Glass tube pipeline that allows aquatic animals to roam a city's streets
Image credit: Gyorgy Varszegi
Darko SavicOct 09, 2021
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Glass tube pipeline that connects an indoor aquarium with outdoor tanks. Let aquatic life roam the streets and visit people in public places.
Why?
A city/tourist attraction.
A way for people to casually experience/appreciate aquatic life.
A source of enjoyment.
Inspire kids and pique their interests. If they grow up with something like this being normal, we can only imagine what the world will be like when they get to shape it.
How it works
The initial idea was to convert a back wall of a bus stop into a large aquarium. It could be a home for an octopus that likes to interact with people through glass.
I then realized that upkeep and cleaning would be a nightmare. In addition, the aquarium would need to be heated at night and cooled when direct sunlight got to it.
The pipeline
Instead, the octopus could live in a suitable aquarium inside a building and take a "walk" to visit people at the adjacent bus stop (shopping mall, or whatever public place) when it feels like doing so.
To freely move in and out of the main aquarium there would have to be a wide enough pipeline that connects both tanks. Glass tubes that are used to grow alge could be ideal for this. They look nice too.
The water would be continously filtered/circulated via the glass pipeline. It could be cleaned by a robot that crawls inside the tubes.
There would be some kind of safety mechanism that shuts off an upstream valve if any of the tubes breaks.
What if such tubes would be stretched from the sea or an ocean into the streets of some seaside resort. The pipeline could start in a sea/ocean with an opening at a certain depth, further away from the shore, then be lifted slowly at a slight angle till the level of the street, continue for some distance through the town along the bay and end up with another opening in the sea. That way instead of keeping animals in aquariums and letting them out "for a walk" we could provide a possibility for wild sea animals to go "visit" the nearby town.
The part of lifting the pipeline till street level might be complicated because the vertical angle might discourage sea animals from climbing up and some slow water pumping system might be necessary. This should be done with regards to the wellbeing of wild animals, the conditions inside the pipes should be kept to maximally resemble the natural conditions of the sea/ocean - perhaps temperature would be the main factor that needs to be adjusted inside the tubes. If water was continuously pumped, this would prevent temperature rise inside the pipes.
If such systems became well developed and sophisticated enough, the pipelines could potentially be stretched along many streets of the town like a labyrinth for passers-by to feel like being in a synthesis of the sea and the city.
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Darko Savic3 years ago
I think that is doable. The tubes should be narrower than a dolphin or short enough so that dolphins can swim out to breathe.
Also, algae and filter feeders might be a problem unless a cleaning robot passes through the pipeline on a daily basis.
Darko Savic Oct 09, 2021
Please leave the feedback on this idea