Tikki Aquarium by thechoozen

Foreword

by Brett Thomas

One of the best things about modding is getting to see some of the crazy ideas that people come up with. A quick browse through our Project Logs can pull some flat-out unusual specimens. Sometimes these mods slip under the radar, which is part of why we started our Mod of the Month competition.

Today, I'm pleased to bring you the first winner of that competition, Martin Blass. Martin, known as thechoozen in our forums, is no stranger to modding, having been featured in competitions before around his area. This time, he and his friend ended up on our shores designing the Tikki Aquarium.

I had chosen the mod for June's Mod of the Month for it's originality, and apparently you guys agreed - it won with a comfortable margin, despite some pretty stiff competition. For his victory, Martin got to walk away with prizes from these great sponsors, as well as a front page spot.


And so, I bring to you Martin Blass and his Tikki Aquarium...

Introduction

We started this project with the idea of a cool looking aquarium, but then we couldn't stop. So we quickly decided to modify our plans...and instead of just building an aquarium from a plexiglass tube, we would integrate a small multimedia PC in it. This way, it can be used to watch movies, browse the web etc.

And the saga begins

First things first, we needed to build the Aquarium part itself, using a large plexiglass tube and a 50x50 cm sheet of UV-reactive green plexiglass. To make the aquarium, we cut out a circle out of the green plexi and glued it under the tube.


Once the acrylic had cured, we had a perfectly sealed aquarium, ready for some fish! Of course, that part wasn't very interesting...