GB2256119A - An aquarium tank. - Google Patents

Abstract

An aquarium tank comprising a generally upright or vertical front wall (10) an inclined rear wall (11) and two opposed triangular end walls (12, 13), (Figure 1) the four sheets of material making up the tank being sealingly bonded together in their edge regions to form a vessel to contain water. The tank may be completed with an internal decorative structure which serves to contain gravel and plants and to house heating and aerating devices, the whole vessel being supported on a generally wedged shaped base (34) adapted to house the lighting unit (36) and an air pump (37). An aquarium made to such a configuration is unusual and aesthetically pleasing whilst being manufactured by less than the usual five separate sheets of material, thus reducing manufacturing time and cost. <IMAGE>

Description

AN AQUARIUM TANK THIS INVENTION concerns aquarium tanks particularly, though not exclusively, of the type designed for domestic use and fabricated from a number of sheets of glass or plastics sealingly attached together edge-to-edge thus to contain water. Commonly, such tanks are produced from five separate sheets of glass comprising a rectangular base and four vertical walls therearound. A silicone material is used both as an adhesive and sealing agent for the corners so that the finished tank is self-supporting and may be mounted directly on an article of furniture or on a stand.

An object of the present invention is to provide an aquarium tank which is fabricated preferably using less than five individual sheets of material and which has an aesthetically pleasing and unusual shape. By reducing the number of sheets of glass or plastics which need to be assembled, the manufacturing costs are significantly reduced.

According to the present invention there is provided an aquarium tank comprising a plurality of sheets of material at least one of which is transparent, the sheets being sealingly attached together in their edge regions thus to form a vessel to contain water, characterised in that at least one wall of the vessel is inclined with respect to a vertical plane.

Two embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is an isometric front view of an aquarium tank made in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a similar view of a second embodiment; Fig. 3 is an isometric view schematically of the tank according to Fig. 1 showing some of the internal assembly for operation as an aquarium; Fig. 4 is a generally rear view of a fully assembled aquarium according to the embodiment of Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-section of the aquarium of Fig.

4 illustrating internal details of the assembled aquarium.

Referring now to Fig. 1, an aquarium made in accordance with the invention comprises a front wall 10 of glass which is disposed vertically, and a rear glass wall 11 disposed at an angle of approximately 450 to the vertical plane of wall 10 and extending upwardly from the bottom edge thereof. Triangular end walls 12 and 13 are sealingly attached between adjacent edge regions of walls 10 and 11 to complete the container. A conventional silicone material is used as the sealing adhesive at the joints. The assembled tank may rest upon a pair of wedge-shaped stands 14 in the form of hollow plastics mouldings.

Referring now to Fig. 2, in a further embodiment, a Vshaped tank is created by having front and rear walls 15 and 16 both inclined with respect to a vertical plane and joined together along a central longitudinal axis at 17. Triangular end walls 18 and 19 complete the tank and again the sheets of glass are assembled using conventional silicone materials.

In this embodiment a pair of V-notched stands 20 provide the support for the aquarium.

It will be seen that in both embodiments of Figs. 1 and 2, the tank is fabricated using only four separate sheets of glass thus reducing materials and manufacturing time.

Referring now to Fig. 3, there is illustrated, in an aquarium produced according to the embodiment of Fig. 1, a moulded plastics structure generally indicated at 21 which will serve as an under-gravel filter. Structure 21 comprises two generally upright tunnels 22 and 23 disposed respectively at its ends and interposed by a flat sheet 24 which is interrupted by a pair of spaced horizontal tunnels 25 and 26 each having a series of apertures 27 for the passage of water.

Within tunnel 23 there will be located an air stone 28 supplied with air by a pipe 29 from a conventional aquarium pump.

An angled fitting 30 is removably attached at the top of tunnel 23 and has an open end directed forwardly and slightly downwardly into the tank. A thermostatic heater 22' is located in tunnel 22.

Also extending between tunnels 22 and 23 are a number of pockets 31 which may contain gravel. The base part of each pocket 31 includes a number of apertures so that it may serve as an under-gravel filter, when filled with gravel. Pockets 21 are interconnected with tunnels 22 and 23 by way of apertured tunnels 31.

The entire structure 21 may be simply placed loosely on the rear wall 11 of the aquarium. Across the top of the structure between the upper ends of the tunnels 22 and 23 is an upstanding baffle 32 for a purpose to be described.

Referring now to Fig. 4 a completed aquarium is illustrated with a hood 33 placed over the rectangular top of the tank and in this example the feet 14 are replaced by a moulded stand 34 defining a shelf 35 for housing a lighting unit 36 and air pump 37.

These parts are illustrated more clearly in Fig. 5 where it can be seen that a light tube 38 is positioned in a removable upper part 39 of stand 34. A reflective under surface 40 in hood 33 enables light from the tube 38 to be reflected downwardly into the aquarium. As illustrated by the dotted line 41, when the aquarium is viewed from the front, the light tube 38 is positioned behind baffle 32 and is thus not directly visible. It will also be seen from Fig. 5 that the hood 33 is provided with internal depending edges 42 and 43 enabling condensation in the hood to drip into the tank.

Also in Fig. 5 it can be seen how aquarium plants may be located in gravel within the pockets 31. The air lift created in tunnel 23 by air stone 28 will cause solids particles within the aquarium to be drawn downwardly through the gravel in pockets 31 in a similar manner to the under-gravel filters normally placed on the horizontal bottom of an aquarium. The remaining apertures in the structure 21 also assist the circulation and oxygenation of the water as a continuous cycle within the aquarium.

It will be appreciated that the novelty in an aquarium made in accordance with the invention is the possibility of using a lesser number of individual sheets of material which require fabrication during manufacture as well as the unusual configuration of the tank as a whole.

If required, in place of the supporting feet 14, 20, 34, the aquarium may be supported by end members (not shown) which either removably fit onto the triangular ends of the tank or are bonded thereto. Thus, such end members may be, for example, rectangular or hexagonal. They may be produced from a plastics material or from glass bonded to the end walls.

Claims (14)

1. An aquarium tank comprising a plurality of sheets of material at least one of which is transparent, the sheets being sealingly attached together in their edge regions thus to form a vessel to contain water, characterised in that at least one wall of the vessel is inclined with respect to a vertical plane.

2. An aquarium tank according to Claim 1, wherein the vessel is fabricated from less than five individual flat sheets of material.

3. An aquarium tank according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said vessel comprises a vertical transparent front wall, an inclined rear wall sealingly attached to the bottom edge region of the front wall and extending upwardly and rearwardly therefrom, and two opposed triangular end walls sealingly attached to the ends of the front and rear walls.

4. An aquarium tank according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, comprising a transparent front wall and a rear wall, both being inclined with respect to a vertical plane and sealingly attached together in their edge regions along the base of the vessel, and opposed triangular end walls sealingly attached to the ends of the front and rear walls thus in vertical section to provide a V-shaped tank.

5. An aquarium tank according to Claim l or Claim 2, comprising four sheets of glass sealingly attached edge-to-edge to form said vessel, the edge regions being bonded and sealed by a selfcuring silicone material.

6. An aquarium tank according to any preceding claim, including a structure disposed internally and supported upon the inclined rear wall thereof, said structure including one or more passages adapted to serve as an air lift tube, and one or more pockets adapted to receive and support gravel, the structure including a plurality of apertures for the passage of water in circulation within the vessel.

7. An aquarium tank according to Claim 6, wherein said structure is a one-piece formation of plastics having a pair of spaced generally parallel tunnels disposed respectively at its ends and interposed by a flat sheet which is interrupted by at least one transverse tunnel communicating with said pair of parallel tunnels, the transverse having a series of apertures for the passage of water, said pockets being interconnected with said pair of parallel tunnels by way of further apertured tunnels extending generally horizontally across the structure.

8. An aquarium tank according to Claim 6 or Claim 7, wherein said moulded structure includes an upstanding baffle extending across the upper region thereof such that a light tube may be concealed behind said baffle so as not to be directly visible from the front of the aquarium.

9. An aquarium tank according to any preceding claim, including a supporting stand having a concealed shelf upon which may be located a lighting unit and an air pump.

10. An aquarium tank according to Claim 8, including a hood removably placed over the top of the tank and including a reflective undersurface enabling light from the concealed light tube to be reflected downwardly into the aquarium.

11. An aquarium tank according to any preceding claim, including a pair of opposed end members to support the vessel and adapted removably to fit onto opposed triangular ends of the tank.

12. An aquarium tank according to Claim 11, wherein said end members are of glass.

13. An aquarium tank according to Claim 2, wherein said less than five individual sheets of material forming said vessel, are all of glass.

14. An aquarium tank substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated variously in the accompanying drawings.