MOC Public Aquarium

[beverly888]

A Public Aquarium was not on my list of structures to design and build. 

But this thing  took on a life of its own over the weekend, starting with a 50-minute walk each way to and from the toy store.  The 60125 Volcano Heavy-lift Helicopter and 76080 Marvel Super Heroes Ayesha's Revenge (both purchased as clearance items at 40% off), plus a 32 by 32 stud base plate were the jumping off points.  It probably helped considerably that I've designed similar hobby marine aquaria with live corals and fish - minus the dolphins, in the past.  

It was a joy to cobble together.  I wish sorting LEGO gave me this much pleasure!

There's a yellow crab beneath the corals.  Please let me know when you find it 

Cheers!

 Beverly

[koalayummies]

Very pretty. You've made great use of all the very colorful foliage pieces as coral. I especially like the schools of fish swimming together. Lovely MOC!

[carebear]

Love this!

the build and the video looks great!

Great Work!

Greetings

[Littleworlds]

Looks lovely!  So very colourful and happy. Nicely built and arranged. Sometimes the spark of an idea just develops into something beyond one's own expectations. Well done 

[jakbar]

Beautiful! I must say that I am kinda jealous for You having this many LEGO plants and animals . I love the use of flags and palm leaves!

[bamsham363]

i see the potential for a power functions upgrade, get those dolphins and turtles moving, awesome job though and very colourful

http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/446017

[beverly888]

11 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Very pretty. You've made great use of all the very colorful foliage pieces as coral. I especially like the schools of fish swimming together. Lovely MOC!

Thank you, koalayummies.  I was wondering exactly how I was going to use all those coloured foliage pieces, and now they're used.  Schooling fish look so much better than randomly placed fish.

 

8 hours ago, carebear said:

Love this!

the build and the video looks great!

Great Work!

Greetings

Thank you, carebear.  The video is often the most critical part of a build.  Without movement and light, folks can't see what's actually been built.

 

8 hours ago, Littleworlds said:

Looks lovely!  So very colourful and happy. Nicely built and arranged. Sometimes the spark of an idea just develops into something beyond one's own expectations. Well done 

Thank you, Littleworlds.  Happiness and colour are what I like most about using LEGO as an artist medium.  Mixing Friends / Elves / Disney Princess with regular LEGO helps integrate the two worlds so everyone can enjoy.

 

8 hours ago, jakbar said:

Beautiful! I must say that I am kinda jealous for You having this many LEGO plants and animals . I love the use of flags and palm leaves!

Haha, jakbar.  I feel that way about many builders, too.  One could call it piece envy.  Whenever I feel that twinge, I have to wake up to my own reality.  I have the LEGO I have.  They have the LEGO they have.  Let's celebrate our LEGo gifts and build what we can, whenever we can.

 

7 hours ago, bamsham363 said:

i see the potential for a power functions upgrade, get those dolphins and turtles moving, awesome job though and very colourful

http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/446017

Thank you, bamsham363.  I don't see mechanization, but I'd love to light the inside of the aquarium somehow.  If you have ideas on how I might be able to do that simply, please tell me how.  

[eliza]

Wonderful! I love the way you used hairbrushes.

[Kalahari134]

17 hours ago, beverly888 said:

I don't see mechanization, but I'd love to light the inside of the aquarium somehow.  If you have ideas on how I might be able to do that simply, please tell me how.  

Having some of the larger animals slowly swim around would be nice but it's not very practical for dolphins as they are in a jumping pose.

The best thing to do lighting-wise would be to look at a real aquarium and see how tyey arramge their lighting. Then hide a few LEDs and solder them up.

[Littleworlds]

There are some third-party light bricks that work with induction. I think its probably not the cheapest solution, but doesn't requires wiring or soldering as far as I can tell (I haven't tinkered with 3rd party lights by myself yet).

[beverly888]

14 hours ago, eliza said:

Wonderful! I love the way you used hairbrushes.

Thank you, eliza.  I actually saw the hair brush technique somewhere awhile back and, having more hair brushes than I could ever use, put them into the aquarium 

 

8 hours ago, Kalahari134 said:

Having some of the larger animals slowly swim around would be nice but it's not very practical for dolphins as they are in a jumping pose.

The best thing to do lighting-wise would be to look at a real aquarium and see how tyey arramge their lighting. Then hide a few LEDs and solder them up.

Real aquariums have serious lighting for the corals.  The older method is metal halides of up to 400 watts per bulb, and they're bright!  Thankfully, LED has mostly replaced those old energy-slurpers.  What I need is very small, maybe the equivalent of a .5 gallon aquarium, and nobody makes anything that small in the marine or freshwater aquarium world.

I'm not one for soldering, or searching for the right power supply, or that stuff.  I'm more into plug in and play, so I did a bit of research.  Quilt makers have become very high-tech.  They even have small LED lighting strips for their sewing machine areas.  Here's a link to a Three Light Strip Kit that just might be what I'm looking for.  It can't be too bright to overwhelm the scene, but must be bright enough.  They have Six and Nine light strips, too.  All just plug into the wall, so there are no batteries to dispose of.  Colour temperature is 6000K to 6500K, which is considered "daylight", and that's just perfect for my application.

7 hours ago, Littleworlds said:

There are some third-party light bricks that work with induction. I think its probably not the cheapest solution, but doesn't requires wiring or soldering as far as I can tell (I haven't tinkered with 3rd party lights by myself yet).

Hi Littleworlds, thank you for your suggestion.  I've got to look more into it.  The brief look I had yesterday into induction showed only ordinary sized bulbs for home and industrial applications.  By that time I got that far, I was kind of dizzy from all the research.  I didn't even get to third party bricks.  

Beverly

[Kalahari134]

4 minutes ago, beverly888 said:

Real aquariums have serious lighting for the corals.  The older method is metal halides of up to 400 watts per bulb, and they're bright!  Thankfully, LED has mostly replaced those old energy-slurpers.  What I need is very small, maybe the equivalent of a .5 gallon aquarium, and nobody makes anything that small in the marine or freshwater aquarium world.

 

I was more thinking of copying the layout rather than using full-size components. 3mm LEDs should suffice.

[beverly888]

22 hours ago, Kalahari134 said:

I was more thinking of copying the layout rather than using full-size components. 3mm LEDs should suffice.

Thanks, kalahari134, for confirming the 3 LEDs will be a good choice.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Lovely colors and amazing use of brushes!

[Bricked1980]

This looks really great. Love all the bright colours and details. As others have pointed out already the use of hair brushes to create the coral is very clever. 

[beverly888]

23 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Lovely colors and amazing use of brushes!

Thank you for your kind words, LEGO Train 12 Volts.

20 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

This looks really great. Love all the bright colours and details. As others have pointed out already the use of hair brushes to create the coral is very clever. 

Thank you, Bricked1980.  I couldn't squeeze all the brushes I have, so there are still a few  left for some other project, though I can't imagine how I'm going to use them.