Building in wall; Need ideas for finishing.

reefboarder

reefboarder

Intelligent Donkey
So...... Im building a "fish room" downstairs in my house, i have decided to go in wall to save livable space in the family room. I have the wall built, three 15a gfi dedicated outlets for the tank etc. I am hung up on how to finish the the viewing side of the wall. I have some ideas but am afraid to pull the trigger and then not like the results.
I want the tank to be flush, but dont know how the overhang on the front of the tank will suit me, but i also dont really want a big shelve. Anyone around here have their tank in wall? Any experiences of one way or the other( overhang vs shelve)?
Any ideas or comments are welcome, TIA.
 
Hello,

When i built my 750 into the wall i cut the opening just large enough for tank to flush with wall. Then i got some nice wide detailed trim and compound cut the corners so when finished the tank looked like a moving picture hanging on the wall. Unless you are building a bar in front of tank i would skip any ledges:) Sorry no pictures lost in a flood:(
FYI:Trim laying flat on the wall around tank doest look near as good as when picture framed....my .2

Best of luck with your choice!
 
I agree I have done 2 inwall builds so far and have always framed them in with no shelves ect Only because my thinking is (shelves= room for accidents to happen) lol but again Thats me and I'm pretty accident prone myself without worrying abt my 8 yr old lol
Im sure which ever way you go youll get some great ideas here ;)
 
My tank is in wall and flush. Only advise is think the details through- access above and below, how the wall thickness will impact overall design, and so on. I wanted a clean, minimalist look so I used no trim and instead brought drywall right up to the opening and finished it with a plastic j bead faired into the surface. There are photos in my build threads on here but they are kinda buried, just ask if you have specific questions.
 
When I did mine I cut the opening out and have the tank almost flush (have about 1/4 in. shelf on the bottom because the wall isn't square from the floor to the ceiling) then I trimmed it out with moulding. The one thing I didn't do was make it accessable from the front. It's a major pia to do anything to the tank that's in the front. So make sure you give yourself access. Just my .02 cents...
 
DWZM, I looked at the j-bead and was afraid it would look un finished. Is there still a tiny little sill around the tank?

Henry, do you mean access from the outside of the room into the front of the tank? I built the hole pretty tight to the top of the tank but left it wide open in the back. I placed a 2x4 across the top of the tank set back from the edge to see how much room i was losing with the thickness of the wall over the top like that, and it was only about 3 inches considering the bracing around the tank.
I guess im hoping it wont be much worse than trying to reach something in the back of the tank the way it is now......up against the wall.

The tank will sit around 39 inches off the floor, and i have a 125g for the sump, its a 6' long. Im going to build a stand of 2x4's on their side just to keep it off the floor which should leave me about 12" of room between the top of the sump and the bottom of the tank stand, and it is going to stick out on one side or the other, or a little on each end ( havent decided yet) I plan to put a 20g for a refugium to the side in the corner of the room, run a small pump and drill it for an overflow and have the overflow run back into the chamber with the return pump. The skimmer will sit in the center chamber and the drain and filter socks in the end.

On a side note, I struggled trying to visualize how i would make it all flush without the front edge of the tank sitting on the drywall, and i realized i didnt space the end studs far enough apart to frame the hole so the drywall butts up against the frame, just like a door frame extends past the wall a bit on each side to accommodate for the drywall, then you trim it.
 
Since you're still in the discussion phase, I'll take the contrary view. Mine is built into the wall but with the back pane flush. I love the see through view from end to end.
Obviously you're choice but I've found this to be very enjoyable.
 
Yeah, I meant access from the front of the tank. The back is fully accessable but to reach in the front is the same as if it were the back against the wall. My other issue is that I have a return duct that runs the length and width of the tank and that limited how high I was able to mount my led fixtures so I have even less room to work in the tank..that's why I suggested making sure to have access from the front as well.. I wouldnt have these issues if I had thought it out a little more when I set the tank up..
 
One of the minor details I liked on an in wall tank I saw in person was when the individual made his frameing cover the front of the sand bed where you only would see the top of the sand bed so you don't have to see the ugly part that you never can quite get clean.

It's a very minor detail but I've seen some in wall tank builds that leave it out and they never seemed to looked quite as clean to me.
 
reefboarder said:
DWZM, I looked at the j-bead and was afraid it would look un finished. Is there still a tiny little sill around the tank?
Click to expand...

Depends on how you design it. On my tank, the framing is "flush" with the perimeter of the tank, so the drywall sticks out beyond that, so yes - there is a narrow lip. The J bead is meant to be faired in with mud, it just looks like a crisp sharp corner once it's done. Basically, the glass ends up inset into the wall the thickness of the drywall. If you wanted it literally flush, you'd have to be very careful in your design. If you were sheet rocking the wall, having the glass flush with the surface of the sheet rock would mean that, vertically directly below the front pane of glass would just be sheet rock. On typical glass tanks where the bottom is inset, this would be a Very Bad Idea (the sheet rock won't be able to properly support that edge of the tank.)

Henry, do you mean access from the outside of the room into the front of the tank? I built the hole pretty tight to the top of the tank but left it wide open in the back. I placed a 2x4 across the top of the tank set back from the edge to see how much room i was losing with the thickness of the wall over the top like that, and it was only about 3 inches considering the bracing around the tank.
I guess im hoping it wont be much worse than trying to reach something in the back of the tank the way it is now......up against the wall.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but think about common maintenance tasks. How are you going to get an algae magnet on the front pane of glass? A tank against a wall seems like the same issue but it's very different, because you typically don't care much about the back pane of glass that's up against a wall, but you're going to care a lot about cleaning/taking care of the front pane. Think about how hard it will be to place corals such that they are aesthetically pleasing from the front of the tank if you can't reach in it from the front to see what you're doing while your hand is in there. You'll be doing a LOT of running back and forth.
 
I like the idea of access from the front.

The lighting over the tank can be a pain in the butt. If you could find some way to lift the lighting up an additional foot or two, it may make doing maintenance in the tank easier, especially with it being so high. Maybe put eye hooks on the lighting and in the ceiling. Run cables through the hooks and attach them to the stand or something. Similar to how I could move the lighting for my anemone tank in the basement.
 
I like the idea of being able to get to the front of the tank from the front side, but I really like the idea of it being simple and clean on the viewing side also. The wall will be drywall and the only options off the top of my head are wooden doors or a removable panel of some kind, but i just cant picture how it would flow with the wall.
 
Joe, I would like to be able to move the lights, i intend to hang them the way they are now with the eye hooks, but im going to get small stainless cable and braid the ends around hooks on the fixture. It would be simple to make them longer and have them all tied together at the end with a few hooks at different intervals for that purpose. A little winch would be the bees knees i suspect.
 
I have removable panels. Clean and simple depends on the design really. I have to say, IMHO, just a tank on it's own floating in the middle of a wall can look odd, like there is nothing to anchor it. Having trim or panels above gives a sense of context and helps the aquarium fit in the room.

What I did for mine was make 1/2" frames out of wood then stretch heavy coarse undied cotton fabric over them. They look like an artist's canvas. The fabric gives a little texture without being distracting.

Consider the context you want in that room, how the rest will be decorated and what the tank needs around it to fit in.
 
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