in wall tanks

Holly9937

Holly9937

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Jan 20, 2005
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Are they normally just placed behind a cut out in the wall, or are they literally built into (cemented or however) into the wall? Is there an advantage to either way, (other than being able to get rid of it when its only sitting behind the wall)? Just curious for future reference ;)
 
in a closet

From what I've read, they seem to be build into a closet, so that you have an acutal door someplace else that you can go into and have full access to the tank. Otherwise, you need to have cabinets below and access on the side for hoses to the caniter filter that must be lower than the tank. Also you'd need some access to the top of the tank, I've seen sliding doors that push aside to allow good access, but you'd need rather a lot of room.

I have a regular tank, 59 gallons, 45" long, that is in a corner, bad idea, it is amazing how limited I am in getting to the back of the tank from the front, very hard to unplug things and get lines across the back to the outlet. I live in fear that one day a hose will pop off and I won't be able to grab it.
 
mvigor, your pic is actually what made me ask the question :D !! It looks REALLY nice, I am very jealous, so now I want to do the same thing. Chances are pretty good that I will either be moving or building a house in the next 5 years or so, and I need to have an ideas :D . I showed my husband the picture of your tank, and he actually really liked it too, which suprised me. The only thing I didn't really like is that you can only see from the front and not the sides of the tank, does that bother you at all?
 
I haven't ever seen a built-in tank where you could see in from the sides. Mine's just a 20 gallon tank, so there's not a whole lot to see that can't be seen from the front.

I can't picture in my mind how you would build it in and still see in from the sides. You could get really creative and put it in a corner, but beyond that I'm not sure how that would work.

But that's not what you're asking I guess. Personally it doesn't bother me at all that I'm limited to looking in from the front.

The hardest part for me is decorating the tank because you totally can't see what you're doing from above with the background taped up.
 
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See pics of my tank, But I left the top open so I could access it, it also sticks out from the wall a few feet or more for visual impact purposes. But you could have it totaly closed off at the front if you had a place to access it from behind.
 
my plan

If I were going to build a house, I'd have the tank in a wall dividng the breakfast area from the den. the den would be a step or two lower and the tank would be eye level in the kitchen, sitting at the table, and eye level standing in the den.

Most maintainence would be done from the shorter kitchen side. The tank would be extra broad, so each side had a decent room to design in. Mostly plants on the kitchen side, mostly wood rock on the den side with fish swimming room.

Both sides would be accessible, with a cabinet that opens wide and tall above that gives free access to the whole tank. Hardware would run down either side.
 
I like that idea if you could have sort of little pantrys on the sides of the tank to hide the equipment. I love how it looks like a framed photo (like mvigors' :D ) so I don't want to have to see cords or filters anymore! My husband is pretty much sick of my new obsession, so if I found something he likes I better go with it. He actually said maybe we could put one in our downstairs closet NOW... I think he was being sarcastic :mad:
 
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