. He was able to make it just a few 16th's thick using that method. It woudl take some time to make the mold of say a wind, or fuselage section, but would be a good choice for the reef since the concrete is pretty reef compatable. You could also use teflon strips for strenth in the fueslage or wing sections.

Once of the quys I work with made a concrete canoe in college. I can put you in contact with him for the type of concrete to use for low weight high strength applications.

Billy

[Reefer Steve]

I built plastic scale aircraft most of my life, I think you'd have the best luck just doing a portion of the aircraft to keep it simple(ish). Otherwise keeping it scale would require too much extra work. Just dip the wings in some kind of resin and I would think it would be fine.

Good luck! I would really love to see this done!
You will have something I dont think many others will.

[ACBlinky]

Neat idea, I hope you manage to do something with this. The bigger the tank, the more chance you'd probably have at a realistic look, and as you said, smaller fish will help the illusion of a larger wreck. I'd probably keep one or two larger fish - there are big fish near wrecks in the ocean too - and (assuming this is a BIG tank) some schools of little fish like Talbot's damsels (peaceful, pretty, tiny damsels that max out around 1.5") would look great cruising in the open water.

I like the idea of concrete; I think you'd have an easy time getting corals and other things to encrust if the surface was more rock-like, rather than resin or some kind of plastic, and you will have peace of mind knowing that concrete (once cured) is totally safe long-term and won't break down.

I'm picturing a ~600g tank with a portion of ship or airplane (I like ship best myself) encrusted with life, fish swimming around it... what a beautiful tank this could end up being. For those of us living in apartments, please build it! I'd absolutely love to follow that build thread

[edwing206]

^ Like he said resin is a good idea. PaulB put a beer can in his tank but dipped it in fiberglass resin beforehand.

[Roll221]

Originally posted by edwing206
^ Like he said resin is a good idea. PaulB put a beer can in his tank but dipped it in fiberglass resin beforehand.

That is what I was thinking, dip the wood pieces in resin and I would think that would be ok. Here is the RC plane I was talking of, wing span 86", fuselage 66”. Since it comes in pieces you could have options as to where to lay "broken wings". I was talking to a buddy at work about this and he said to shoot it up with a BB gun to make it look like a real war plane

Also, this RC plane is reasonably affordable without the engine and servos needed to actually fly it.

As you can tell I am leaning more to the airplane then the ship.

Ed

[ledford1]

Originally posted by nsreefer
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1039382

It looked like he had a good thing going - it would have been good to see how it came out though.

[Paul B]

I have seen some really nice large tanks with parts of ship wrecks. One, in a public aquarium looked like you were in a large ship, very rusty, with the porthole at the back so you were looking out of the wreck at the back.
I have always liked these types of tanks better than normal reefs.
Almost anywhere you dive there will be human artifacts of some type. The majority of my diving has been in New York and we have a long nautical history, I have been diving on these wrecks for almost 40 years and have come to love the scenery of them.
My tank unfortunately has no wrecks in it but most of the artifacts in my tank I salvaged from sunken ships.
I have seen planes underwater in the Caribbean and I think if you can age it sufficiently enough, you could pull it off.
I do think a part of the plane woult look more realistic than an entire plane.
Good luck.
Paul

[Satori]

Wow Ed, 600 gallons. Your idea sounds pretty cool, but make sure you find a house you want to stay in for years to come!

I'm having enough problems moving the 180, I can't imagine moving an established 600!

That's a good idea, though.

[Roll221]

Originally posted by Satori
Wow Ed, 600 gallons. Your idea sounds pretty cool, but make sure you find a house you want to stay in for years to come!

I'm having enough problems moving the 180, I can't imagine moving an established 600!

That's a good idea, though.

That is the plan. After moving around the world for over 20 years I don't plan moving again.

Ed

[Frick-n-Frags]

I love outside the box thinking