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Largest freestanding aquarium in the world explodes

zozo

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This early morning Friday 16 December the largest freestanding aquarium in the world, standing at 82 feet high in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Germany's capital Berlin exploded. Yet no reports on how many gallons and if any of the 1500 fish could be saved. It seems 2 people got injured in the event. Probably the night clerks in the lobby?

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It might be later on in the day or week some security cam video from the hotel might be released to the news that shows the tank explosion.

A miracle this didn't happen during a bussy day...
 
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Some general information on the tank...

The Aquadom was the largest (by volume) acrylic cylindrical aquarium in the world, with a diameter of about 11 m (36 ft) and a height of about 16 m (52 ft), resting on a 9 m (30 ft) tall foundation.[3] Filled with 1,000,000 L (260,000 US gal) of water.

Imagine the pressure wave of 1,000,000 Litre (equivalent to the construction of <1 million kilos weight) bursting open all of a sudden. Whatever the cause, I guess there are a few architects and construction companies sweatings beans at the moment.

Some acrylic panel pieces?
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Whatever the cause, I guess there are a few architects and construction companies sweatings beans at the moment.
the 20 year warranty was about to expire!! :wideyed:
 
It's a miracle that only 2 people got injured. I would have thought a few people would have died considering all the devastation we can see on those pictures.

My guess would be that the construction helped. The base of the tank starts so high up that the majority of the water tidal wave will be directed over where the night guards were likely sitting. It's very fortunate it didn't happen during the day. I also think it broke at the side, rather than the front, directing the water away from them to begin with.
 
Reported that all 1500 fish died. And 1,000,000 litres of water burst out.
What a shame loosing so many fish :(
I remember maybe a year or just over ago they did some major maintenance works to this tank!
 
What a shame loosing so many fish :(
I remember maybe a year or just over ago they did some major maintenance works to this tank!

They called it modernization, I guess they mean trendy aesthetics such as new lights maybe some technical filter upgrades etc. The fault line was likely somewhere in the 20-year-old foundation (the famous crooked aquarium stand we all heard about?) stressing the acrylic too much that gave away under the pressure. Imagine the weight of that thing at 28 metres tall and 11 metres wide. Maybe a tiny earthquake swayed and cracked the structure the pressure does the rest. What else could it be? And a 16-metre water column is 1,6 Bar = 16315.459 kgf/cm² pressure at the very bottom. That's not peanuts.

They will find out sooner or later, this needs some proper investigation. Especially if they are planning a rebuild. And also the insurance company, I guess they rather see somebody hang, instead of paying up. And they want to know who to hang for this. The build only was already 13 million...

Indeed a shame for the fish, but that was to be expected. Especially for the bigger ones a fall from such a height smacking the floor or into something else with such power. :( And probably also not the first responder's priority to save the fish.

But a small update says 'Efforts are underway to rescue 400 to 500 smaller fish whose tank's oxygen supply has been cut off' Not all is lost.
 
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Lol would be even more gutted if I were on tank maintenance duties tomorrow 🙃
 
You’d be obliterated if you were admiring it at floor level 😬

Sad for the fish, the staff and the people staying.
 
Its a worry for anyone with a tank. Just glass keeping your floor from getting wet or the people below if you live in a flat:oops:
 
23.206 bar. Good god brexit and all that. Can we have the equation in Lbf/inches²

Or psi

In my metric mind, I always think about that while writing and it's indeed confusing...
 
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