In wall build, background question

[Ramjam22]

Morning All, I have a question regarding plans for an upcoming build. I will be having a house built soon and have always wanted to have an in-wall aquarium in the basement. I plan on dedicating a small room behind this for the equipment and to do all the maintenance so the front is completely clean. My question is about the tank background. I would prefer clear so I can view the tank from the maintenance room, see what I am doing when cleaning, etc. A black background built onto the tank would certainly look better when viewing from the front, however. Has anyone ever made a removable back panel, or maybe used black felt that can be rolled down and secured somehow? Just curious when I do go about ordering the tank. Thanks

 

[jda]

Removable panels are a pain - the ones that I have seen are usually cloth or tarp with magnets or tape. They get all kinds of drips, salt creep, etc. on them and need to be cleaned constantly or else the dirty stands out really bad, IMO.

 

[Katrina71]

Why not use a thin rod hung with 3m hooks and hang a curtain that can be washed when it gets dirty? A window valance sized curtain.

 

[twentyleagues]

I had a friend that had a big tank in wall like you are saying. He had a screen like one of those room dividers that folds. He had that behind the tank and from the front looked fine also far enough away as to not get dripped or sprayed, and fully moveable.

 

[TheFunnyFarm]

In my current build I’m incorporating motorized blackout roller shades in the soffit in front of my tank for when we watch movies, instead of changing the tank lighting.

You could do the same on the utility side. They are available in different colors too.

 

[Katrina71]

I think sometimes reefers get stuck in a rut with what is acceptable for the back of their tank.

 

[cilyjr]

This is what I did.
Black plastic 1/8 inch thick so it was rigid and easy to wash. Regular ferrite magnets adhered to tank and plastic.
I could remove the sheets and clean the glass and also clean the sheets in a sink.

 

[jda]

I will be covered in purple soon enough if you don't scrape the back.

 

[cilyjr]

There are a couple of things that you should really consider when doing an inwall . The first is making sure it is a bit recessed so it is like looking out of a window rather than flush with the wall and a piece of trim around it. In my opinion, the latter always looks tacky.

The second thing to consider is having access to the front of the tank from the top. Notice the cabinet doors I put over the top. A reefer who had an in-wall suggested this to me when I was doing this tank and I am extremely glad he did. He said he would never do another inwall without frontal access.

 

[cilyjr]

I will be covered in purple soon enough if you don't scrape the back.

The panels I had on mine were removable. So it was extremely easy to just take a mag float magnet and scrape the back. That is why I had a faux rock wall cover over the overflow because that was difficult to scrape.

 

[TheFunnyFarm]

There are a couple of things that you should really consider when doing an inwall . The first is making sure it is a bit recessed so it is like looking out of a window rather than flush with the wall and a piece of trim around it. In my opinion, the latter always looks tacky.

The second thing to consider is having access to the front of the tank from the top. Notice the cabinet doors I put over the top. A reefer who had an in-wall suggested this to me when I was doing this tank and I am extremely glad he did. He said he would never do another inwall without frontal access.

Exactly!

For trimming around my tank, I’m making a removable ‘picture frame’ with recessed rare earth magnets. That way I can run a magfloat all around the front and slip it down the sides.

If possible, I would suggest having the doors swing upwards. These doors require less maintenance than wide horizontally swinging doors and will remain aligned.

 

[cilyjr]

possible, I would suggest having the doors swing upwards. These doors require less maintenance than wide horizontally swinging doors and will remain aligned.

I would agree with this if you have the room. The problem with basement rooms is there is often very little headroom. Mine swung out to the left and right. And I built the doors from scratch.
People underestimate how difficult it is to build a door and get it aligned and get it to swing properly. It took me better part of a day once the doors were built to get them hung properly.

That system had metal halide lighting and it was important for me to either push the lighting back into the unfinished room or pull them into the finished part. So mounting heavy duty door slides to each other and then to the frame was also a challenge. It took two people and about a day to get it to slide evenly in both directions. The goal was to get the lighting out of the way when I was working in the tank.

 

[Ramjam22]

Everyone has certainly given me some ideas and things i wouldnt have considered. Thanks much. Will be a fun project once we can get everything together

 

[JayM]

Morning All, I have a question regarding plans for an upcoming build. I will be having a house built soon and have always wanted to have an in-wall aquarium in the basement. I plan on dedicating a small room behind this for the equipment and to do all the maintenance so the front is completely clean. My question is about the tank background. I would prefer clear so I can view the tank from the maintenance room, see what I am doing when cleaning, etc. A black background built onto the tank would certainly look better when viewing from the front, however. Has anyone ever made a removable back panel, or maybe used black felt that can be rolled down and secured somehow? Just curious when I do go about ordering the tank. Thanks

I made a removable panel for mine. Just a simple sheet of clear plexiglass that I spray painted black. It gets wedged between the tank and the wall with a couple of tennis balls. You would obviously need to be creative with mounting as the tennis balls obviously won't work in your application. Suction cups maybe?