Wall mounted tanks

A friend of mine emailed me, because they saw an episode of ugly houses where they re-did the room using a wall mounted aquarium. They want to buy one, and have asked me if there were any catches or surprises with this and they sent me a link: http://www.wallaquariums.com/

I poked around their site, and it actually looked somewhat credible (considering the product), but I was wondering if anyone had first hand experience with it?

So far I've told them that it will only hold very few tiny fish, as I think it's only 3' wide (extrapolating the dimensions and volume) and has a very small surface area (3'x48'. I have some concerns about access (reaching the bottom, cleaning the algae, servicing the filter, what kind of filter etc), so that I would investigate it a bit more for them.

I think it's a very bad idea, but I'm trying to keep an open mind while collecting the information for them.

There's one place on their site which says 6' wide, and this jives with some I saw at the mall this weekend (yes, a kiosk in the middle of the mall). (Keep in mind that's sure to be the external dimension and you'd have to take a good 1/2 inch off for the glass thickness.) Those (in the mall) had young-ish angelfish in them! Poor fishies - already barely enough room to turn around. I hadn't considered the surface area at the time. Now that you mention it, it seems twice as bad an idea!

Those at the mall had in internal filter, off to one side (heater was on the other). The only way to get at the bottom would be a very long thin gravel vacuum tube - no way could you fit your arm very far into one.

Where I'm living there is a window type space betwwn room I would love to build a tank there dimentions would be 47'x56x18' wide. only problem is I rent. i agree 3' is too small but 18' it would bee a tall 50 gal style as they aren't much wider. Also I would not go the full 56' high need lights and matnece room, maybe 40' or 2 tanks atop each other with a central filter?

I have a cousin that built a 120 gal tank into a wall separating the dining room from the living room of his house. It was a marine aquarium.

[in-wall tanks]

I think this very much depends what you mean by 'wall mounted' as this can be interpreted in many different ways.

- Mounted to the wall instead of on a stand on the floor: a great idea and often the only way to work-around a crappy floor or static problems with century old rotten floor beams. - integrated into a wall between two rooms: terrific!!!! There are photos in the Mergus Aquarium Atlas (page 17+18 in volume 1), where the tank is flush with the wall on one side (e.g. in the living room). And the whole equipment and maintenance is done from the other side only. Of course you will have to cut back the wall accordingly, leave plenty of space above the tank that is only accessible (and visible!) from the other room, etc. etc. But they are gorgeous! - and then there are double glass windows with a 4-5 inch wide space between the two panes which are sold as 'aquariums that will fit into your standard wall flush on both sides'. Well, even mollies won't be able to turn around without bumping their head in them and I am afraid you are talking about those.

Three inches wide??? ~8cm? It isn't gonna work.

I have to agree with Jurgen. You need to convince them to put a real aquarium in an adjacent room with the wall cut way to expose it in their living room. They aren't going to be able to put any big fish in those thin things and it would be hard to maintain as you suggest. Aren't you usually saying real aquaria begins at 60 gallons? You might be able to find some arguably attractive small fish. But they will be dwarfed by their display, a few tiny fish in a huge area.

A local shop here in Dallas does custom in wall aquariums, perhaps you can find someone who does them up in the hinterlands. I am always wowed when I go to the store, they have three display tanks that are in one wall. Here's their site, though the pictures are sort of crappy, and don't convey how nice these things look.
http://www.dallasnorthaquarium.com/gallery/index.htm

That wallaquarium site looks like it was done by a high school kid as well. I wouldn't be expecting the quality of their work to be that great if that's all the artistry they can muster.

Here are some more wall aquariums with just as much room for the fish to move around...

Unfortunately, that's the type, narrow and hung off of a wall. My friend is renting, so building it into a wall is not an option. For myself, I would never consider one of these things. I have no reservations about knocking walls down for aquariums ;~).

Hmmm...

The tanks are 20 g and 30 g, which means they will be 200 lb to 300 lb in weight. Well, that much weight and wet (from water changes and so on) may give you problems. I have trouble keeping my picture frames on the wall. I wonder if the wet and weight will make things more difficult to keep them up. I can pick up my picture frames on the ground, not sure you can do that to the glas tanks, or the fish

Plus, $2700 for a 20 g tank and $3200 for 30 g tank is too rich for my