The "AquaDom" - home to 1,500 tropical fish - is 15.85m high (52 ft) and was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.
Two people were injured by falling glass after the blast.
Police said there had been "incredible" damage. Video showed an empty tank with water pouring into the hotel lobby.
Guests have been moved out of the hotel following the incident at 05:50 (04:50 GMT).
A spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade told the BBC the vast majority of the fish had died, and the cold weather had made rescue attempts more difficult. The tank had contained more than 100 different species.
Outside the Radisson Blu, a pile of debris lay in front of what were the front doors, which now hang into the street - twisted at an angle by the force of the exploding tank.
[...] The aquarium was modernised two years ago, and there is a clear-walled lift built inside for use by visitors. Some of the rooms in the hotel are advertised as having views of it.
Berlin's fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene and it was not clear what caused the break.
[...] A police source told local media there is no evidence the break was the result of a targeted attack.
But there has been speculation that freezing temperature - which dropped as low as -6C overnight - may have caused a crack in the tank.
[...] AquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Sunday December 18, @01:06AM (3 children)
I wanted a room with running water. I know. But this isn't exactly what I was expecting.
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Sunday December 18, @01:14AM (1 child)
(Score: 3, Touché) by Opportunist on Sunday December 18, @01:55AM
Must've been a translation error. German can be tricky.
(Score: 2) by helel on Sunday December 18, @02:00AM
Running water and seafood. Sounds like a good deal to me XD
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday December 18, @01:12AM
Former home.
Actually, former fish too come to think of it...
(Score: 5, Funny) by RamiK on Sunday December 18, @01:32AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiXTCoNXK2U [youtube.com]
compiling...
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Sunday December 18, @02:57AM (1 child)
more like AquaDoom
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 18, @02:46PM
"Oh, the fishanity!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday December 18, @03:36AM (1 child)
The ONE place where Aquaman could be useful and he's nowhere in sight.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Sunday December 18, @08:43AM
It looks like the place employed at least few of them. Plenty of footage of (mostly female) divers cleaning or otherwise maintaining it from inside.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pTamok on Sunday December 18, @11:10AM (1 child)
I do wish the news media wouldn't call it an explosion. It wasn't one. There is a particular technical meaning of the word 'explosion' (difference between deflagration and detonation [wikipedia.org]), and in this incident there was no combustion or chemical rearrangement - it was simply a (spectacular) structural failure of a water tank. Such things have happened before with other liquids - Boston's 'Great Molasses Flood' [wikipedia.org] - ans demonstrate that dealing properly with the pressures generated at the bottom of storage tanks of liquids and particulate [dailymail.co.uk] solids [hse.gov.uk] requires good engineering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18, @03:02PM
A couple more:
The Great London Beer Flood [amusingplanet.com], where a 22-ft high wooden fermenting tank failed. And of course:
Then there's the Whisky Flood of 1906 [historic-uk.com].
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday December 19, @01:40AM
TFA speculates that the failure may have been triggered by the cold. Supposedly making the glass crack.
But this makes me wonder. Looking at the video, this tank appeared to be indoors, inside a large hotel. Was it not heated? Were there external parts exposed to the cold?
I've heard that natural gas supplies are limited there due to Russia's bullshit war. I'm guessing they cut back on heating. Which raises a question of what was the minimum temperature this structure was rated for. Water freezing in any part of this thing would be extremely bad.
Also, it seems kind of odd that it looks as if there was not much to mitigate glass failure. What if someone had shot it with a gun or hit it with a baseball bat? Would the same thing have happened?
It is also interesting that it has been theorized that (relatively) cold nighttime temperatures may have been one of the triggers that set off the powder keg called Champlain Towers South. Temperature can make a difference.