Craig's
MacAquarium

Tank

As a diversion from doing my homework, I spent several hours in the basement this Fall building my MacAquarium. Tank After putting this project off for a solid year, I finally got around to tearing apart an old Macintosh SE Computer I had. The project ended up being more time consuming than I had originally planned. Someone I used to work with told me that there were plans on the Internet for converting an old school Macintosh computer into a fish tank. The directions were helpful (and quite funny too), but I ended up doing a lot of stuff on my own. Tank I tore apart a Radio Shack fluorescent flashlight and epoxied the bulb housing to the roof of the tank. Since the lighting unit runs at 7.5 volts, the fish don't have a chance of being cooked anytime soon. I cut the original Macintosh power switch from the power supply unit and wired it up to the light in the fish tank. I also wired up a dimmer (or pot switch) to the brightness knob that is on the front of the Macintosh. Now when you move the brightness knob, the brightness of the light in the fish tank changes accordingly. My friend Jeff gave me the idea for the background of the fish tank...use the existing Macintosh SE motherboard. It almost perfectly fits the back of the tank. (The fish don't seem to mind having a 68000 processor as inexpensive wall art.) I also installed an undergravel filter and pump unit. Some gravel, a fake plastic plant, and an internal power cable completed the inside of the tank. Tank Oh yeah, the fish names, Logo and ??? (the other fish doesn't have a name yet, knowing me...I will probably end up being the name of a member in some rock band.)
All I really have left to do is make a cheezy sound unit which at the top of every hour, will play that Macintosh "Monkey" sound or maybe the even "Quack" sound.

Tank



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Daniel Craig Giffen
craig@12xu.com