Help hiding back gap of Aquarium

aaron186 · Nov 20, 2022

I need help improving the WAF of my tank in the living room. I had to place it about 5 inches off the back wall to accommodate a UV sterilizer and MP40s on back. There’s about 5.5 inches on either side of the tank as well. See pics below. I was thinking a skinny vase with twigs might work. Does anyone have any suggestions how else I can hide the ugliness behind the tank?

thatmanMIKEson · Nov 20, 2022

How about lights what are you doing? It might look good with a white piece of filler wood behind the tank from the floor, transition into a hood and cabinet that goes to the cieling with ventilation to the attic, make it look like a "built in" with storage and lighting hidden.

aaron186 · Nov 20, 2022

thatmanMIKEson said:
How about lights what are you doing? It might look good with a white piece of filler wood behind the tank from the floor, transition into a hood and cabinet that goes to the cieling with ventilation to the attic, make it look like a "built in" with storage and lighting hidden.

I have radion gen 6 xr 15 x 2 with the arm mounting system.

That would look great but not sure how I would accomplish that. Also no attic access above just the second floor

jabberwock · Nov 20, 2022

When that tank is full and alive, no one is going to notice that tiny bit of dead space. I would not worry about it for another second.

thatmanMIKEson · Nov 20, 2022

So what about some white filler piece to match the cabinets, from floor to top of the rim

TangerineSpeedo · Nov 20, 2022

Couple things. You can cut a piece of RFP from lowes/depot or you can get a mdf shelf and cut it also, just seal the wood so the water doesn’t expand it. screw a couple L brackets to the back of the stand to hold it in place

aaron186 · Nov 20, 2022

I like the idea of putting a filler piece behind each side to match cabinets. I do need to get back there to change UV bulb and clean MP40s. Maybe something that stands up on floor to block it? Would that be hard to build?

aaron186 · Nov 20, 2022

jabberwock said:
When that tank is full and alive, no one is going to notice that tiny bit of dead space. I would not worry about it for another second.

You haven’t met my wife… lol

TangerineSpeedo · Nov 20, 2022

aaron186 said:
I like the idea of putting a filler piece behind each side to match cabinets. I do need to get back there to change UV bulb and clean MP40s. Maybe something that stands up on floor to block it? Would that be hard to build?

two L brackets each side of the stand High and Low. Inset the thickness of your material. Then use a mending plate and use a washer to space it out from the material and line that up so that it slides over the L bracket when you lower your material in a down ward motion. Or you can use heavy duty picture hardware that does the same thing

aaron186 · Nov 20, 2022

TangerineSpeedo said:
two L brackets each side of the stand High and Low. Inset the thickness of your material. Then use a mending plate and use a washer to space it out from the material and line that up so that it slides over the L bracket when you lower your material in a down ward motion. Or you can use heavy duty picture hardware that does the same thing

Almost like a French cleat? Any suggestions what type of wood to use?

AquaDaddy · Nov 20, 2022

A couple different approaches would work. Basically just make something that can stand on it's own the height of the tank, painted the same white as the tank. I did a similar approach but made the base larger allowing the sides of the base to go to the wall, while using acrylic boxes to do the job on the top 1/2. You could use wood or acrylic, either way would look great and easy to move to the side for access.

TangerineSpeedo · Nov 20, 2022

aaron186 said:
Almost like a French cleat? Any suggestions what type of wood to use?

Exactly like a french cleat! LOL... I was banging my head against the wall try to remember that.
If you want to do it right RFP or formica clad marine plywood. Probably get a cabinet shop to do it for a couple hundred. You could do it DIY, but you would be spending the same in materials.