Building a tank into a wall?

I have three tanks built into my fish room wall. I also serviced a lot of customer tanks that were built in in my previous days.

There are a lot of variables to building a tank in but I will make some recommendations.

1. Choose a wide tank to use. About 4" of tank is going to be covered by wall stud. If you start with a 12" wide tank you aren't going to have a lot of room for working on the tank. 55's make terrible wall tanks. I went with 120's with mine and a 40 breeder under one of them and have been pleased.

2. Moisture resistant drywall is a must. Humidity above the tank will swell and rot the drywall above the tank without it. As an alternative you could use wood paneling if that fits your decor tastes.

3. Use a glass canopy and reverse it. Put the wide part of the glass canopy underneath the wall stud and put the cuttable plastic strip on the door part (facing the rear of the aquarium) so you have more access and a better seal underneath the wall stud.

I like to have access behind the aquariums. But if you don't, you can put a cabinet without a floor above the aquarium for access.
I once did a 110 that was replacing a fireplace and was sitting on a stone hearth and visible from front and back. Only place to go with the filter was above. Went with a pump in the tank and a dummy (no pump) canister filter above and it worked out great.

Andy

Couple of things to think about are drywall and water don't mix ( humid ) you would have to use water resistant drywall also the bottom of the wall at the top of the opening should be sealed because the humid condition will travel up wall and cause a mold problem also nails or screws will start rusting and cause marks on finish side of wall . Better to use tile to trim the opening than wood you could trim both sides and bottom of the opening at top of tank. You should also be able to get behind wall to keep it maintained also if you have to replace tank you could do it from the inside just like changing a picture. Plus all the power would be behind wall . That's all I can think of but it's enough for you to think about it is very cool though I had one in my first house

You'll have to get ahold of me at the meeting or on the phone since there can be way too many variables that go into it