Rectangular Aquariums 
Many people have visited an institutional aquarium where the exhibits are made predominately with small, rectangular-windowed tanks. When glass sheet was the only viewing material available, the small rectangular window was the standard option. Small-cast acrylic did not expand the view much more than the glass allowed, nor did the shaping of small sheets add much to the exhibit viewing experience. It wasn't until the development of large cast acrylic panels that designers and architects had the opportunity to create and expand their imaginations.
The public was no longer limited to looking at small tanks. The large-cast acrylic sheets were being used to create virtual walls of water. When standing close to these huge acrylic panels, the public started to experience the feeling of immersion.
There was water when you looked to the left, right, up, and down. People could now be centimeters away from sharks, rays, and eels and the daunting presence of hundreds of thousands or even millions of gallons of water held back by a virtually invisible acrylic panel. The public started to feel they were actually in the aquarium.
The largest cast monolithic acrylic panel available by Roehm is 6 m x 3.0 m x 200 mm. More recently developed bonding technology allows for even larger panels to be fabricated in situ. One of the largest flat acrylic panel created from a monolithic acrylic sheet is at the Parque Oceanographic in Valencia, Spain at 18.3 m x 6.1 m x 270 mm. This panel weighs over 35 tons.
