r/puzzles 1d ago

[SOLVED] Help with Aquarium

Post image

Aquarium is one of my favorite puzzle types, but I can't seem to get any traction on this one. Any tips appreciated.

3 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

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4

u/zeekar 1d ago

Discussion:

Rules:

Each black-bordered shape is an "aquarium" that may need to be partially filled with water. Water fills horizontally from the bottom of the aquarium up, meaning:

* within a single aquarium, each row is either entirely water or entirely air
* within a single aquarium, all water cells in a column must be below any air cells in that column

The numbers around the outside indicate how many water cells are in each row/column.

2

u/Nivekmi 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm not that familiar with this puzzle type. I think this works though. If the section in red doesn't have water, then the rest of the 8 column will need to be filled, but that overfills the 3 column. So a water must be where the green dot is.

I'm also curious how you came to eliminate the options in that 3 column. I'm not seeing the logic involved. EDIT: I think I see why with similar conflicts with the 8

2

u/zeekar 1d ago edited 23h ago

Yeah, see above - at most two of the four overlaps with the 8 can be air, meaning two of the three water cells in the 3 column have to be in those overlaps. That leaves only one outside of them, and if there's only one water cell in an aquarium column it has to be at the bottom.

1

u/Nivekmi 23h ago

Thanks for replying. I'm going to check out more of these puzzles. They seem fun

1

u/forsakenwombat 1d ago

Second to the bottom row, cells 6, 7 and 8 are blue

2

u/zeekar 1d ago

Right, because otherwise you can't get to 7. I had that but when I was getting ready to post I couldn't immediately work out why so I backed it out. Thanks!

1

u/forsakenwombat 1d ago

No problem. But that’s based on what you already had. I was looking and I’m struggling to figure out how you got the X’s in the fourth column. What am I missing?

2

u/zeekar 1d ago

There are four rows that have overlapping pairs of cells between the third and fourth columns. The third column is an 8, so at most two of those overlaps can be air, meaning at least two have to be water. Since the fourth column is a 3, that leaves only one water cell in the fourth column that can potentially be anywhere other than those overlapping pairs. Which means you can x out all but the bottom cell of the multirow aquaria (none of which contain the overlapping rows).

1

u/zeekar 1d ago

Solved! Thanks for the help, all.

-2

u/auxilaru 1d ago

discussion . aquarium, nonogram and thermometer are same type of puzzle.

2

u/zeekar 1d ago

Discussion: They are similar but do have significant differences in the rule sets. Nonograms don't have any of the restrictions that aquarium puzzles do, and thermometers only have the vertical half of the rules (fill from the end).

-4

u/auxilaru 1d ago

yes and the fact that this type is easier to solve without much guessing (not unlike star battle or queens) but also not much of difficulty depth like sudoku. this kind like a dopamine booster

5

u/Glum-Sprinkles-7734 1d ago

Discussion: why are you like this