Display 6x2x2 In Wall aquarium

Hi Everyone,

As the title says, my latest project is an in-wall tank that sits flush on the lounge room side, and the back sits in my home office (see photos below). I was tired of not being able to see my discus from the main living area of the home, so with the wife's permission I cut a hole in the wall! I also wanted a completely brand new tank as well.

TANK:
I had the tank custom made, with white vinyl on the bottom of the tank, and black vinyl at either end. The tank even though it is display, will be bare bottom with glass potted plants and a large tree stump driftwood with plants attached. The black vinyl on the sides is to try and blend in where my filter inlets/outlets will be, as they are black too. I have also decided to run black air-line tubing down the side, and then it changes to clear air line tubing along the bottom to try and blend as best as possible. I will have as much as the air line covered as practical, with driftwood and plants. The tank will be viewable from both sides, but all the decor will be oriented from the lounge room side, as this will be the main viewing side, if that makes sense. I was originally going to go with starfire glass, however this doubled the cost of the tank. To be honest, I think it may have been overkill as looking at the tank now, it looks very clear!

Filtration: I'll be running my existing setup of two FX6's, internal filter and two airstones. Ideally I'd like to have both outlets running from the same end, pushing all the water down the end into the inlets. I'll run purigen and wool in the internal filter for water polishing, as well as two filter socks on the inlets of the FX6's that get rinsed daily. I usually swap out the purigen and filter wool once a week.

Lighting: I had a custom made 6ft LED lighting system with a sunrise/sunset controller, all customisable from an app on my phone. I can tune each LED from 0-100% intensity in 30min slots over the 24 hour period. I do run a small PC fan on the power supply as it gets surprisingly hot without it. Apart from that, I love this system. It was made through makemyled.com.au, a South Australian based company.
I also plan to run a LED globe that I purchased from Bunnings Warehouse (Australian equivalent of Lowes USA I think?) which has a remote and can change colours and intensity. The idea of this is to provide moon lighting and not cover the entire length of the tank. While the big LED light bar does a good sunrise/sunset job, I think it just looks better to only have part of the tank lit, rather than the whole thing. I hope that makes sense.

Stand: The stand was built and connected to the existing wall structure, in a non load bearing and non bracing wall in the house. All made from 90x35 untreated MGP12 structual framing. I have a 15mm ply top and joists/trimmers running across at 450mm centres( yes I am a builder). I did not want any holes to be drilled that couldn't be repaired if/when we sell and move house. So there are no holes drilled into the floor, and all other holes and cuts can be plastered and painted when that time arrives. I built a shelf underneath the stand to hold the filters, equipment and a spare tank/hospital/sump in the future. (I have no plans for a sump at this stage but I have the option there). The shelf also acts as additional bracing for the stand. I also have a light mounted underneath the stand to illuminate the shelf for when I need to work on it etc. I have mounted as much of the gear underneath as possible - e.g. power supplys, controllers, air pumps etc to keep things as tidy as possible. I do not like clutter!!

Stock: 5 adult discus, hopefully 6 if my other eruption pulls through. I may add another 2-4 discus at some point in the future to help fill out the tank a bit. I do hope to add some dithers(rummynose, cardinals) and some pleco's which I currently have, but they will be going through a long and strict QT process.

I will update the thread as it progresses, as I can't add water just yet. I've a few more things to do and have a small heater in there helping to cure the silicone as its been a bit cold and wet here the last couple days. I will be filling the tank completely and draining it to make sure any contaminants are removed.

Thanks for reading and I hope you like it as much as I do!

It’s filled and planted! I love it. The photos don’t do it justice at all

Looks beautiful mate. Well done on the building the in wall feature. Looks like some nice viewing leisure times coming up real soon! Nicley done!
Where in Aus d'ya live?

Thanks mate. I’m in Brisbane. Thanks for the compliments. I found myself just watching it last night even though there was no fish in it! Just love it!. I’ll upload some more photos once the discus are in.

Ah cool. I lived in Brissy (Sherwood) til I was 30, then moved to Perth in 2001. Met and married an American, and moved to the US in 2013. My folks live on Nth Straddie.
Lookin forward to seeing more pics once the fish are in!
Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi!

Well done, that's going to look fantastic. I'm a bit jealous.

So the discus are in and seem to be enjoying it so far. Perfectly clean water and lots of space to swim again. I am absolutely stoked with the finished product with just some minor fine tuning to be done- mainly aesthetically speaking. The back side still needs to be enclosed with black MDF board and some cable tidy up, but that’s about it.

Looks ripper mate!!

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Originally Posted by danotaylor

Looks ripper mate!!

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Cheers mate!

That looks incredible. Well done OP

The yellow discus with the red looks amazing! tank setup is amazing as well! what are the goals with the rams in the sump?

Hi Brendan, very nice tank and build. I built a 180 into the wall like you did. The room behind the tank had a sink etc for water changes and storage. I would suggest a different color then black for your background. The black could make your PB pepper.
Pat

I'm still stuck at "...so with the wife's permission I cut a hole in the wall!". ;)

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Originally Posted by Willie

I'm still stuck at "...so with the wife's permission I cut a hole in the wall!". ;)

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Asking permission has never been my strong suit either.

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Originally Posted by Mando

The yellow discus with the red looks amazing! tank setup is amazing as well! what are the goals with the rams in the sump?

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Thanks, he was also the cheapest of the lot lol. No rams in there, just tetras and shrimp. They’re just being quarantined and will go into the main tank eventually.